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21 01 08
well after a hurried start we got to the bus station before 7am. julia dealt with the touts and we ran to the platform for our bus at 7. The first for the day but leaving every hour. we got 3 seats behind the driver in a better bus and driver...lots of stops for passengers but only one 10 min comfort stop so it was chai time and a packet of biscuits. There were still lots of close shaves and the bus eventually filled to overflowing. It was a 6 hr trip and we followed the western ghats (mountain range) all the way. Also a new motorway virtually the whole way being built by thousands of people. Then the wind farm ..i thought maybe a couple of hundred but 45mins later they were still there as far as the eye could see..other than them the landscape was green with palms and more palms. We got good accommodation on the beach in a 6 storey hotel. and had a brunch at 3pm in its restaurant. The room was easily the best I'd had and at only 500R...a steal! I had another headache to deal with from bus fumes and horns but that soon went when we got out into the fresh air of the coast..it was bright and breezy here in Kanyakumari. This place is a significant pilgrimmage focus because it lies at the southern tip of India at the meeting place of 3 great oceans. It has turbulent waters but at one spot just to the south of the temple, almost as if by divine intervention there's a millpond where people happily bath and dry their saris in the wind like giant kites. The town 20,000 has made a real effort to clean the place up and has banned plastic cups and bags. In the evening we dined with the locals on fried fish and roti. Then desert of the best fresh fruit salad and icecrean ever, and pineapple juice of course.
In the morning we found the hotel restaurant full so wandered along to the plushest hotel in the town and ordered the biggest continental type breakfast imaginable all for 100R (about $3), then on a boat trip to two great monuments built just 400m offshore on granite outcrops. One is a memorial to vivekananda ho meditated here in 1892 and the memorial was built in 1970. The other is a statue memorial to Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in 2000. Bothe were built using only traditional methods and materials and the statue (Indias answer toi the statue of liberty) used 5000 sculptors and is 40.5m high...quite exceptional all out of huge granite blocks. This guy was i suppose a bit odf a J.K. Baxter equivalent except he had a few million followers and thus the memorial of such status. We followed this up with a walk through the fishing part of town and could still see the tsunami damage. Part of the problem is trhat because its no longer news funding for work has virtually dried up and you can see where some families have had there house completely wiped away whilst their more robust neihbours still stand.
Later we went to the temple ..once again very large and impressive..and a major focus for pilgrims...all temples to date required the removal of shoesbut this one went the extra mile by having all males remove their shirts so Paul and I joined up much to the amusement of lots of the womenfolk...we were once agoain the only palangis to be seen and against the dark interiors must have been quite a sight. Fortunately cameras wern't allowed.
We followed this up by watching the sunset from atop the ghandi memorial about 6:30 over the arabian sea and 5 mins later turned to watch the moon rising over the Bay of bengal...quite special moments.
An enjoyable town to stay and massive attempts to clean things up..the two monuments were pristine except for the red tobacco spitting stains which some guy spent his whole time trying to remove from the granite.
We organised train tickets for tomorrow's journey so a good night's sleep is in order.
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