It’s a trek to get here, so most people don’t. There’s a short list of modest sights: Tellicherry Fort, a pretty red-and-white lighthouse, some folk-art cooperatives, and pretty old-world buildings painted with brightly colored murals. Beyond that, there’s nothing much to see. The beaches are lovely and practically deserted, save for the hour every day when the locals come to watch the sunset. It’s nice, but it’s not hours-out-of-your-way nice.

What makes this region worth the trip is Theyyam. Theyyam is a Hindu ritual native to north Malabar and neighboring parts of Karnataka, and it knocks the absolute socks off anything else you’ll see in South India (or perhaps anywhere, for that matter). It’s difficult to really get across what’s so special about it. Intricate face painting, highly elaborate costumes, drumming, music and dance – that’s what it is, when you boil it down to its components. But the experience is something else.

First off, you have to track it down. Though it takes place nightly for several months, moving from temple to temple, there’s no schedule of events you can consult. It starts when it starts; things happen when they happen. It might get going in the early evening, and it can still be going mid-morning, the dancers half-asleep.

You can turn up at 5pm and you might see performers getting their make-up done, or you might see nothing for two hours. You might turn up at 3am and see a man dressed in the most outlandish costume you’ve ever seen, dancing in circles around a coconut. Ideally, you should come at all different times of night to get the full range of experiences, with dancers in different costumes, performing different Hindu myths, in varying degrees of exhaustion. Patience and resignation are required, as unpredictability is part and parcel.

Theyyam is emphatically not a tourist show, though more people do know about it now due to exposure on social media. Nobody is going to pull up a chair for you. It’s a living ritual and a way of life, as you’ll see from the young boys who’re learning to follow in their fathers’ footsteps. It’s wild and unmanicured and totally oblivious to your presence.

We try not to tell people that things are ‘unmissable’, or ‘must-see’, but you really don’t want to miss this if you can help it. It’s like nothing else. Getting to spend the rest of the time relaxing in a chilled-out, low-key town by the beach is just a bonus.