Ringing in the New Year!

Indian Arborist

This morning, I was sitting reading on my balcony and all of a sudden coconuts started falling out of the trees. I looked up to see an man felling coconuts and then ran downstairs to follow him and take pictures. He chopped one open for me, and I enjoyed the sweet water and slippery young coconut afterwards. 

They way he climbed the trees was fast and efficient, using jute rope around his hands and feet.

The harvest of coconuts occurs every 45 days. The owners of this property, Ibrahim and his two brothers, yield about 200 coconuts for personal use every time.

Rob engaged him in conversation about the wonders of India as he enjoyed his coconut, in his new Malayalam mundu ( Dothi in Hindi ). 

Everyone, as usual, is so generous with their time, when someone asks about homeland.

Elephant camp

This is a training camp for work elephants. This one in the foreground is about 3 years old. We walked around the grounds yesterday. There were 6 elephants there. These are all females. 

Out on the town today with Santa

This Santa doesn't speak Malayalam very well. So we went to the cell phone store to get our SIM card 

Kamal, Nikhil Raj and Reshma helped us to figure out how to get a phone and activate it and use 3G . This is the third time we've been here. I think I understand it now.

We went to the train station to check prices, spent some time in the Idea store and then got Rob's  glasses fixed. The tuk tuk cost is was 230 rupees or $3.75 for a 2 hour ride. 

Sekam

My (Rob) computer crashed and I lost a lot of pictures, unfortunately. I did want to share a few pic's of the treatment I have been receiving which is specific to my cardiovascular and central nervous system issues identified by the Doctor at this Ayurvedic hospital. Each one hour treatment costs $18.00 and I've had  12  in total.  The herbal hot oils administered, feels unbelievable when being massaged into me, but the significant benefits apparently take about one month to be totally realized.  

Oil Bath (Pizhiccil / kaaya sekam):

A king among the traditional therapies of Kerala, Pizhiccil / Kaaya Sekam is a strategic combination of two classical Ayurveda treatments, oleation (snehanam) and sudation (svedanam). The entire body is subjected to pouring of the medicated oil with simultaneousand gentle massages. This therapy protects the body from illnesses and builds up immunity. This is very useful for chronic vaata and vaata-rakta disorders, hemiplegia, motor neuron disorders, muscular atrophy-spasm-stiffness, degenerative joint disorders, sexual weakness, blood pressure and nervous weakness. Also rejuvenative, Sekam helps to arrest the aging process as well.

Here is the crew

They are very generous with the oils

The treatment lasts about an hour and you must rest and drink a lot of water afterwards

Christmas dinner

This  was this was a very special meal,  prepared for staff and patients at the hospital.

 Gobi 65,  and spicy tofu chili

 festive rice, egg briyani 

Christmas Party

The kitchen staff all dressed up

These are the women who look work here, cleaning. Also so happy.t

They put on a beautiful lunch yesterday. We had some wine and a toast.

Merry Christmas

Decorations and Nativity scene 

Dinner

Every meal is served in this outdoor dining area. We choose from different dishes each day. I also get some steamed vegetables with my brown rice, I can't eat too much spicy food. Rob loves everything and I have my favourites.

Food at the health village

Breakfast

The Dancers

The ground shook as they danced in unison! All 2000 women in beautiful orange and gold sari's with flowers in their hair. We all jumped in to 2 cars and off we went. They people are so lovely and kind. Always a smile and a nod. Lots of people took pictures of us and shook our hands. I was interviewed by an Indian tv station. It was a great day. The dancers were so beautiful. We were lucky to experience this festival which was just on the other side of the river

Festival day-thiruvathira dance

We went to an outdoor festival with 2000 dancers and another 10,000 people watching. The women who work here, at The Health Village , helped me dress in my new sari. I received the sari for Alice and Paul when we arrived and had the blouse made for me here. The woman came here to measure me and then brought me he blouse on Saturday. She was also one of the dancers in the show.

The group of friends we have met here

This is taken on our balcony, where we have tea every day

Hydro workers

We went into town to get the SIM card for the iPad and saw these men repairing the wires. 

I just had to take a picture. All the traffic was going on all around an this guy was pulling big wires out of the twisted jumble. I just had to laugh. Rob is going around to contruction sites and talking to the men. No safety equipment or signage anywhere. 

Early morning

Every morning we wake up to the slap on the rocks as women do the laundry on the banks of the river

Herbal treatments and medicine for Rob and Lisa.

The Ayuvedic herbal formulas we take for inflammation and nourishing our bodies. Every morning the nurse comes and takes our blood pressure and gives us our herbal medicine. Then another nurse comes though the day and in the evening. We have a strict regime.

This is a new treatment I started today, they apply a paste and wrap my knees for an hour.

Exploring in Fort Chochin

Chai in the early morning with Rubin in Fort Chochi

Let's backtrack a bit-how we got here.

Before we arrived at the Kerala Ayurveda Health Village, after leaving Fort Cochin, we were invited to stay for a night at  Paul and Alice's residence, parents of our friend Lijoe Paul who we met quite unexpectedly in Toronto days before our departure. Paul arranged a car for our commute which took about an hour or so and we travelled along the coastline through village after village, all draped in coconut palm trees and wonderfully colourful homes and businesses. We stopped at the Cheri beach for a stretch. Lisa just jumped out to walk in the Arabian Sea.

The food was cooked on this fire in the traditional indian home

Our hosts were most gracious, providing traditional meals and introduced us to their many local friends and business acquaintances. Everyone here in Kerala are so quick to smile and give us the traditional Indian nod.

We exchanged some small gifts, where both Lisa and I were presented with Kerala traditional outfits, Lisa received a Sari and I the Dothi (full length skirt). 

Lisa and I purchased our train tickets, 2nd class, for the 17km journey at a cost of 40 rupee (0.75cents) only to find ourselves on an express air conditioned train which happened to bypass our stop at Aluva. We travelled along some 20 additional kilometers and then had to disembark and buy another ticket back. 

Rob was having a lively discussion with a man on the train while everyone listened intently as Rob talked about the future of India and the power of its youth.

This lovely man gave me his seat and shook Robs hand many many times. People helped us with all our baggage.

. We finally arrived at our destination at 5:00pm having been picked up by a representative with the Health Village Centre and were taken to this beautiful hospital facility located along side a fresh water river surrounded by lush green tropical gardens.