Elephant Festival

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Early start today as it is a travel day. Luckily our hotel is only a 10 minute walk to the train station so there was time for a cuppa on the way. We also stopped at our favourite Italian cake shop and picked up a couple of cakes for the journey. When we arrived there was a station canteen open serving breakfast so we ordered a plate of idly. When it was time to pay it was far more than we had expected. They seemed to say the prices on the menu were wrong and also we had been served an extra portion (which we didn't ask for). Another couple paying at the same time were also disputing their bill. Eventually we paid more than we expected but less than they were asking as we then had to make a dash to catch our train.

We had a whole compartment to ourselves so we made ourselves comfortable. A man came round selling coffee so we had a coffee. The scenery was beautiful, as we left Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu there were hills in the backdrop. As we crossed over into Kerala there were palm trees and waterways. When the next tea seller came round we had a cuppa to go with our cakes.


We arrived in Kollam at 12 midday. After making some enquiries about our onward journey, we headed towards the town. We saw a sign for food so went in. It was a canteen at the side of a big building where lots of people were eating. There were only 2 options for lunch so we went with the vegetarian meal which was very nice.

Next we headed towards the adventure park which had been recommended to us. When we arrived it seemed to be a bit like Moors Valley with ziplines and treetop walks.  As we had all our luggage with us we couldn't really do anything so we found a seat in the shade and sat and read for a while.  We then headed to find out about a public ferry to Allepey only to find it was no longer running. 


We had a message from our friend inviting us to meet him from work so he could take us to a festival near his parents house. We didn't need asking twice. We headed to the bus station and found the right bus. First we went to our friend's parents house for tea and then walked through the village with his dad to the temple where the festival was taking place.  What a sight we came upon.  9 elephants all lined up and decorated with garlands. As beautiful as they looked it was sad to see them all chained up.   After a while the elephants were led through the temple and on to an area where the main festival was taking place.  One of the 9 had an extra head dress and we were told this is the elephant from this particular temple, the others had travelled from other areas. (There was a car park of lorries with 'elephant express' on the fronts).  We were also told this was the first time the festival had had more than 2 or 3 elephants. 


Once all 9 elephants were in place, 100 drummers drummed. The mahoots and 2 others where on the elephants backs.  One was waving what looked like feather fans and the one at the back was holding a coloured umbrella. Every so often they would change the umbrella for a different colour. We watched for sometime, inbetween meeting lots of locals and having our picture taken with them.  Our friend's dad used to be the English teacher at the local high school so everyone knows him! 


Eventually we left the festival and headed back to our friend's place where we made dosa for supper and sat chatting before retiring to bed.

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