Right now, Sarah and I are just chilling in the AC waiting
room of Madurai train station. We have exactly
5 hours to wait right now. It’s so much
fun.
We started our holiday on the 3rd of April. We started out from Bangalore at about half
6, the most reasonable time of train we’ve ever got from Bangalore. We had a 15 hour train to look forward to
though. But I have to say that it wasn’t
bad at all! A nice long sleep, even with
more kids on the train than adults and the family next to us getting up and
loudly mucking about to get off at their stop at half 5 in the morning. We finally arrived in Kanyakumari and found
our hotel after a long trek in the heat.
Kanyakumari is right at the very tip of India. All the way down at the very bottom. It was pretty crazy to be there. For a start it meant that we had properly started
our Grand Tour (as my Dad’s taken to calling it). But there was no further south we could
go. That was it. We headed out to the temple at the tip (as
Sarah said “of course there’s a temple there”) to see where the three seas
meet. I was a wee bit disappointed
because I had it in my mind you could see the three seas meeting and be able to
differentiate between them all. But they
all looked like the sea to be honest.
There really wasn’t a lot to do there, it could honestly be done in a
day, but it really did feel like an achievement to get there. We headed back to our hotel in the middle of
the day because it was just way too hot for the two Scottish girls. So we watched Chennai Express! Especially for a song called the Lungi Dance,
which wasn’t even in the film, it was at the end credits. Furious.
We headed out to see the sunset but unfortunately it was too cloudy. However, back to the hotel! It’s a really good thing my neighbor and
Morna gave me loads of films before I left, we’re getting through them.. The
next day we just wandered around and waited for the queue for the boats to go
down. There are two wee islands off the
bottom of the tip, hardly 400m, but they’ve got a couple of monuments on them
so we put on our life jackets on, which I’m pretty sure would have hindered me
swimming away if the boat did sink. We
discovered that for the first monument you had to pay to get up so we didn’t
bother, but on the second island there was a massive statue dedicated to a
famous Tamil poet. Which we could go
part of the way up and look out across the sea.
However, you did have to take your shoes off and the floor was really
hot. Blisters on the soles of your feet
are not comfortable at all. We had to
head off to the train station to wait for a beautiful two hours until our train
arrived. Then away again. Kanyakumari was okay, it was very Indian
touristy, which really isn’t my cup of tea.
It just feels really tacky and far too busy. And I don’t like having my photo taken
without asking. Ask Sarah, I shout about
it all the time. But I have to say that
actually being at the tip was pretty amazing.
Touristy India at it's best (worst..)
Our next stop was Kodaikanal. I did not expect to love this place as much
as I did. I didn’t like leaving it this
morning. We got a bus from surprisingly
hot Madurai in the morning and arrived up in the beautiful cool air of Kodai at
about midday. It was about the same
temperature as a really nice summer day back in Scotland. But I was freezing! I was actually so cold. But it was amazing. Being cold is a beautiful feeling that I’ve
missed. Sarah and I just kept commenting
on it. And our hotel didn’t even have a
fan! It was crazy to walk into a room
and not feel the sudden urge to hit the fan on to try and move the air. We wandered around the town for a wee bit,
commenting on how like Scotland it was.
There were so many mountains and forests and it was cold, it felt so
normal. We found this wee patch of
forest with a bit of a grass in the middle where we just sat in the quiet. It was so quiet and clean, it was amazing. We rather quickly decided to stay an extra
night. We just enjoyed walking around
and wandering while we weren’t pouring with sweat. It’s not nice when you try to wipe your
forehead and your hand comes away dripping.
So being able to wander at a normal temperature was lovely. We even found a place that did pancakes and
waffles! Thank you Lonely Planet… The next day was Sarah’s birthday! Which
started off with her being woken up by some awful Indian music being piped
through some rubbish speakers just outside the hotel. Oh and a grasshopper. So we hired some bikes and rode around the lake
a few times. It was so pretty. The lake is gorgeous. The whole place felt very alpine/highland-y,
no wonder I felt so at home. We also
hired a pedalo and went about on the lake for a bit, though we didn’t get very
far because we’re sure our boat was broken… For Sarah’s birthday lunch we got
ourselves a wee picnic and went to sit in the wee forest we found the day
before. Where we ended up getting
burnt. Because it wasn’t so hot, we
forgot that it was still sunny and because we were so high up, we would still
burn. So arms are a wee bitty stinging
today. We headed back to the hotel after
that and just stayed there for the rest of the evening. Yesterday was a lot cooler because the clouds
were down so we were literally in the clouds.
Which was pretty amazing but really cold! We went on a walk down the hill, where the
Lonely Planet said I would see giant squirrels, I did not and was very
disappointed. But it was so cold we only
stayed for the one hot chocolate before heading back again. On the way back we actually bumped into our
friend Zoe who was there with her parents because they’re visiting her. It’s amazing because India’s such a massive
place but we still manage to bump into people we know. It was lovely to see her though! If really weird! So we arranged to meet for
dinner that night. Sarah and I just did
a bit more walking before heading back to the hotel. Then we headed out the fancy hotel, the
Carlton, for a belated birthday drink for Sarah. A couple of rather expensive cocktails later,
we went out for dinner. We went to a
lovely restaurant, which Sarah and I were gutted not to have found before,
called Cloud Street with some proper fires!
It was amazing. I’ve missed a
fire. It was lovely speaking to Zoe and
her parents for bit, it made the night really lovely! But because they were leaving at midnight and
we were having to get up 6 we had to head back to our hotels. For one last night of proper sleep! Kodai was amazing. It was such a nice place to spend some time
and I have to say that I would have loved to have stayed longer. It wasn’t like the rest of India at all, and
if you could ignore the taxi wallahs and the honking of the horns, then you
could have been in another country.
Sunrise from the train
I couldn't see the sun and I got really excited...
The wee forest we found
Looking down the valley in Kodai
This morning we got up pretty early and left the hills. We came down to Madurai, which is essentially
a temple town. But we were told we could
do it in a day so we thought we’d be a wee bit pushed for time but still manage
it. Nope. We could have done it all in less than two
hours. We went to the Palace first. It was really pretty, with these arches and
decorations that I can now identify as Indo-Islamic architecture. We were even adopted by a lovely family for some
lunch. But the palace wasn’t that big,
so we were finished it pretty quickly, ran past the people outside trying to
sell us more pretty bags, and headed to the temple. It was a beautiful multi coloured temple,
which I always think are quite fun. But
unfortunately we were allowed into the actual temple because that was only for
Hindus, which meant the temple tour was over pretty quickly! However we did get some Laddu and ate it by
the ghats. Then as slowly as we could,
we wandered back to the train station, to a restaurant, ordered and ate dinner
(which maybe took 10 minutes) and came back to the station where we are now
sitting, counting down the hours until our very late train.
Indo-Islamic architecture
Love a wee bit of temple laddu
I’ve really enjoyed the first part of our holiday and I’m
excited for/dreading the next bit.
Although we are meeting up with more volunteers! So more people to complain about the heat
with!
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