Kerala Guest House Kanyakumari

... 79 when he died, and the place where his ashes stood has a hole over it so that on October 2, when his birthday is the noon sun bathes it in its light. He then cordially asked me to sponsor his effort of watching out for tsunamis with his one partially good eye. A worthy cause, so I gave him 50, but he said he wants another 100. Cheeky ****er.
So we then hobbled down to a place where young Indian men were bathing in the sea, letting the rough, green waves of the three seas wash over ...

... called Dhyana Mandapam.

I went into the meditation hall and sat down on a chair. Lot of people were passing through the hall and you could hear the shuffling of feet and people talking in spite of request for silence. Even in such atmosphere I was able to get meditative quickly. In a short while the lights went out and there was silence. It must have been a power cut. After some time, strangely, the number of ...

... early. That said, we did arrive with enough time to find an amazing hotel room and walk out to "sunset point." We somehow ended up with the number one recommended room in the book, room #408 at Lakshmi Tourist Home for a mere $400 R's ($8US). Our room was decent enough, it came with a tv which was nice, but the best part was the balcony with the view. The hotel is located fairly close to the beach and is right in the heart of "downtown" so ...

... at least 4 places to stay before finding one and actually tip the driver for his help. Apart from the crazy driving he was a really lovely guy. The thing to do at Allepey is to get a slow house boat to cruise along the backwaters and watch the local lifestyle glide by. We were taken to see some lovely folks who run the boats and they wanted our business pretty badly. This season tourism in Kerala is down 40% from last year, global meltdown blah blah blah. What this ...

... never before seen by man. And I had thought it was busy in Rameswaram, not a sausage on this business. So I got carried along by the crowd for a while after I checked into a room, thank God I found a room! and then for one of the only times in my whole trip went to a restaurant in the Lonely Planet to ensure I found other travellers. Drinking was done. Woke up for the most crowded sunrise of my life on a beach that was populated by the whole world ...

... at that. Tom could have stayed here for the duration of our stay in India eating the fish here every night, and converting it back to Pounds it was really cheap for the big portions you got. After here we got a bus down to Trivandrum. This is another city and arriving we found most of the hotels full or too expensive. We finally found somewhere which was nice but it may as well of been a sauna we didnt sleep properly for 2 nights! We had ...

... yesterday (calculators, some stationery and footballs) and the carem board. they were also young children and the headmistress was very appreciative and was the first one to ask us for our addresses in Canada. all this time we've been telling the schools that we are from Canada and the donations are from friends and family. after the school we went to some ordinary waterfalls to fulfill a challenge and then made it straight to kanyakumari by 3:30. going to go see the sunset ...

... good to have been to the most southern point of India. Kanniyakumari was quite seriously affected by the Tsunami of 2004 with around 1000 deaths. This was the first place I've been which was affected and it was very strange to stand at the edge of the sea and imagine the wave coming at you. Tomorrow Luke and I are both leaving Kovalam and heading our separate ways, he's off to Goa and I'm going to Banagalore on the train.

... as Devi Kanniya did penance on one of the rocks obtain the hand of Lord Shiva. The footprints of the virgin goddess are said to be imprinted on this rock. The other rock holds the famous and enormous Vivekananda Rock Memorial built in 1970. He was a poet or something like that which we didn't really care about, but we like everyone else love a big statue, sort of like the big banana at Coffs Harbour but for Indians. Kanyakumari is famous for its spectacular sun ...

Kanyakumari has been good. I only had 2 days here so i tried to make them count. 1st day i arived from Madurai after a bus change and 4 hours of sitting i arived. I went to the place in the lonely planet but it was twice the price the book said! I went down the road and found a slightly grotty place but for 125 it was ok. I ate my 1st meal of the day at 3.30pm (a Thali) and then by the time that was done i gave my washing in and watched a really nice sunset from a tower ...