Kanyakumari

(Sam) January 9^th

We have made it to the tip of India! Go south from here and you will go straight to the south pole. Kanyakumari is the name of the city and it is full of tourists. Only unlike Varkala, there are few foreign tourists, they are mostly Indian tourists. It is also a major pilgrimage destination and it seems that every second person you pass is wearing the black, pilgrim outfit. Since there are not many westerners here, we are very popular and everybody wants a photo with us. Yesterday we could not get away from a big group of college students. And today there were pilgrims wanting our photo, we feel like movie stars

Yesterday, we went to an island with a memorial to Vivekananda, a religous leader. On the neighbouring island there is a 133 foot high statue of Thiruvallur, a Tamil poet. Like an Indian Colloesseus of Rhodes. While we were waiting for the ferry, we met two travellers, one from Montreal and one from Spain. We had a thali with them at a local restaurant after visiting the memorial.

After lunch we left them and went to Gandhi memorial where we got the royal treatment. We got to skip the line at the place where you keep your shoes, (no shoes inside) and we got a tour of the place too.

At sunset we joined the thousands of people on the beach to watch the sunset, which was covered up by clouds at the last minute. A real disappointment.

January 10^th

After we had a delicous breakfast of Masala Dosa with potato and squash, we went to the tourist office to see what there was to do out of town. While looking at the map our friends from yesterday came in. We both decided to see the same thing, a fort and beach 6 km out of town. The fort was built by King Marthanda Varma in the 18^th century and was later captured and strenthenged by the Dutch. It was a super peaceful place, and other than an Indian couple getting wedding photos taken, we were the only ones there. We were asked to be in the couples' wedding photos (have I mentioned that we feel like movie stars here?). After the fort, we went onto the abandoned beach, with palm trees all the way back and beautifuly warm yet still refreshingly cool water callied us in. I felt like I was in the South Pacific. After the most refreshing swim ever, we walked along the beach to a small fishing village, said hello to all of the locals and went back home.

Mom, Robert and the Pilgrims

January 11^th

Today, we went to the Suchindram temple, recomended to us by the tourism man and the Spainard and the Canadian. It was an easy bus out, half an hour and 5 rupees each (10 cents). At the temple entrance there was a very tall 7 storey gopuram. It is very hard to describe what it looked like so you should just google it you want to know. Essentially it is a thin but wide tower that gets smaller as you go up. It was adorned with sculpures. When we went in we were immediately looked after by a local Hindu who knew what to do. He showed us all of the architecural features and the holy things in the temple. There were lots of holy statues and some musical pillars too, you put your ear up and he hits a neighbouring column and it makes musical notes. There are seven pillars all cut from a single rock. At the end, he asked for a generous tip so we gave him a little less than he asked for but twice what Lonely Planet said was reasonable for that sort of thing (spontaneous, unsolicited guides are common in India, one helped us in Kanniyakumari also).

Later today, I bought an India cricket jersey at the market for 90 rupees (just over 2 dollars!) (Don't worry, Dad, I will keep it in my bag while we're in England). We also went to a local ashram to see an exhibit they have about Vivekananda, the wondering monk. The exhibit was closed so we went for a walk around the ashram grounds and through the peacock sanctuary. We also had a delicous meal at the ashram cafeteria where we met a couple from Manchester, a couple from Hyderabad and a man from Bangalore. There was a delicous green banana salad, and some butter milk, straight from the cow's udder (Grandpa, you would have loved it, although it was very different from the supermarket kind).

Suchindram Temple