"Let us never forget, Gogol, that today we journeyed to a place where there was nowhere left to go."
-Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

Groggy from our train ride and feeling a little dirty from sleeping in our clothes on naugahyde benches, we followed Rev. David, who brought us to our hotel in Kanyakumari, at the southernmost tip of India. Here, the waters of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean all meet. It is considered somewhat of a holy place. Whereas southern Indians must journey to the Ganges to wash away their sins, Northern Indians should journey to Kanyakumari to wash their own away. It’s better if it’s inconvenient to wash away your sins, apparently.

Kanyakumari Click for more pictures

Very near the ocean, our hotel is aptly named “Hotel Sea View.” We’re spoiled with ocean view rooms, but I’ve also seen Motel 6’s in the US that charge more per night than the Sea View. Tomato, Tomahto. The best part of our hotel is that is looks out at the Thiruvalluvar statue, just a short distance off shore. After breakfast and the opportunity to freshen up a bit, the David’s took us out to the town. First, we visited a site that housed Ghandi’s ashes before they were immersed in the sea. It’s a carefully crafted building: the front resembles a Catholic church, the back resembles a Hindu temple, and the inside resembles a Muslim mosque. Every year on Ghandi’s birthday a beam of light shines through the ceiling, down to the marble base that held his ashes. I have to take the guide’s word for this, because Ghandi’s birthday isn’t until October.

After this, we walked along the shore to the very southernmost tip. This is a busy area – not as crowded as Marina Beach – and there are many here who stare at us. We get stares everywhere. Younger people are brave enough to wave or shout “Hello!” and everyone loves to have their picture taken. These people watch us as we maneuver down the slippery steps so our feet can touch three oceans at once.

Later, Rev. David introduced us to his friend, Mr. Justin, a supporter of the Christian Media Centre. Is a pilot of the ferry boats that take people back and forth to the monuments. He gave us the five-star treatment as we walked past lines of Indian tourists, got priority boarding, and personal tours of the facilities. I have to admit, knowing this country’s history with the caste system, I felt a little guilty as this group of whites were led past rows of Indians. I had to remind myself that we were only using a friend’s connection to skip lines, not some kind of unwritten social status code.

The monuments themselves are beautiful, carved out of stone in the last 10 years – this fact disappointed me, as I had imagined ancient Indians somehow dragging massive carving stones across the narrow channels in tiny boats.

The first island is Vivekananda Memorial Rock, a place with two temples. In the smaller, the goddess Shiva supposed left her footprint. It’s there, believe me, but we have no pictures to prove it because if you take pictures of the goddess Shiva’s footprint YOU WILL BE IN BIG TROUBLE. Do not take pictures of goddess’ footprints, that is what I learned today.

The larger temple was a monument to Thiruvalluvar, the saint poet of Tamil language. He supposed swam out to this rock and meditated for a few days. After this, we took another ferry to the other rock island, which featured a massive statue of Thiruvalluvar. It was quite impressive.

As I said earlier, our hotel has a fantastic view of Vivekananda Rock and the Thiruvalluvar statue. In the evening, these at lit up and glow fantastically in the night, another beautiful piece of India.