(Check out the huge India photo gallery here)

Favorite moments:

• South indian food
• The pace of life in Goa
• Jaisalmer
• Riding camels
• Camping beneath the stars in the desert
• Seeing the mouth of the Ganges
• Celebrating Diwali
• Not dying
• Kerala’s backwaters in a quiet canoe

Not so great:

• The people (there are exceptions of course, but we’re talking generally here)
• Being pointed at, stared at, laughed at, photographed against our will, being groped, being shouted at by random people in the street
• Getting deathly ill
• Delhi
• Massive amounts of shit (literally) and trash that seem to cover every square meter of the country

Total Money Spent Per Person: $865.72

Average Per Day Costs Per Person:

• Lodging: $2.66
• Food: $3.12
• Transportation: $1.80
• Misc: $2.49 (Beer, going out, guides, park entrance, etc.)

Total Average Per Day, Per Person: $10.07

Number of Days:86

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

We have liked some things and hated some things. Today definitely cemented the fact that we did not like many. The water by the beach front is so polluted that it is black. The entire beach area smells like a mixture of piss, human excrement, fish, typical Indian body odor and something dead.

Nasty black waves

The sand was so thick with trash you couldn’t take a single step without unearthing bits of paper, food scraps, or the occasional miscellaneous unidentifiable random object. The beach is covered with beggars and street kids, Indian tourists, stray angry dogs, and then the usual locals who alternate between sitting facing the ocean, staring at us, pointing at us, picking their noses, asking us for “one snap,” and the very few just walking around minding their own business—a real rarity in a place where the mere act of breathing makes you susceptible to at least 4 other people’s scrutiny.

Shops on the beach

Yes, this is India. And if today were not our last day here, we might just leave anyway for sheer exhaustion of this place. We are both very glad that we came here but India is most definitely not a place that either of us feel the desire to ever return to. More than once this country has tried its best to kill us. Once we were honest-to-goodness afraid that it was actually all over (Rishikesh…shudder). Now if only we can survive the flight out of here, we can officially say that we survived 3 months in this strange land. We will let you know it goes…

Our last rickshaw...

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

The market stalls sell things like flowers, shoes, clothing, toys, and handbags. Quite a wide range of goods but if you are looking for a more typical tourist market, Chennai is kind of a tough bet since there is little to attract tourists here to begin with.

Lunch on a leaf

The next day was spent in a less traditional kind of cultural experience: going to the movies! It’s an odd thing to realize that cultures behave differently when they watch movies in cinemas. First of all, here they have intermissions. No kidding. It’s either because the local population can not sit through a 2 hour movie without getting up for a bathroom and popcorn break, or it’s a clever marketing tatic to make people go for a snack run. Why they can’t just get whatever they want before the movie and then avoid the anti-climactic intermission that inevitably stops during a very crucial action packed moment is really just beyond us.

In addition, there is massive amounts of hooting and whistling and general chatter that goes on during the entire movie and even more titters and whistling (or meowing, like one weirdo was doing) during any kissing or overly affectionate scenes. Come on people, grow up! It’s a fact that Indian culture is very “conservative” but it’s making them all act like overly-hormonal 12 year olds and preoccupying their minds so they can not even function without something seeming sexually charged and therefore whistle- or hoot-worthy. Anyway, we got to see a couple of really great movies, Avatar and the new Twilight movie, in English no less!

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!

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

We negotiated the rate down from the starting Rs. 350 to R. 100 for the 8km rickshaw ride. It was raining when we arrived and we nearly froze in our shorts and tank tops on the way to town! Quite a change from Goa and Kerala’s pleasant warm weather.
We stayed at the Paradise Guest house for Rs 300, a bit much, but it’s a good base of operations for the next few days. Since it was rainy and cold, we confined ourselves indoors to watch some TV movies.

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

We walked out onto the rock pier to have a better view of the giant statue and the small church out in the water. After our walking tour, we made our way through the extensive market lining the waterfront and leading back up into town.

