At 2:10 in the morning, that is, on a night train that puts me in at 6:30 in the morning. I have a sleeper berth in AC3 class – that’s open compartments of 6 berths (3 per side) with A/C. Since I have a cheap hotel room (Rs160/$4 per 24 hours, I took it an extra “night” and so I can snooze tonight before going to the train station.
I did notice on my previous train, also in AC3 class, that there is no extra luggage room for my backpack – it will have to go on the berth with me!
Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin), informally known as Cap Com, is at the southern tip of India, where the Gulf of Bengal, Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea all come together.
After one day and night there I start heading up the west coast to the state of Kerala; first stop will be Varkala, a cliff-top beach town (there is a beach below).
Today I tried to go to a bank to change a large bill (Rs1000/$25 is extremely hard to use, but that’s what the ATM mainly spits out), only to discover that it was in fact Sunday and the bank wasn’t open. Oops!
Did I mention I’m very much looking forward to seeing the ocean again after 5 landlocked days? Getting tired of temples and cities…
Here is a photo from the vegetable market in Madurai:
