Cape Comorin - India's lands end

Gandhi
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I arrived into Kanyakumari at 7am and walked down towards the sea. I knew there would be hotels near there and would have a look at a few rooms. I finally took one overseeing the local temple in the main shopping area. I didn't have a view of the sea, but wasn't too fussed about that. Again they didn't have any hot water so I got them to bring me some in a bucket. After washing I went to get some brekkie and found that the hotel had a restaurant, just not in the same building. It was a few doors down.

the Gandhi memorial
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After brekkie I headed for the sea. At the tip of India, the Bay of Bengal meets the Indian Ocean and the Arabian sea. There isn't much of a beach on any of the sides, but a few ghats where people bathe and do their washing. I went to dip my feet in the water. The water was so clean. There was quite a few other people having a dip in the sea, but fully clothed. Off the coast approx 400m away on an island is a statue of the Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar. It is 133 feet in height. You can go accross to se it on a ferry, but I didn't fancy it. I just took some pics.

rocks and the statue of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar
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After seeing the sea I went to the Gandhi Memorial. It is housed in a pink building resembling an Orissan temple. Some of Gandhi's ashes were stored here until they were immersed in the sea. Every year on Gandhi's birthday (2 Oct) the sun rays fall on the memorial stone where his ashes were kept. Inside are lots of photos of Gandhi from his early life until his death. You can walk to the top of the building and look out onto the sea. The building isn't very high, but you get a good view from the top of the blue sea.

the Sea & beach
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I went for a wander round the town after this. It's not a very big place and the main business is tourism, so a lot of shops sell handicrafts. I didn't do much else and came back to the hotel to chill for a bit and read. If I had known it was so small I would have left and not booked a hotel room. Ah well, at least I could just take it easy.

The next morning I wanted to see the sunrise over the sea. So I was outside at 6am waiting. Unfortunately it was too cloudy. I waited for half an hour, but the sun wasn't going to come, so I went to get some breakfast. I was glad to be leaving. I checked out and headed to the bus station to get a bus to Kerela's capital to Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum).