The second week of the tour started in Kanyakumari which is the southern most point in India. A lovely little ocean city. It is at this city where if you go out into the ocean on a clear and sunny day you can see the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal meet and see the different colors or water and sand. Unfortunately for us we were not able to see that because it was pouring when we got there. Originally the plan was to come to the city, go out on a ferry to see the island Vivekanada Rock Memorial, the Thiruvalluvar statue and then come back to land. The sudden rainfall cancelled all of the remain ferries for the day. It sucked because all of us were soaking wet but we managed to have a great day. Once the rain lightened up a bit 4 of us went down to the beach and hung out for a while. There was a giant rock platform thing in the ocean so the 4 of us walked on it to the end and enjoyed our surroundings. It was so beautiful and so amazing just to see the back of the city, all of the boats, the beach, the ocean, et cetera. I definately had one of those India moments where I just thought to myself “I’m at the bottom of the country, hanging out at the beach in India. I. Love. My. Life.” That night Anna and I went to a real hole in the wall kind of restaurant for dinner. It was really good and really cheap. Our meal for the 2 of us was Rs. 114= $2.50.
The next day we went to the capital of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram. Don’t worry, I can’t pronouce it either. We didn’t do much because we arrived late that night. We spent to the morning in Kanyakumari visiting the sites we couldn’t see the day before. The next day we drove to another beach town called Kovalum. It was wonderful just walking around the beach, visiting the shops, eating lunch and swimming in the ocean. I really wish we could have stayed longer.
The next few days kind of blend together because we really didn’t do much and I aquired a cold. Yeah, it sucked and all I had for medicine were some pills that Anna brought with her called Dolacold. It didn’t do much besides knock me out for a while.
The last stop on our trip was the city of Cochin. Thankfully my cold subsided by the time we reached. Our time in Cochin was spent at the Anthriappilly Waterfalls, the hotel and the Cochin seaport. The seaport was really cool and it was interesting to see the giant fishing nets used to obviously catch fish. After we were done walking around the seaport we started to walk towards the shopping area. What did we find on our way there? A snake charmer. Oh yes, we saw a snake charmer in the streets of Cochin. It was really cool and I definately did not expect to see that. After that we headed back on the bus and went back to the hotel. Us Coimbatore kids took an A/C Bus back to Coimbatore while the other students took a train back to Pune that night.
I had such a good time on this trip. It was great to just hang out with exchange students for 2 weeks and see India. I mean this trip was poorly planned and we didn’t see a lot of sights but in the end it doesn’t really matter. This trip gave me the opportunity to make new friends and bond with people from all over the world.
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