Ttdc - Hotel Tamil Nadu Kanyakumari

... at half past 4 and immediately got scooped up by a young moustached devotee who pulled Godly names out of the ether, bandied them about, topped it off with the Kama Sutra, told us there were 1000 columns going around the temple, each depicting a figure from the Sutras, to be graphic, erotic scenes and dogs licking women's ... ankles and skinny men grinning with big ... smiles, and showed us massive statues and musical columns all hewn of stone, most of them a single stone piece, entire ...

If I looked left I could see all the way to Mumbai, if I peer right Kolkata's waving at me and straight ahead the weird and wonderful windmills as mentioned in Lonely Planet. Over 2105 Kms in one week but me, and my own two feet, 'Made it' via one train, several buses a few autos a taxi and a lot of fun! So it wasn't as picturesque as expected and I didn't have the life changing Sun setting, moon rising ...

... we had planned to just walk home but there was this older Indian man that was super excited to pull us home in a rickshaw attached to his bike and I just couldn't say no. Once we got to our hotel we took a picture with him since he was so unbelievably grateful for our business. It amazes me that there is no such thing as retirement in this country and that our driver was 65 doing some pretty hard core manual labor without batting an ...

... festival. So elephants, colour, outfits, drums, noise and lots of people suddenly surrounded the vehicle. In the end we got out the car and were immersed in the whole scene. Awesome. Our poor driver was valiantly trying to find a way through and in the end the bus driver with a jobs worth attitude gave way and Ganesh's float was moved so that the traffic flowed once more. A day later and we caught the train with our Kernow friends to Varkala. It was a short transfer ...

... version of sod off and and found an air conditioned dive that sold kingfisher premium - lots of kingfisher premium and several games of cards and several tasty dishes of who knows what later we were joined by the 3:30 ferry captain who knocked back a kingfisher himself and drew a questionable route map drawn on a napkin to impress Gill. When he left, we knew it was time to get aboard. It was great fun. Who cared if it did stop 36 times: school ...

... really giggly around us and we were asked by the ladies if we were married and why hadn't tom asked!!) So... today we left Kovalam and got the bus (could of done with the air con car and driver!) to the tip/bottom of India Kanyakamari. We've had an explore and had some local food, we have booked our coach trip for tomorrow up to Maduari as we want to be somewhere nice for Tom's birthday on Thursday, that's not a city! So... we head north!

I've just realised that I am the only foreigner in this pilgrimage circus... a one man freak show in a sea of tourist devotees. "Never seen a white boy before?" I am tempted to ask but never do. And I realise that in truth I am the odd one out in a country where it is rude not to stare. People feel a strange compulsion to stop me in the street by firmly grabbing my hand, rooting me to the spot unable to ...

... veel is er daar niet echt te zien buiten "the lands end"; en de tweede dag zijn we wezen zwemmen in het soort waterpretpark...heel plezant, de meiskes niet in Bikini maar met kleren aan, zom gaat nu eenmaal in indische zwembaden..de jongens hielden precies ook hun kleren aan, maar Maarten en ik konden onze gespierde torso's toch niet aan het indische publiek ontzeggen.. Met de bus naar Madurai, daar gekletst met nen ...

... now, full of cold and with all the excitement, it can get too much for a birthday girl and she has had ice cream...... Tonight I have a table sorted for us, lots of fuss and an Indian birthday cake... I'll let you know what happens... Last day tomorrow... Oh by the way, for those interested, we didn't have anymore significant rain after the couple of nights and the storm.. its just been cloudy on a couple of occasions and very hot..

Season was winding down almost to a standstill as I rolled in, Hot weather, and occasional rain signals the onset of the monsoon. . The original plan was to go down to Kanniakumari, at the tip of India, but as things go in India, plans have a tendency to change. Having my lunch at the 'funky art cafe,' I heard the familiar inflection of an American accent, and looked over at the group next to me, asking after such fact. Indeed, a young ...