The title of the blog is Kannur but honestly we hardly saw an inch of the city that is Kannur – really it should be called “a few beaches just south of Kannur” but it doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as I’d like…

The idea of this stop was to chill out which, honestly, was much needed after the activity-centric Western Ghats and some long travel between. As such, this blog will be split up into two parts; an overview of our beach time and homestay, and then my Theyyam experience where a god embodies someone then plonks them down on a bunch of hot embers whilst screaming maniacally. Needless to say, it was eventful.

Days 19, 20 & 21 – Kannur

Our homestay, mysteriously named Ivory Coast’e, was nestled between two absolute gems: Thottada Beach and Kizhunna Beach, each was just a few minutes walk away. Our favourite was Kizhunna, which is long and wide and has silky, golden sand. The beaches of Kollam are some of the only truly safely swimmable beaches in Kerala, not requiring a lifeguard, so we swam a lot here.

On our many walks down these inexplicably deserted beaches, we’d see groups of little plovers chasing the surf out to grab morsels of food, we think tiny crabs, then as the next wave comes in come scurrying back. It was awfully cute and you could watch their tiny, super speedy legs for ages as they charged in heroically as a group and then retreated moments later.

We would walk on the beach every sunset and took to swimming every evening as the sun itself went down, which was a very satisfying routine.

Ivory Coast’e was a delightful little stay, and while it was pretty, what made it interesting and fun was Aparna, the kind host, and the other guests. I hope our newfound friends (who may well be reading this) won’t be too offended by a comparison to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, the touching comedy movie where British retirees go to live in India and are very amusingly and unapologetically British about it all, finding beauty and realising dreams in their latter years…

Erica and Andrea weren’t REALLY like that but they were very funny British (Erica with a twang of Aus) retirees who were chatty and charming. We talked with them over meals about the local area, things we’d done, our travels and the dastardly Indian Railways app (which I have now mastered).

We also had Thomas, a solo middle aged German fellow and a couple of other European women, one of which would swim up and down the beach several times each morning and teaches English at the local school. She was leading the homestay brigade to get down to a demonstration on the beach against building a road up the coast of Kerala, which would effectively destroy the beautiful beaches – hopefully it won’t go ahead. Mum would have loved it. Erica and Andrea dutifully went along but we skipped off to a local weaving cooperative instead which was super interesting; they gave us a tour and we bought some colourful pillowcases.

Theyyam

Aparna, our host, offered us the opportunity to witness Theyyam, an ancient Hindu ritual that, unlike Kathikali, is very much not put on for tourists, though some, like us, do make their way there. Each Theyyam lasts a week and is held by a certain village, so it happens all year round in various places, but is specific to this area of the country.

We had the option to go at 7pm and see it midway through or, most excitingly, at 3am on the very final night of the festival when, as the run rose, the festival would climax in an extraordinary way. Now Billie is a woman who needs her sleep; this is a known fact and she does not function well without it. Beyond that, it was said there would be a lot of waiting around, and we wouldn’t be back till 8am. Understandably, Billie wanted to sleep this one out, but I had Erica and Andrea as Theyyam buddies, so signed myself up.

Strangely awake for 3am, we piled into a car and drove through surprisingly busy streets in the darkness of night till we arrived at a Hindu Temple some thirty minutes away. Interestingly, the local people don’t seem to mind tourists watching Theyyam, at least outwardly or so reported by Aparna. The mood was quite subdued when we arrived. A good couple of hundred people arrayed around a sort of central courtyard, sitting on walls or steps or standing and waiting. A large pile (no other way of describing it) of sleeping elderly folk resided under a tented area. The first deity (for us) had their makeup on and was having their headdress applied. Before we knew it, the drums started up dramatically and the God had embodied the Theyyam dancer; they were no longer under control of what happened next.

The God walked towards the central courtyard and honestly I was one of the first people he walked past and it was a tad scary. His red face, costume and silver covered eyes were quite intimidating and, just for a moment, I believed maybe a God walked past me. He had a baton and I was surreptitiously worried he might smack me with it… God’s gotta do what a God’s gotta do, right? Thankfully it moved on…

Once in the courtyard area, it danced around, scuttling from place to place guided by a young man with a torch (I believe it had pinpricks to see out of its eye coverings). The drummers beat a loud, staccato beat and the mood generally picked up a lot.

As the hours passed, two more Gods made their appearances, one a woman (acted by a man). They did similar things but in their own way, telling stories I was none the wiser about, then took a seat as the people of the village went over to ask advice or get blessed (I’m a bit foggy on this bit so don’t quote me).

All the while, a bonfire burned in the middle of the courtyard, with a large group of topless men constantly tending to it with big sticks. Rumour went round us tourists that the final God was going to lay on the embers of the bonfire, and that we now had to wait for it to go out. It was really big, and well aflame, so this seemed unlikely to happen soon, but after a while they removed the logs and, indeed, all that remained were red hot embers.

The final deity arrived. I was a bit nervous for her to be honest. She had a big straw skirt which felt a bit dangerous for fire-based activities, but in hindsight acted as a large buffer for their butt and the red hot pit of embers. She did her dance, and periodically would go over the embers and look at them and decide to keep dancing rather than anything else. It was hard to blame her.

By this time the crowd had grown into a raucous, mass of excitement. The youngsters had arrived and formed a tight circle around the God and the fire, which I joined. Behind us were the older folk, standing above us on the walls and shouting down. Everyone had their phones out, which was somewhat at odds with the religious aspect of it, but meant I could get mine out too, to document it for you fine people.

Eventually, she sat on the flames to the roar of the crowd and a crescendo of drums. Not only did she sit on it, she sat on it for a good few minutes straight, with smoke pouring up and around her, while she screamed and shouted in godly tongues waving her hands around. It was quite wild. Her attendents hauled her back up and her skirt was on fire and glowing red which they sort of slapped out with sticks as she danced around. I figured that was it, but no, she did it several more times, each tome facing a different direction so everyone got a good view, to the general pleasure of the phone toting crowd.

The sun had risen and I thought it was all over, but one more deity came out, this time with the biggest head dress yet (they got larger throughout). After being spun in circles on a small table for a bit, they took him through to another area of the temple where they attached to him this ENORMOUS totem thing as an extension of the head dress; just when you thought it couldn’t get any bigger.

It was 7.30 or so at this point and most of the crowd had left. We were knackered so signalled we’d like to head home. Unsurprisingly, I was too stimulated to sleep after, and stayed up as normal. It was an amazing experience that I still don’t fully understand – but one I won’t forget anytime soon.

And so this wraps up ‘A few beaches just south of Kannur’. It was more eventful than just a chill stop, for me at least. Luckily our next stop is a quiet beach in Goa, so I’ll have time to catch up on sleep there.

See you then!