Stroke, stroke, stroke!
August 12, 2007 11:47 PM   Subscribe

Snake boat racing in god’s own country.
posted by hadjiboy (10 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
You'd have been better off without the second two links. What's the point of posting a tourism ad site and a tourism ad video?
posted by jeblis at 1:25 AM on August 13, 2007


Yeah, I was kind of thinking the same thing but decided to anyway since they're about a place not very well known to Westerners. Apologies if they were a bit on the stale side.:b
posted by hadjiboy at 2:52 AM on August 13, 2007


Isn't gods own country Israel? Just saying is all.
posted by mattoxic at 4:28 AM on August 13, 2007


This is obviously a god of long things.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:32 AM on August 13, 2007 [1 favorite]


Those boats are very long. They have lots of oarsmen in them. And they go very fast.

Tourism ads that show elephants and tropical plants and beaches, then cut to alluring "exotic" women in closeup, then cut to white people getting massages by local brown people, then cut to more beaches and elephants and there's that exotic woman again... god, those things give me the creeps. And I know the locals need the business, they need the tourist dollars. But that whole presentation, that whole neo-colonialist imagery, those selling points, man, they really rub me the wrong way. You see tons of this kind of advertising on, say, BBC World TV and suchlike.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:39 AM on August 13, 2007


Interesting, I never saw it that way--I usually see them (the white people) as people who are genuinely interested in the land that they are visiting, and taking advantage of its local pleasures--like the massage which is I'm assuming quite famous there. (On further research, it is Ayurvedic--see jeblis--I knew that link would come in handy:), and which is why its featured so prominently.)
posted by hadjiboy at 7:24 AM on August 13, 2007


(i travelled the backwaters of Kerala, saw Kathakali in random hotels, never had this famous massage...*sigh* must return to Bharat-Mata...)

apart from that, i cannot find - for the love of Sri Rama or paise - proper Andhra food anywhere in Sydney *weeps* (er - not that Andhra food is necessarily easily findable in Kerala)
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:34 AM on August 13, 2007


Oh wow, hadjiboy, knew nothing really about Kerala, except it has a lot of canals, palm trees and Christians.

Cool to know about this. My god, those are INCREDIBLY LONG boats. Never seen anything like that. wow. Dashing to work, will read-see more thoroughly later.
posted by nickyskye at 8:52 AM on August 13, 2007


Not trying to be too nitpicky about the links (sometimes it seems, the mefi community spends way too much time discussing what is an appropriate link), just that extra links do not necessarily make a post better.

/glares at the one link per letter crowd
posted by jeblis at 9:59 AM on August 13, 2007


Ubu: KICKASS pun. Kudos!

This is the link y'all have been searching for.

Unfortunately, the labels in that diagram are all in Malayalam, and more importantly, are too small to read, so I can't really translate all that stuff, BUT... if you were wondering what the parts of a Chundan Vallam (ചൂഡന് വെളം [1]) were, there you go.

Yeah, all Kerala 'massage' is a touristy gimmick. It's called 'maalish' in other parts, and it is available for ten rupees or less on any street corner.
--
[1] Transliterating coz I can.
posted by the cydonian at 4:34 AM on August 14, 2007


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