Land's End - Kanyakumari

April 6. Did you know Kanyakumari was once a part of Kerala (that is if you know in the first place that it is a part of Tamil Nadu now!) and was exchanged in return for Palakkad – the paddy-rich district ‘coz Kanyakumari had ‘nothing’!??

We took a taxi from Kovalam to Kanyakumari starting 9.30 AM and reaching KK 12 noon.

We traveled through quaint villages and the typical Kerala scenery of coconut palms and tranquil waters moved with us. It was a Sunday and people in their Sunday best - men in their whitest lungis and women in lace scarves were going to church everywhere. The churches were beautifully old. Some had stained glass windows. Some temple festivals were also on and the roads were festooned with palm lead buntings – leaves twisted like bird of paradise and colorful cloth umbrellas with sequined tassels.

The view from the third floor room of Sea View Hotel wowed us – the sea as far as one could see on two sides.

We ate the Kerala meal (thali) wherever we could - it was simply delicious and huge! Here a peek:

After lunch we queued up for the ferry to take us to memorials (not a great experience with people jostling and fighting). The first stop was the Kanyakumari footprint inside this temple where Goddess Parvati is believed to have stood on penance waiting for Lord Shiva.

Swami Vivekanand swam upto this rock and meditated presumably for three days here. The memorial is beautiful. And this is land's end. For 15,000 km after here there's only water!

The other landmark is the 133 feet statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar.

Here, Dinesh - the size of his small toe!

View of the town from across the sea.

At the temple of Kanyakumari, our next stop, the pujaris put us off big time by asking us to pay them ‘whatever’ to bypass the queue. We stood in the queue. Did not feel upto visiting any other temple. Reaffirmed that our God was in the temple of our heart :)

The markets were bursting with shell items. I dislike shell so we moved on to Gandhi Memorial - where one of the urns containing Bapu’s ashes were kept before immersion into the Triveni – the confluence of the three seas – Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.

We rushed to the sunset point to catch the famed Kanyakumari sunset.

Now Chulbul’s been holding a grudge. We had not been able to take her to the Wax Museum in Surfers’ Paradise and there was no way she’d let us do it this time. We were bone tired and reluctant but accompanied her. But to our surprise it turned out to be quite a marvel – there was SRK and Big B and Jayalalitha and Saddam Hussein. Also, Benazir Bhutto and Gandhiji. Only the clothes and accessories needed to be more authentic.

When we asked for the sunrise vantage point – the hotel staff told us it was our room. Here, the golden orb rising out of the Bay of Bengal right outside out window!