Fri 15 Jan
The
day started early to take advantage of watching the Pongal celebrations. A highlight was stopping at a small temple
that was buzzing with activity. People were
praying, touching deities and placing powder on their heads. There were some immense statues of deities on
horses. Everyone was friendly and
welcoming.
Not
long after leaving this temple we stumbled upon some roadside celebration so we
stopped and watched young people dancing frantically accompanied by loud drums
and crashing cymbal-like instruments.
Lots of locals were mingling around, as were tourists like us who
happened to pass by, some of whom joined in with the dancing. Nats informed me that the dance was Tamil
Folk Art called “Thappaattam”. All told,
we obtained a satisfying glimpse of the Pongal Festival, even though some
celebrations were cancelled as a result of the Government banning the Taming of
the Bull (Jallikattu) ceremonies.
We
then headed south along a motorway through dry barren country with low-growing
arid shrubs and little sign of human habitation, apart from occasional fields
of sunflower and corn.
After
passing through Kovilpatti and glimpsing at the National Engineering College
where Nats attended, we continued on and the vegetation progressively changed
to one with many coconut and banana plantations. To our right appeared the Western Ghats and
we drove for several kilometres through a veritable forest of wind turbines.
Eventually
we reached Kanyakumari and had a delightful lunch at the Seaview Hotel. I had a Malabar fish curry which gave me
wonderful taste sensations. In
retrospect it was the best curry I tasted on the trip.
After
lunch we checked into the Sparsa Hotel where our rooms had wonderful expansive
views over the Indian Ocean. Here we
were at the very southern tip if the Indian mainland.
Late
in the afternoon we stopped outside our hotel immediately into a very crowded
market, along which we strolled to view the big statue of Thiruvalluvar, whose
memorial we saw in Chennai on our first day.
Next to him was a monument to a wandering monk, Swami Vivekananda. We looked at a Ghandi memorial and wound our
way up a circular tower to observe the surrounding sea and town.
At
sunset we stepped outside the hotel onto the “boulevard” to watch the sun go
down over the sea. I didn’t get up the
following morning to watch the sunrise over the sea – one of the few places on
earth where you can be on land and witness both the sunset and sunrise over the
sea – but we did get a great view of it emerging above the palms outside our
room.
Free-camping
was allowed all along the street outside our hotel, so hundreds of campervans,
mostly local visitors, had their vehicles lined up along the road. With a concentration of humanity in a small
area and no facilities provided, the sights and smells were rather unsavoury to
say the least. This town has much
potential but presently lets itself down.
Not recommended.
