Kerala continued

So, after a long time with no blog activity it's pretty damn daunting to try and catch up but I will try in dribs and drabs!
I will start where i left off. In the most affluent, most highly educated and most successful communist state in India: Kerala.
I think the backwaters is in that book "1001 things to see and do before you die" or something along those lines. So of course we did. We stayed around just long enough to do the touristy things that books tell you are nice and touristy. Sometimes when travelling you do get drawn into the tourist traps because, even if you're a self catagorised "traveller" or "backpacker" who wears local clothing and only eats in the small back alley cheap places where no-one speaks a word of English... You are really just a glorified tourist. That is how the locals do, and always will, see a foreigner. Also, as we found in Tamil Nadu, a neighbouring state of Kerala, the off-beaten track isn't always so great. In fact, sometimes travelling in these less-frequented-by-tourist-places makes you want to hit the vacant faced tamil bus conducter who has just pushed you off his bus because your bag is too big.

So Kerala is nice and touristy.
So are the backwaters. Although the ethnic, serene and sunny canals peppered with palm trees and old leathery fishermen are no less than breath-takingly idylic, I, personally, found it difficult to ignore all the other pink faced, cannon weilding "travellers" gliding quietly past you. All of us trying, almost viciously, to imagine we are the only foreigners to have found this exotic and undiscovered land.
The locals think it's funny, to them the backwaters are just their neighbourhoods. the canals their streets and the canoes their bicycles. It's probably the equivalent of a whole load of strange foreigners cruising down the back streets of Leith on the handlebars of some-ones bike.

The tourism was different, it definately doesn't cater to budget backpackers and many people we met there were older, more affluent travellers who hired private drivers. It's hard to budget. I felt kind of out of place, coming from Om Beach in Gokarna with my baby dreadlocks and Aladin pants. It was a bit of a culture shock after months and months of living in the fake little hippy enclaves full of djembi drums, old dutch men/rastafariens, plastic seated cafe huts and fried rice for 50p.
In kerala it was either the pretty basic dhabas or the strictly for tourist places with, granted, awesome food and atmosphere but a rather prestigious, colonial feel where the bow tie clad waiters, calling everyone "madam" and "sir" (I am not a madam!) were so intensely focused on looking posh it took several attempts before they saw you were waving.
It was beautiful and very easy to travel in Kerala but I've never felt more like a "tourist".
Bite size chunks of their culture are whitled down and served on overly authentic platters. The Kathakali dance, one of the major attractions in Kerala and a deeply imbedded part of the culture and religion is shortened from a deeply symbolic, 12 hour religious ritual - usually reserved for hindu festivals - to a half hour, visually pleasing dancy thing where all we really understand is the shiny costumes and crazy face paints.

whatever, it was pretty awesome and was a nice little rest before the crazy stress inducing adventures to follow... dot dot dot