On Friday night we jumped on a bus and made the long trek to Kanyakumari. We actually made it after all that planning! So after nine hours of restless slumber we arrived and made our way (at five in the morning) to the nearest hotel. In my Rough Guide, it says that the Hotel Tamil Nadu charges Rs100 for a 'non-AC double room with attached bathroom'. but the sign on the wall clearly said Rs325, which with tax, Kumar and Jerry ended up being Rs520! For twenty-four hours - so we had to be out by five-twenty the next day. I was dying to ask why the Rough Guide was wrong, but didn't having the courage.¹

Everyone wanted to sleep, but I was as bouncy and energetic as I could be to make sure we saw the sunrise. It's been hailed as the most spectacular view in India and with the Swami Vivekananda Rock Memorial in the background, it certainly Ranks among the top views ever in my experience. The gradual burst of colour as the sun rises behind a carpet of clouds, red, yellow and blue spreading out until the orange sun appears to applause and cheers from the thousands crowding on the shore. On Sunday we went down at five-thirty and the crowd was already beginning to gather for the sunrise at six-thirty.

We spent Saturday wandering around Kanyakumari, visited the temple to the virgin Goddess Kanya Devi (the story goes that Shiva wanted to marry her and set the wedding for midnight, but one of the other Gods turned into a cockerel and crowed at eleven. Shiva woke up, thought it was dawn so he'd missed the wedding and went home. She'd have lost some of her Shakti² if she's got married or something. As if God can be conned like that - maybe he hadn't had his weetabix...) - and took the ferry out to the Memorial.

The Swami Vivekananda Rock was built on one of two rocks that the great Swami was supposed to have meditated on. It's a marvel architecturally speaking, built out of marble and granite, but wasn't really that interesting unless you like this Swami bloke. He did Great Things for India and now has a ten foot high statue in a gorgeous building. I think India Bad Taste has come into play again though, because it looks like the rocks have been doctored with cement to look more symmetrical! The crowds were incredible and you had to walk round the rock a certain way, following these red arrows, otherwise these dodgy blokes would blow their whistles at you.

Kumar and Jerry went for a dip after lunch and we stayed with them to show everyone we wern't just toursits. The sand is amazing too, all precious stones and many different colour. But I forgot to collect some so I can't prove it. Hundreds of horrible tourists again - women wearing shorts and vests with no bra - men topless etc.

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Later on we went to a place called Suchindram where we visited another temple. We were shown around by a wonderful chap who explained everything. The temple was by far the most interesting one we've seen so far. All the stones are intact as well - at Rameswaram they've just replaced the pillars with cement ones. t had lots of sets of musical pillars, all tuned to different scales and carved out of single blocks of granite. All the idols were huge as well, including one of Hanuman - the Monkey God that was easily twelve feet tall. So much was going on, all sorts of rituals and ceremonies and the temple is in such good condition that there can't be many tourists who go there. It's so weird finding a place like that which is almost untouched. Not for long, I fear.

On Sunday we also visited Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, trusting Kumar to find the buses for us - something I don't plan to do again! We spent an hour in Nagercoil sitting on one bus while all the others went to Trivandrum instead. When we did finally get going, the bus broke down and we had to fight the crowds onto another one - standing the rest of the way.

It was like driving into another country. The roads stopped being straight, the land was thickly forested with palm trees and the writing changed from Tamil to Malayalam which is similar, but more curved and slightly alien. As we could no longer use Kumar for communication we got a map from the tourist office and trekked in the sun to the main temple. There was some festival going on and the city was so crowded it was worse than London on a Saturday! The streets were lined with thousands of women cooking pongal (who stole all the shade so we got sunburnt). Every ten metres we were attacked by huge speakers blasting out songs at a volume well above the pain barrier. It got worse as we got nearer the temple and I don't think I've ever seen so many people in one place in my life.

The temple was completely different to the ones in Tamil Nadu, the tower looked like it had been squashed! We weren't allowed inside, so we cooled off in some shade and made the burning trek back. There were other things we wanted to see but we were pressurised by heat, noise, time and people so we came back again. A fabulous weekend by all accounts and now we're into our final week here!

I had a very busy Friday - went to C.'s 9b (boys) class with my camera and snapped him being stern. We had coffee with the teachers and Mrs Snofia volunteered me to go and teach 6a because their teacher was taking exams. It was great! I learned my family's names in Tamil! I did all the games C.'s taught and left for 9b with my ears ringing. Mrs Snofia came to the girl's class just as C. was about to launch into Blockbusters and asked one of us to go and take 11th Standard. The girls wanted us both to stay (I think they wanted me really, of course - after all most of them are in my choir!), but I went and showed them the Tamil I'd just learned off 6a. It was good fun and I definitely work better with no pressure. It was so good not to have to teach, I feel that I'm much happier than I would have been. Even all our worries about not doing anything don't really matter any more because just looking for a job kept me busy!