Hmm, what to say about India? Did we like it? Yes. Did we hate it? Yes. Sometimes both in the same day. Did we love it? No. We can both honestly say that, while we may not have thoroughly enjoyed all of our time in India, we are both glad to have gone and experienced it. We both agree that there is no desire to ever return either.
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December 21, 2009 – Day 361 – Chennai, India

Our last day in India! We took a walk down to the water front, Chennai’s beach, to have a look and contemplate our last day here. And what a way to spend it! Since we are about to leave here, we were feeling a little nostalgic about the past 3 months we have lived in this country.

Anything but beautiful Chennai Beach

December 19-20, 2009 – Day 359-360 – Chennai, India

To do a bit of last minute souvenir shopping we headed off to Pondy Bazzar and found a few neat things. The market is not a touristy place since it caters more to locals than foreigners. You can find street stalls lining the road in front of stores selling endless kinds of sari fabric, household wares, a supermarket or two, and so on.

Fortune teller bird in the market

December 18, 2009 – Day 358 – Chennai, India

Today we did a spot of last minute India shopping. Spencer Plaza is a typical Indian shopping mall and if you are looking for cheap clothes (Indian or western), sari fabric, home goods, you can find it all here. We were under the impression that it was a good place for souvenir-type items but that’s not quite the case. We bought some “Australian” cookies instead!

December 17, 2009 – Day 357 – Chennai, India

Got into Chennai around 7am and were met by the Zombie Brigade at the central bus stand. The rickshaw drivers were more than ready to take us into town and they were so competitive it was like a pack of zombies fighting over the last human morsel.

Our swanky bus to Chennai

December 16, 2009 – Day 356 – Kanyakumari, India

The ominous looking grey blue sky made a dramatic backdrop for the bright white church sitting just near the rocky pier. The water front is crammed with small fishing boats bobbing gently with the ocean’s waves. Their peeling paint is still a bright contrast to the almost black stinking water and the darkening sky.

Boats in the bay

December 15, 2009 – Day 355 – Kanyakumari, India

Today was a blow-out sort of day. Slept in, ate a spicy thali for lunch, and spent much of the afternoon trying to get a train or bus ticket to Chennai. Kanyakumari is not the sort of place that you really want to spend more than maybe a day. While prices are very cheap compared to everywhere else in India, the only attractive factor is that it is in fact, the very end of India. Nothing profound really to see but a kind of cool thing in itself. The town is small and full of unusually sketchy characters and domestic Indian tourists (the reason things are so cheap here). At any rate, we will be staying here tomorrow since that is when we can get a bus out!

Dark and light

December 14, 2009 – Day 354 – Kanyakumari, India

The tip of India. We finally made it after a much longer than expected travel day. Though it was 6pm and getting dark, we definitely got to see the end of India. From the jetty we could see this huge statue in the water just beside another little island with a brightly lit church. Even better was the view from the roof of our hotel across the city and toward the sea!

At the tip of India

December 11-13, 2009 – Day 351-353 – Varkala Beach, Kerala, India

After a travel day and not getting to Varakala late afternoon, we spent our afternoon settling into the pretty cliffside beach town and enjoying the sea air.

Varkala beach

December 9-10, 2009 – Day 349-350 – Alleppy, India

Spent the 9th hanging around town and home, not doing much. The 10th we took an awesome boat trip through Kerala’s famous backwaters.

On the river