Chasing beaches and innocuous trance music

Sunrise in Kanyakumari

So nothing from the previous post actually made it through. Dare I say, it all fell apart the moment we got off the bus. First and foremost, our time estimation was completely wrong. We entered, once again at 3 in the morning to some unknown city called Kanyakumari. We’re trying to wake up as were being ushered into a hotel that is ridiculously too expensive. A huge flag warning should've gone off when another tourist ran back shouting "No thank you, that's too expensive for me!"

We took our chances slash we were zombie-fied following our guide. Originally it was going for 2000 rupees, at least. That's about 40 usd a night. Nowhere in India charges that much for a mid range hotel. After much deliberation and Ian hesitating, the manager gave in for 600, about 12usd.


After much fuss, we took a short 45 minute nap and woke up to see the sunrise, the most famous sunrise in India, in Kanyakumari. The special site to see here is a huge statue of Thiruvalluvar in the ocean accompanied by a very poetic story. This is also a very special place in India, as its the meeting of 3 oceans; The bay of Bengal, Indian ocean and the Arabic sea.  We headed down to the beach (the one we were hoping to sleep on) to take pictures of the sunrise. Thank god we opted for the hotel instead of our original plan of sleeping on the beach. The beach wasn't exactly a beach, but more of a rocky shore with smashing waves. Surrounded by hundreds of pilgrims watching the sunrise followed by the market opening and the murmuring start of the day.

We spent the rest of the day trying to find a way to get out of this city. At the tourist info, we bumped into a friend we met 2 cities away in backpackistan, Max. We keep running into him as our trip runs very similarly. We thought he had moved on ahead bit instead he's been lagging behind in his journey. We caught up of his amazing travels on Indian trains and riding in luggage stow-aways over a cup of immaculately sweet chai.
At this point we pretty much haven't slept in 24 hours. We headed to the bus station armed with multiple conflicting information about what bus goes where at what time. we hopped in a completely separate bus and ended up in a city that wasn't marked in our Bible - or the lonely planet guide book to India. We figured our way to through the mess and continued our journey to the west coast beaches.

Half way through the bus ride, we met this incredible fellow named Shiva. (That's his real name) we got off the bus with him after a 3 hour delayed journey into Trivandrum. He and his friends, now onwards dubbed "the 3 musketeer" put us in the right direction to our next destination, Varkla

However, backpacking is never without its problems. The 3 hour delay is because of traffic jam. The traffic jam is caused by a festival going on in Trivamdrum, the city which we needed to go to to get our bus to Varkala. this festival is filled with colourful aromas and fragrant lights flashing all around celebrating their gods.

As the 3 hour delayed turned out to be delayed to cancelled bus routes, we were practically stuck in Trivandrum. The 3 musketeers ended up squabbling for a tuk tuk to get us to a hotel 16 km away on one of the more famous beaches on the west coast, Kovallam beach. Those 3 musketeers were a few of the most friendly Indians we've met and first in Kerala  state.

At this point, its about 10 at night and we haven't slept soundly in over 36 hours (realistically 3 days if you don't count sleeping I'm buses). Our tuk tuk driver navigated his way through the mess of celebrations, blaring music and lots of pots for boiling rice, all hugging the side of the road. We made it to a place called Kovallam. Supposedly one of the more posh places for beach goers in India.

We finally end up in Kovallam, our last minute backup go to place for a beach side stay. We descended into the night time abyss of sea side aromas and palm tree roads.  The tuk tuk driver dropped us off at our poorly researched hotel which, not surprisingly was full. A touter from across the street emerged and gave us a much needed fair bargain for places to stay. Very refreshing to not have to barter for every single thing. We got ourselves a beautiful hotel for a modest priced and charged toward dinner.

Needless to say, sleep came quickly shortly afterward. Our first full night sleep since Pondicherry, (4 days ago)