Sankar'S Guest House Kanyakumari

... they're seas?) of the Arabian, the Indian ocean and the Andaman seas – considered a holy place by Hindus. This was in fact the first place we visited, and I was shown around with an Indian blind Tsunami Watchman, whose eye was put out by the Tsunami as it rushed through the doors of the memorial and broke his glasses. He told me the story of the monument, which was built in the style of all three major religions, Christian, Muslim and Hindu, standing at 79 meters(??) as Ghandi ...

... the southernmost tip of India. He did not have money to hire a boat so he swam to the rocks. He meditated on the rock for three days and had a vision of one India.

The main hall has a tall statue of Swami Vivekananda. The other hall is built around a foot shaped carving on the rock. According to folklore this is the foot print of goddess Kumari who stood on this rock on one foot in penance. There is also a meditation ...

... Varkala is definitely set up for an older crowd that just wants to pop in and out of India. Kanyakumari Kanyakumari is the southernmost part of India and it is surrounded by the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. We took a very nice train ride and then beautiful bus ride to get there in the late afternoon. Apparently, it is possible to see the sun setting and the moon rising at the same time in April but we were a month ...

... a lift from an Indian driver. They love to overtake. They only slow down when there is nothing in front but once there is anything in sight, auto-rickshaw, cart, motorbike, bus they are all fair game for overtaking. Best to overtake on the brow of a hill on a bend as well. Well why not?! We get to Allepey, the start of the Keralan backwaters. A system of waterways set back from the Arabian sea that house lots of village life, boats and wildlife. We do our normal of going ...

... also the lovely intervention of thousands of wind turbines, I love these at the best of times as I think they are so striking and they have all the Don Quixote conotations and they are just a bit ethereal. And then big hills jutt up out of the earth and it is cool. Anyway and so, I arrived into what could be said to be the BUSIEST PLACE IN THE WORLD. I think it was because it is the 2nd day of Pongal and the pilgrims/men in black are out in a ...

... With this didn't realize how long we had been in the sun and at the end of the day found ourselves very very sun burnt... Nicky looked like a beetroot! Here we also did a cookery class which was for 2 hours and we cooked 5 dishes... then we got to eat them outside in the lovely gardens... just the 2 of us!!! In the evenings we sat in the restaurants on the cliff tops looking out to the sea. We have never seen so much fresh fish and big ...

... were so thankful.that was the best part of my day. the rest of the day was just a nice drive on "good" roads. this morning was a fine one as it was the last leg of the challenge. we did not get a chance to buy anything the previous night so we drove to the nearest town to the school and got there by 10PM just when the shops were opening. another team bought stationery this time so we bought 3 fans for the school. got to the school and gave the fans, plus whatever was left over ...

... 4pm. There wasn't a great deal to see there (or there didn't seem to be anyway), but it's significant as it's the meeting point of the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea. Unfortunately there was no sunset to be seen as the sun vanished behind the clouds quite early on. The moon rising was also hidden behind clouds so didn't appear til it was quite high up. So generally quite disappointing in terms of sunset ...

Just a quick one from Kanyakumari for you all. At the Southern most tip of India, where the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal meet, lies Kanyakumari, an important pilgrimage site for Indians. Kanyakumari has been named after the Goddess Kanyakumari Amman who is the popular deity of the area. Two rocks reach out of the ocean, southeast of the mainland. One of these is Sri Padaparai, where legend has it that the Goddess Parvati in one of her ...

... few problems booking a ticket back to Mumbai. We are currently in a period of high celebration in India, which means for transport that everything is booked out for the next week, so i had to buy a flight ticket back from Trivandrum, which is luckily where we a residing at the present moment. And thats it really. Next time i forsee myself writing will be from the warmth of Cambers. Only a few days left before i head back over to sunny England. Cheerio for now.