Trains
We were early getting to the station so stopped for a chai. When we arrived we found some seats and had some railway breakfast, which was cheap and tasty. The guard came to tell us we needed to go to platform 2 so we headed over the bridge and waited. Just before the train was due, a change of platform announcement was made, so back over the bridge we went. The train was a little late and when it arrived we found our seats. We were sitting with a lady from Germany and we shared travel stories and chai until it was time for us to get off.
We had to change trains at Nagercoil to get to Kanyakumari., the southern most tip off India. We detrained and headed straight to the ticket off. We bought a ticket and asked what time the train would come and were told 'sometime after 3pm'. This seemed a little vague but did give us an hour to find some food.
We crossed the road and found a little stall selling tomato rice and lemon rice, so we ordered one of each. However, the chap didn't understand our pronunciation of the word tomato. Luckily, a young lad at the stall understood and helped us order! After eating we headed back to the station. A bus stopped and the driver asked where we were going and said our train was delayed so why didn't we get in his bus. We tried to explain we had already bought our train ticket. When we got to the station everyone was telling us the train was delayed but as we didn't really know what time it was due, we were happy to wait, whilst drinking more chai.
The train eventually arrived and there was some beautiful scenery on the half hour journey to Kanyakumari. In fact, the journey went so quickly we didn't realise we had arrived and the guard came and told us to get off!
Our hotel was just a short walk from the station and we stopped for cold drinks on the way. We checked in and it was nearly 6pm so we headed down to the beach for sunset. It started quite lovely with a big red sun but then it became very hazy. Whilst watching the sun set a group of retired Indian school teachers asked to have their photo taken with us and then we chated with them for a while.
Next we walked along the promenade to the point where 3 oceans meet - Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal. We drank some lovely ginger tea before looking around the numerous tourist shops selling all sorts of things from hairbands to kitchen wear for very few rupees.
We then headed back to town and stopped at a little restaurant and had a Masala dosa and an egg paratha. After eating we walked through the town and came upon a fancy looking Italian cake shop. We are not too sure what was Italian about it but we had some great cakes for 12p each before heading back to the hotel to relax.
