Grateful to swap the overnight train for a flight we arrived 2 hours later from Kolkata to Chennai airport. A modern city and the fourth largest in India, we were glad to finally be in southern India, much as we have loved the North, it has been a non stop journey so far from city to city and we are both looking forward to slowing down a bit now. Nicola is sick, probably from exhaustion and we headed straight for the hotel where we both crashed out and did not move until the next evening, we were both feeling very lethargic and totally wiped out!! Glad they had movie channels and we enjoyed a very lazy and well needed day in bed. In the evening we emerged to go and mingle and try out a bar as I was in the mood for a G&T, and I had been detoxing for a month now. We ventured a few doors away from our hotel, to one a few doors down, advertising a bar and cocktails etc, looked like a good place to start, until that is we walked inside. It was very busy, with not a woman in sight, only men! You could have heard a pin drop as we walked in, all heads turned to look, and I could almost feel the tumbleweed roll past as the waiter hurried over and ushered us through to the next bar, which in all honesty brought on the same reaction. We hurried to the bar and grabbed the only 2 seats available and ordered our drinks, only to find out they do not have tonic water!!!! We ordered a beer and cocktail and sat munching on all the popcorn they seemed to be plying us with. As we eventually left, I asked the barman if woman were allowed in here, he said not really!! Oh well not sure why they did not just tell us that! Too embarrassed I guess! We were laughing all the way back to our hotel! A totally surreal experience of our first bar in India!!
Nicola was still not feeling great the next day as we boarded the bus for Mamallapuram, but the journey was just 2 hours and we arrived without incident. Mal as the backpacker community calls it, is a small fishing village, which attracts tourists due to the ancient relics, temples and carvings which are to be found there. Each one has a story to tell and portrays life in early India as some of these are thousands of years old. The skill and craftsmanship that went into these works of art, many of which had been carved from a single rock, is truly magnificent. The time, effort and manpower needed to create this alone is mind boggling, and that it was built thousands of years ago with the simplest of tools. Kind of reminded me a bit of how I would imagine relics in Egypt to look.
We enjoyed a few days here wandering around and generally just chilling out. A very relaxing, friendly place, where we were made to feel right at home, and before long it seemed everyone knew who we were, where we had been and what we had been doing! Could not get away with anything here, but we are so glad we took the time to visit! A very special place!
After 3 days in Mal we took the bus back to Chennai to get the overnight train to the southernmost point of India, which is Kanyakumari or Cape Comorin as it is also known. This is where the 3 seas meet, the Indian ocean, the Arabian sea and the bay of Bengal. The sea is pretty rough here with strong undercurrents but a pretty fishing village all the same. It seems quite popular with the Indian tourists, and we spent the late afternoon on the beach people watching and waiting for the sun to go down. So much was going on all around, women in their colourful sari's and men and boys playing in the sea, candy floss, popcorn, horse riding, stalls selling seashells in abundance, you could even get your name carved on them. It was a real holiday atmosphere. People genuinely happy and having fun enjoying time with their friends and family, while the skies turned to pink and the waves crashed on the shore dragging laughing, screaming people back with them, a moment of carefree living, and a real joy to watch and be a part of!
There was not really much more to see here at Kanyakumari so we only stayed 1 night and moved onto Kovalem, in Kerala, which was a 3 hour bus journey, (with Nicola at the wheel ha ha!) where we could finally don our bikinis and hit the beach for some serious tanning time.
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