Rockbottom

The title this time is not as depressing as it might sound, just a way for me to tell you all that after spending two weeks in Varkala we have now reached the southern most tip of India and are now heading north again. The town on the south cape is called Kunyakumari (or Cape Comorin) and can't boast with many things except for being the most southern point in India. 400 metres off the coast we visited the Indian equivalent of "The Statue Of Liberty." Located on a small island is a 40.5 metre (or 133 foot, you can google the reason why if you're interested as I can't be bothered telling you the dull story) tall statue of one of Indias most famous poets called... beats me... and it dates back all the way to the year 2000!!! Its amazing to think that I was only 14 years old when it was erected, the world can be mindboggling and really makes you feel small some times doesn't it! In Kunyakumari we also visited India's first (and as we speak only) wax-museum. It doesn't quite reach the heights of Madame Tussauds but can boast with it's fascinating fifteen or so skillfully sculpted dolls of Indian celebrities like Mahatma Ghandi (who has to the easiest historical character, bar Wallace from Wallace and Gromit, to recreate) and for some reason Jackie Chan and Saddam Hussein. After a few days in the small coastal town, we eventually managed to get out of there and catch a few buses and a train to get to Chennai (or Madras), however Chennai doesn't feel like the kind of place where you want to spend more than 1 day so we decided to jump train in Villapuram with the rest of the Swedish crew, were we could catch yet another bus to get to the former French colonial town of Pondecherry (or Puducherry). What we've seen of Pondecherry so far is nice, finding accommodation wasn't the easiest of tasks but eventually we got it right. We won't be staying here for long though and no matter how long we postpone our goodbyes we know it will very shortly have to be done as Joshua and I have to catch a train from Chennai to Calcutta (or Kolkata.. why can't they just stick with the names they've been given by their colonial overlords) on Tuesday morning. The journey will take 27 hours and it's funny to think that the distance we covered in over 2 months we will by Wednesday have covered more than in about 3 days!! The east coast has really been neglected but as I've said before you can always come back! I can finish by telling you that we have also just booked our tickets to Thailand (on Friday the 13th... how's that for pushing my luck), so by the end of the week I should have an Indian summary and start of a new chapter in this fantastic blog, read with great anticipation!