The next day brought even more amazing surprises and wonderful experiences. We were joined by a few of the new staff members of The Blue Yonder who were also learning about the "interactivities" that TBY offered. Our first stop was a Kalari. We knew that Kalari Payattu was the traditional, ancient martial art form of Kerala, but we didn't realize how incredible it really was... the first kids (couldn't have been older than 15) came out to give us a demonstration of a... sword fight.
We knew that if clashing swords and shields were the START, it could only get better. And it did get better. From blindfolded knife-fights to flaming fighting staffs, the boys and girls of this Kalari demonstrated without a doubt they were going to be martial arts masters. I found the setup of the place very interesting. The Kalari is actually a pit in the ground - about 10 meters wide and 20 meters long. In one corners is a small altar dedicated to Agastya Rishi, the father of Kalari Payattu, and all the students and even the guruji (an old man and one-time master of the art) would bow down to Agastya Rishi before each small demonstration. The gurukul system (teacher/student) of India was definitely still in practice at the Kalari. The guruji would instruct and the students would follow and without fail, they would touch the feet of the guruji before beginning and after finishing as a sign of deference and respect.
The greatest part was the contrast between the calm serenity, respect, and reverence of the students and the teachers before beginning their practice and the incredible energy, vitality, movement, and downright violence of the combats. There were times that the students would be so engaged and in a zone, they came really close to us - we found ourselves at the end fo the visit backed into one of the corners of the Kalari. We were breathless when we left - at a loss for words at the amazing variety, dexterity, and ferocity of Kalari Payattu. It's amazing to think it may be the oldest martial art in the world.
All that intensity made the boat cruise on the Tirur River all that much more relaxing and peaceful. Lets just say The Blue Yonder's boat cruise on the Tirur River is what tourists going to Alleppey and Kumarakom WISH they were getting. We were the only boat on this river besides the local fishermen in their hollow-wooden-log fishing rafts. The boat itself had an interesting story. As it turns out, the sand and silt at the bottom of Kerala's rivers are particularly good for use in the preparation of cement for construction. So the government has licenced sand miners to mine a few boatloads of sand on a regular basis to sell for this construction. However, thanks to India's corruption and baksheesh (somewhere between a tip and a bribe) systems, these miners exploit the river beds and a destroying the rivers by over mining them for sand. It's a very lucrative and well-paying business, so the TBY, to preserve the river, pays these boat miners to not mine sand and instead take tourists on boat cruises on the river. It was the most amazingly beautiful boat ride I probably have even been on. The pictures speak for themselves. We stopped at a coir (fibrous husk of a mature coconut) factory and watched many hundreds of brown coconuts being stripped for every useful part - except the water inside was being thrown away! So I plucked up the courage to ask one of the women hunched over breaking coconuts in her hand with a machete to give me one half and fill it with water. She did so obligingly. And I got tasty coconut water!
Of course, as the boat cruise continued and the sun began to set, we were treated to young coconuts - the large green ones that you get lots of water from by hacking off just the top. DELICIOUS. I definitely drank more coconut water than real water that day. We reached the mouth of the Tirur at the ocean and enjoyed the sunset before heading back to the resort for the evening.
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