Day 8
If you have seen the movie Kantara, then you already know about Bhoota Kola. It is a possessed dance by the tribal people of Kerala and Karnataka.It is mostly done in the region between Kannur and Kasargod in Kerala and in parts of Udupi in Karnataka. We included Kannur and Kasargod as the last two destinations in our coastal malabar road trip so that we can get to know a little bit more about the traditions of this dance and if possible witness the dance as well.
We did checked out from or hotel at 8 am. Since our hotel do not provide room service so our plan was to have breakfast somewhere on the road after checking out.However on the road we found that nobody starts selling breakfast so early! We always keep some biscuits and chips as backup and so we had our morning hunger satisfied with those.
So we drove for 2.5 hours until we reached Thissur. The children were getting a little annoyed. We had interrupted their peaceful morning sleep and had put them in the car. So we promised them a playtime on a beach.
On reaching Thissur we took a small diversion and reached Kazhimbram beach. Since this beach was a sudden addition to our itinerary, we never had much expectation. However on reaching the beach we were so much amazed. This is such a well maintained beach yet nobody knows about it. The beach has a proper parking, a huge children's park with so many types of activity plays such as swings, slides, climbing structures. There are also free super clean toilet and bathing facilities for men and women. The beach is flat and ideal for beach combing.
After spending some good time on the beach our stomachs were growling.We stopped at some pure vegetarian restaurant and had our lunch.On the road we also stopped at some temple most likely dedicated to Vishnu. The temple structures and architecture.
When we reached our resort Kaavya Riveria it was already 8pm.The resort is in Cheruvathur a place between Kannur and Kasargod.We were greeted with freshly made passion fruit juice.Traffic from Kozhikode to Cheruvathur is pathetic. Drivers drive all recklessly without any obedience to the traffic rules.
Our room was on the first floor of a duplex.We had one big bedroom, one bathroom cum toilet, a huge drawing room cum dining and a kitchen The interiors were very tastefully done but the best was the kitchen. It was a fully equipped kitchen with fridge, ovens, gas burners and otg.
Day 9
I was still sleeping when my mobile rang. It was Ankur calling me from downstairs.He told me to quickly come to the balcony and see the Kavvya river. Our resort was just beside the Kavvya river. I saw some few hundreds of white blobby things swimming in the water and more were coming from the direction of the sea.I went down to a cemented platform on the river itself close to the bank and was simply astonished to see that those white blobby floating stuffs are live jelly fish. There were a few thousands of them floating on the water.
We started our exploration for the day with a trip to Bekal fort.There is a temple very close to the fort as well.Entry ticket to Bekal fort is INR 25 and if you need to park your car the fort has a huge parking area as well with additional parking charges.
Bekal is a very popular place as we saw hordes of tourists coming in tourist buses and cars. The focal point of the fort is the observation Tower with series of peepholes. The tower at Bekal fort was built by Tipu Sultan for defence reasons.
A notable aspect of the fort architecture is the outstanding utilisation of defence technology.The peepholes on the outer walls were designed brilliantly to protect the fort from naval attacks.The topmost holes could aim at enemies who were at a distance, the middle ones were meant to fight those who were nearer to the fort and the lowermost holes were for those enemies who were closest to the fort.
Next we went to Kappil beach. It is not the same Kappil beach close to Odayam even though the names are same.It is a very serene, less crowded beach but with no direct access from the road.
Kasargod is famous for its unique temple dance known as theyyam. This dance takes place mostly in the months of December ,January and February when the weather is pleasant in otherwise extremely hot Kasargod. The performers put on elaborate bright makeup and highly decorated costumes and enact varios gods and goddesses during their performance. It is such a visual treat to the eyes and the camera.There is a theyyam calendar available online and we would highly recommend that you consult that calendar if you wish to witness a theyyam performance.
At the time of returning back we enquired some people in local temples about bhoota kola. We met a guy who told us that of a bhoota kola performance that was scheduled to happen that same day some 40kms far away.
Our lunch for the day was prepared by us. We made rava fried kingfish, pomfret tandoor and prawn tempura.We got all the fish from the local market.Everything was very fresh and at a very cheap rate.( you will find the prices steal deal if you stay in Bangalore where prices are high for seafood )
Evening we went out in search of the place where the gentleman had told us about bhoota kola performance. It was some 40kms inwards from Kasargod towards Madikeri. When we reached we saw the performers putting on dance costumes.They had head gears and skirts made from palm leaves.We saw the performance for some time since we had to drive back some 40kms back. The bhoota dances continue throughout the night till the next day morning.Quite a new experience for us.
Day 10
Its time to return to our home. We had quite an amazing time during this vacation. We had a packful of places, beaches, temples and experiences, that we enjoyed thoroughly.The next time we will come, we will surely watch a Theyyam performance which we missed this time.Till then good bye Malabar.
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