i am back from a very short (but intense!) trip to kerala, on the south-western indian coast. we stayed mostly in varkala, at the bomboo village on the north end of the cliff. many tourists (most of them europeans and north americans) and a sort of india_is_the_shanti_way environment. but the place was really nice and, for once, being a “normal” tourist is not bad. and what is normal, after all?
during our stay in varkala, we made a one-day trip to the back-waters a sort of lagoon with thousands of small canals that can be sailed by small boats. pietro is wearing a hand-made safety jacket (which was not safe at all, btw!) while we were trying to protect him from the sun with an authentic keralan umbrella. we had the traditional kerala chai, we saw men repairing boats in the traditional way and women making ropes with coconut fibres (at a rate of 200 ropes per day or 6 hours work. one day is payed 100 INR – 2 EUR. when they come home they still have to do house works). this area is apparently covered by electricity, cable and bradband internet. probably the rope-making women don’t have much time to surf on the net, but maybe their husbands do.
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