May 7, 2009 Kankakumarie, India

First - Here are pictures of my room in Madurai - while I waited on the train. It has an interesting view out the window of the of the hotel rooms next door.

I left the Hotel about 1 a.m. and walked about 3 blocks to the train station. There was a lot of activity even then on the streets. It was kinda surreal however to realize that I was

out on the streets in a city in India at 1 a.m. , alone. Exciting - and I really felt I was "travelin'".

The train was an hour and half late - so I had plenty of time to check out the train station. That actually took 5 minutes, but the weather was nice - almost cool, with a little breeze, and



this time of day - it's easy to find a

good chair. The train arrived at 3:30

and when I found my coach, the conductor showed me to my berth -

a private compartment with 4 berths.

Fortunately mine was on the bottom, and since I had ridden the sleeper and the 2AC before, I knew what to do. Because I tell you what - in India, if

you expect someone to explain something

you're going to have a LONG wait.

The ride was nice - the first class berth was VERY comfortable (I had forgotten about comfortable beds) BUT it was only for four hours!!!

At 8 o'clock we arrived at Kanyukamarie. I've yet to see it spelled the same way, not pronounced the same way.

It is the southern most point of land on the Indian sub-continent.

I got a very nice hotel room - I was tired. Here is the view from my room - the Catholic Cathedral. Now these people have a PA system that would put all those church music leaders and evangelist in Central America

to shame. Last night they had a LONG

LOUD musical, and I fell asleep before it finished. I awoke this morning to

more music. I am told that this is a month of feast for Mary, and the music is for the month. It is pretty music, however - not wild Indian stuff.

My hotel does not have a restaurant, but it does have room service - I decided to try it. The Hall butler brought me a menu - it was the same menu I had seen in two other restaurants. Not the same items - but the same menu!







I'm now kinda suspicious that they only

have one kitchen for many restaurants here. Anyway - here is a picture of my "in room" breakfast.

Notice the nice newspaper cover for the tray. I ordered steam liddy - the cold grits, an omlette and 2 Dosa -the pancake.

The omelette was filled with ONIONS - I mean more onions than egg, and not sweet Vidalias - these were rough boys. .. I tried to eat the omlette rolled up in a Dosa - but just couldn't do it - The cold grits were what I expected - cold grits. I wish I had had some Log Cabin syrup for the Dosa - that would have been nice! Then there were two gravies - the white one was sorta minimally eatable with the grits - the other however - was not to my taste AT ALL.

I am going now to secure me a night bus ticket to Chinnai (madras). A semi sleeper (Chair) bus - 13 hours advertised - We'll see.

later from "CAN you KA marie".

Johnny