Kanyakumari-Day 2

We actually were able to get ourselves out of bed early enough to see the sunrise this morning (I don't know when the last time I saw 6 AM was!) and boy was it worth it-especially after not being able to see the sunset the night before. Watching the colors change as the sun rose was indescribable.










After heading back to bed for a few more hours of sleep, we headed off for more sightseeing before catching the train back to Chennai. First, we stopped at the Sucheendram temple, dedicated to the blended form of Shiva, Brahma & Vishnu, but unfortunately that part of the temple was closed when we arrived. There is also a huge statue of Hanuman (the monkey god) in the temple as well. This is the first time that I've been to a temple with a statue of Hanuman; I found it interesting that they put a mixture of butter and paneer on the statue's tail because in the Ramayana the demon god Ravana sets Hanuman's tail on fire. The other interesting part was that we arrived at 'bath time' for the statue. There were 5 or 6 priests all involved in the task of washing the statue (which was probably 12 feet tall!)

After the temple, we headed off to Padmanabhapuram Palace, a tribute to the days when this area was part of Kerela. Unfortunately, we arrived during the time it was closed for lunch. Due to time constraints (of our train back to Chennai) and the onset of rain, we had to abandon the plan of seeing inside the palace.






Our last stop was Tripparappu Water falls. Here we found people bathing under the falls, while kids played in a very dirty looking pool nearby. Bathing under the falls would have been a fun experience, but we didn't bring enough clothes to change into. Instead, we visited a rather run-down aquarium that advertised with a huge garish fish outside of it. Inside we were treated to a personalized tour of the aquarium's various inhabitants. Not only did they have fish from all over the world, but they also had quite a few snakes. The 'tour guide', for some reason decided to only pull the poisonous ones out of their cages for closer inspection. Then he offered them to us to hold as well. Somehow I ended up holding a pittu viper (?). Ok, probably not the smartest move to make...but it ended up ok. (I only ended up breaking out in a cold sweat when the snake turned around to get a better look at me!)









Then we hurried back to pick up food and catch the train back to Chennai. As always, the vacation was much too short!!!