Leaving Varkala we headed to the very bottom of India - Kanyakumakari, where The Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea all meet…I was kind of hoping to see the seas physically merge into each other, a bit like the merging of rivers when they are different colours. But no such thing. This is the equivalent of Bluff, or Land’s End….
The journey there was through beautifully lush, fertile countryside with rice paddies, banana trees, fields of vegetables and in the background huge lumps of rock mountains erupting out of the ground….The Western Ghats
Unsurprisingly this has another sacred site for Hindu worshippers, with a temple on a rock just off the shore-line and another temple on land.
There were groups of elegant girls/young ladies in matching shalwar kameez (the beautiful trouser, tunic and scarf combo they wear) which we presume were school students. Lots and lots of visitors which meant there were lots of people selling ’tourist tat’. It reminded me of Blackpool (no similar analogy for NZ that I can think of) in that there were people selling sunglasses, beads, plastic rubbish, sweets and even saris all around the beach front. No joke…there was even a pony ride and ice-creams!
Luckily we were only in town one night, so the next day we headed off to Madurai.
Or tried to! We spent all day travelling to go not very far! Arrived at the Kanyakumari station at 915am. Tried to get a black tea or coffee...but no can do as the water and milk are already mixed. Unless of course I wanted to buy from this outfit, when I wouldn't even have got the tea or coffee!! I made do with a samosa for breakfast.
We got a 20 min train ride to Nagarcoil Junction where we were told the train we needed was from Nagarcoil Town Station 10 mins away and so should get the 1150 train to get the connection. Or maybe they said 1115....Note to self to double check 15 and 50 next time!? Well there was no 1150 so we waited for the 1215 which left at 1.15 which meant we missed our 1250 train so had to wait for the 540pm train. Which of course goes from the Junction not Town station and so back we went, where we first arrived 5 hours ago!!
We've not quite got our head around the fares either. It cost 60 rupees to do a 20 minute train journey on one day....the same cost as a 4 hour journey the day before! But at least we're buying tickets...unlike others by the look of this sign!
Eventually got the train to the ancient city of Madurai passing by more verdant fields of fruit and vegetables; a lot of wind farms and more of these strange rock mountains.
Oh...and for lunch was vegetable biryani from the railway catering company and.... guess what - dinner was vegetable biryani from the same place!!!
