I wanted a relaxing holiday and since I was based in Bangalore, I decided to go to north kerala. I wanted to relax, get a massage and see theyyam - dance of God. I booked a bus from Bangalore to mattannur where I had booked a room at the Aroma ayur heritage resort for two nights. This place is on the coorg- thalaserry highway. I arrived late in the night and walked to the resort which is just half a kilometer from the matannur bus stand. I ate a nice thali for lunch. While doing some research on theyyam, I contacted a travel agent who agreed to show me around the next day. So, I got a massage at the resort which was very relaxing. I walked around mattanur that evening and then slept early since I wanted to see theyyam the next morning.
The next morning we drove to a small temple where the performance was to begin at 4 30. It was really amazing watching the artist put on their costumes. A very famous ritual from of worship in north Kerala, theyyam means dance of God. There are more than 400 types of theyyam and I saw three of them. The origin and their stories are very fascinating. I saw Muchilot Bhagavathi performed at a small temple in maloor in KPR nagar and it was beautiful. The performance lasted for about one and a half hours and after it ended we drove back to the hotel. I slept for a couple of hours and then checked out. I had asked the agent if I could hire a car for a few hours to see Thalsserry and Kannur before coming back to the bus stand in mattanur to get the bus back to Bangalore. We started at at 2 in the afternoon and drive to the Thalaserry fort. We walked around for a while and then drove to the Kannur fort. On the way we ate some local fritters I had never seen anywhere else.the kannur fort is huge and one can spend at least and hour walking around. We wanted to catch sunset at the very famous driving beach called Muzhappilangad Beach. We sat for a while and then drove to the Indian coffee house where I ate some pattu and korma which I highly recommend. it was time to drive back and we stopped on the way at a bakery to buy some cake for my colleagues at work. It was a wonderful trip and I will be back to learn and document a bit more about Theyyam, the dance of the gods.