Down the market street

Most of the wares are fabrics, clothes, seashells and seashell trinkets, and lots of 5- and 10- rupee stalls where you can find cheap plastic items like hair clips, plates, toys, and the like. Night bus to Chennai around 4pm and should arrive early in the morning to finish out our last few days in 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

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

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

Travel Tip:

Getting to Varkala Beach from Varkala (town):
Take one of the rickety local buses heading to the beach (Rs. 3.5) but don’t get off when the bus stops at the lower left side road to the beach. Ask if the bus goes to cliff side, about another 3-4 minutes up the hill. You’ll get out where a road goes out left and there are a couple snack stands and a pharmacy/”medicals” shop across from the road. If you walk 5-8 minutes on this road to the left, you’re heading out to the town on the cliffs above the beach. There are plenty of guest houses, restaurants, internet cafes, and mini supermarkets.

If you need an ATM, you need to take care of that in Varkala town.

You can also take a rickshaw to/from town to the cliffs if you prefer but it will cost you anywhere between Rs. 20-80 depending on how much you can negotiate. It should really only be about Rs. 30 maximum because town is about 2km from the cliffs.

Down on the beach

The 12th and 13th were to luxuriously lazy days spent between the beach, our awesome balcony, and walking around town with a great view of the beach below. Had a couple of runs to town since we ran out of doxy and money! Otherwise we enjoyed some sun, burned our feet on the intensely hot sand, and got bashed and beaten around by the wicked waves. Varkala is really not a good place for swimming but if you’re interested in boogie boarding or surfing, there are rental options. Very beautiful beach and amazing view from the cliff. The cleanest beach and clearest, prettiest water of all the beaches in Goa and Kerala that we’ve been to! The restaurants are pretty pricey but you can find 1-2 places on the small side “streets” that are cheaper. The Shiva Moon Cafe is one such place, just at the end of the “Tibetan Market” road. Good, cheap food and they offer cheap rooms as well.

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

It was a relaxing, lazy, and quiet day on the covered canoe. Our boat driver didn’t speak much English but always had a smile on his face and made to sure to check in with us every now and then, “Are you happy?”

Awesome umbrella hat

This was usually followed by a big grin and a thumbs up to indicate that if we were happy, he was happy. He was a skinny man with a big appetite at lunch and a rainbow colored umbrella hat that he was very proud of.

Our driver

In the backwaters

Small canal

We had perfect blue skies, gentle waters, and colorful surroundings. Small houses of all colors, tall palm trees, bright saris being washed in the early morning, and old men speeding noiselessly by in their tiny canoes.

Us!

It was a beautiful day and by 5:30pm when we got back, we were really ready for a nap!

Travel Tip: – Kerala’s Backwaters:

There are a few options for exploring Kerala’s backwaters. Alleppy is a popular spot to launch from but there are also tours from Kochi and a few other places throughout Kerala. Once you choose your launching point, you have some options for the actual boat trip. You can take a covered canoe with plenty of comfy cushions and shade to make you comfortable and relaxed for the day. It is one of the cheapest options. You will go with a boat driver and a guide who is supposed to paddle as well but will probably just chat with you more than paddle. Since the canoe is paddled, it will be a nice quiet ride compared to the loud motorized canoes. We shared our boat with one other person and we each paid Rs. 600. If we had not shared the boat, the two of us would have paid Rs. 750/pp. We went through our guest house, Daffodils Home Stay, and were very happy with the 8 hour ride. It sounds like a long time but you are busy enjoying the sights and lounging on the big cushions that the time goes by easily. We stopped once for tea, once for lunch, and once more to see an island house (not interesting, plus we had been seeing a few of these all day anyway).

House boat

Other options for boat trips are the giant house boats that you can overnight on. These run from anywhere between Rs. 2000-12, 000. Some of these are so nice that they include satellite TV, computers, and 2-story boats. If none of those options strike your fancy, you can always spend Rs. 12 and take the public ferry to one going toward Kollam (83 km from Alleppy) and hop off at one of the smaller villages along the way (ticket all the way to Kollam is probably more expensive given the distance). The ferry sticks to the larger main canals but if you are really pressed for time or money, you can at least get a small sense of what the backwaters are like. We had considered the option but decided to go with the covered canoe instead and we were really glad we did!