lane driving is sane driving

so i went to meet the old english chicks at the travel agent place to book the elephant thingy and to ask some questions about the backwater cruise i want to do tomorrow. but they didn't show, so i ran off to pick up my sari - which is super cool, by the way - and waited for them again. *still* they didn't show. but the guy told me there was also 3 young english chicks who were going to do the elephant thing and i could share a car with them (basically what you pay for is a car with a driver to take you to this place).

while sitting and waiting at the travel agent i ran into a canadian guy i had met the day before. he told me he was off to see the kathakali dance performance tonight, so we agreed to go together. well the old chicks never showed, so i told the guy i would stop by after the performance or he could leave a message for me at my hotel.

so brook (the canadian guy) and i went to the show. it was quite groovy. they talked to us about the make-up and the costumes and what the colors signify. then they showed us some of the mudras or hand/face/body gestures that are used in kathakali. then they performed a scene from one full length play (the full length jobby is performed on holidays and lasts for about 8 hours). very cool.

after the show brook wanted to eat and i can always eat something. so we ate at this place near the water. i had a cheese and tomato sandwich. we shared a "special tea". very amusing thing about cochin - many places don't have a lisence to serve beer, but they sometimes will. so last night the guy brought us out some coffee mugs and a tea pot filled with beer. on our bill it said "special tea".

when i got back to the guesthouse the guy there told me the elephant thing was canceled. which i was quite sad about, i had really gotten quite excited about it. so brook and i sat and chatted a bit since i no longer had to be up at 5:45am. then the phone rang and it was for me (i was so confused). it was the travel guy. he said i could go with the young english chicks for the elephant thing. i would be picked up outside my guesthouse at 6:30am. so i was off to bed.

very early this morning i got up, got dressed, and sat outside to wait for my car to arrive. i got in and introduced myself to the girls (cat, hannah, and liz, though i don't think i could tell you which one was which) and we mostly spaced out on the way there. far too early for chat.

a bit of an eventful drive. we nearly killed a man.... we were driving on a divided highway with a median in the center. there were buses stopped on both sides of our side of the road (which in itself seems wrong) so our driver goes plowing through the middle of the buses - and surely hit, but i don't think injured, a man stepping off one of the buses. we didn't stop, he touched the crucifix on his dash and kept going.

the next horrible thing we didn't witness, only saw the aftermath. there was a dog in the middle of the road that looked as though it's head had been run over. and another dog that looked like it might have had it's leg broken. it was so awful. but no one seemed to care.

anyhow. we arrived and they brought the elephants down to the river. 3 big ones and a baby one. so after they all took giant dumps in the water and lay down we started to wash them. basically you just kind of get them wet and scrub with part of a coconut shell. mostly we took a lot of pictures, but i did manage to work up a sweat. but of course we were fully clothed, the elephant guys were wearing their breifs with their little tea towels wrapped around their waists.

after the washing we went for a ride. this was a little more "au naturel" than i expected. there was, thankfully, a big staircase to mount the beast (the guys just made the elephants bend a leg so they could climb up). but there was no saddle or what-have-you. we basically just sat with our legs around the elephants neck, nothing really to hold on to. i couldn't help thinking there is no way this would ever be allowed in america - someone would fall off and sue.

nearly fell asleep on the ride back to cochin... nearly, because we often slammed on the breaks and beeped at other drivers. oh yes - there are some amusing signs posted along the state highway here in cochin, some of which i copied into my little notebook:

lane driving is sane driving
hurry causes worry
dim and bright: do it right
follow line discipline
rash causes crash (or it might have been "rush")
don't zig zag

anyway, this is a super long post today. tomorrow i'm leaving cochin and hopefully doing an all day backwater cruise. so my next post may not be until monday, just before i head to the ashram.

namaste!