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Cultural Shock


Last night after an afternoon snooze in the sun, well light cloud (exhausted after our day trip) we headed off to the Cochin Cultural Centre to see a traditional Kathakali Dance. Shew, I have never been so unprepared for something in my life. “Katha” means story and “kali” means play, so basically it is a play about adventures of god-heroes and their demonic adversaries.

Here’s our experience:

First off, we were the only two people to pitch up at the show, only to find out that it involved us watching the performer preparing and doing HIS make-up. The whole process was done in total silence, well other than the dogs barking outside. As we were watching, a very sweet deaf gentleman tried to explain to us what was happening, to no avail unfortunately. We simply smiled and nodded in agreement. The performer started by placing pink face paint on, then added about thirteen layers of more paint and powder, then very carefully applied black paint to his eyes and eyebrows. Not a bad job for a guy I tell you.


The next move was back downstairs to the theatre, which seats 110 people. We were placed away from each other much to our dismay, but I think they were trying to make the “crowd” look bigger. Suddenly, a voice on a loud speaker with a man speaking very broken English explaining what we were about to see. Nothing could have prepared us for this though. This definitely is in my top ten most interesting performances of my life. Tell you what though, you have to be pretty talented and apparently the actors take many years to perfect the art of the performance.

Well, we had never. Apparently in India these men are highly respected for what they do and it is a privilege if you are part of these performances. Hopefully the photos will give you an idea.

Back to the hotel for dinner at the other restaurant for some Indian seafood. This had possibly the most confusing menu of our lives. It was written down on a big black board but only certain items had prices on them and when we asked how much the others cost we received blank stares.

Long story short, we ended up having one of the most amazing meals with Jumbo and Tiger prawns and a seafood chowder served in a half a loaf of bread with a touch of brandy that was lighted as it was served. Very fancy. After our incredible yet most expensive meal we headed upstairs to bed where Nancy read her book and some writing time for me. With our glasses of Potency next to our beds, pen in hand and ready to go, the lights tripped. Well, we thought this was the funniest thing ever. We were hysterical. We sipped on our Potency while laughing and chatting for about 30 minuets Nancy realised she could see past her hand now and that the passage light seemed to be on. I popped my head out the door and found a guy there and asked him what was happening. He looked at me like I was mad and then explained that everyone else’s lights came back on 5 mins after it first went out. So we were sitting in the dark waiting for better days for nothing. Haha, another hour of laughter.

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