January 7

We awoke and readied; walked the short distance to get to the ferry. It was 5 minutes before it opened. But, OH MY, the line was very  l o n g! So we changed our agenda. We walked by a huge church having services. It was called Our Lady of Ransom Shrine. The services were being broadcast on a loudspeaker that you could hear for blocks away in any direction! It was full inside from what I could see. Next, we went to Golden Temple, a Hindu temple. It was gold gilded outside, and pastel- painted interior. The interior was very open – no walls just columns. We did not go in, as we are not supposed to, but you can see most all of it. The temple seems not in use. The area around this temple is all overgrown with weeds. This surprised me. 

Now we walked quite a ways and found a place for breakfast, Hotel Sahana (they call restaurants hotels many times. Not sure why… Questions??) Anyway, we both ordered a Masala Dosa. We were given the crepe without utensils, as is the custom here. Everyone eats with their right hand only, taking a bit of bread and pinching it around your bite. Then quickly go to your mouth. so you don't lose the contents of your bite. But this is the first time we've not had any utensils. We did a great job. They also had “communal tins” of sambar, and coconut chutney. You took what you wanted and then it moved to the next customer. this was a very local place, indeed! We enjoyed it. After you eat there is a sink available to wash your hands.

Next we started out trekking to Vattakottai Fort. It is a 6.4 km (4 miles) trek. We made it about halfway, before we flagged down an available tuk-tuk. We arrived and paid the foreigner price, 300 Rupees ($3.60).  This is 12 times what locals are charged for entry, by the way. This is common in Asia. Anyway, the Fort was built in the 18th century for coastal defense during the Travancore Kingdom. It is kept up nicely and has great vistas of the a good section of southern India. You can see miles of ocean, and actually make out differing colors of sea, imaging this to be mixing of three seas; the coastline; and on the other side you see the some hills, the Western Ghats. Definitely a strategic fort. The coast here has a mixed sand beach as well: tan, black, and some red (which we saw from the fort).

Then, we caught a tuk-tuk back to Kanyakumari. We went back to the ferry area. There is still a line but we discovered a “special entry”, which is to say line-skipping, if you pay more. We opted for this. Normal price is 75 Rupees (90 cents), we paid 300 Rupees ($3.60) each. It was worth not standing in the  l o n g  line! We got down to the ferry and they made women go to one line and men to another. When the ferry came in, the people disembarked and tossed their life jacket in a bin. Once they were clear, the women were allowed first to get a life jacket and board; then men did the same. It was simple lines, but Indian people push and crowd if not controlled. This was mostly controlled. Anyway, we both were onboard, I had saved a seat for Jeff.  We took off the very short distance to the islands: one island contains the 40 meter tall statue of Thiruvalluvar, a Poet and Philosopher from the 3rd or 4th century; and the other is Vivekananda Rock  Memorial. The memorial island is the only one where people are allowed right now (because of construction?, not sure why.) We walked around the square and into the memorial of Vivekananda. The sea is quite choppy and it is windy, which we believe is more the normal here (we saw a wind farm from the fort). We finished and got back in line to reboard the ferry to mainland India. This time it was just everyone boarding in lines. As I arrived at the boat I was being pushed from behind, thankfully, I got onboard okay. 

Back ashore, we went to a lighthouse that we had see looking back from the island. It actually had an elevator to get up to the top. So we could look back to where we just were, and see more of the city. One person lost their ballcap. It was very windy. We could not see the light part – don't know if it is still operational. We opted to take the wide staircase back down, as the elevator was hot! 

Now back to our hotel room for siesta and cool down. We ate a few nuts for lunch. I actually took a nap – it felt good.At five-ish we went back out and just down the street, we stopped at a real local, street food stall and had fried fish. Jeff picked out the fish. One was a Silver Pomfret, the other one we could not make out the name. We both had one each, topped with a red onion wedge, and a quarter of a lime. It was served on a banana leaf in a plate, which seems to be normal (the leaf can take the place of a plate).  Ummm, so good! The fish were coated in seasonings, and after fried more seasoning was added. We also were given a bottle of water. And again no cutlery. I will just have to get used to this! Our fingers were red. We used some of our water to rinse our hands. Feeling good we went back to our hotel. 

We showered, and packed up. Then I blogged and Jeff read. At ten tonight we catch a six hour train. Moving on.