In Kanyakumari

I decided to go for the punishment route yesterday, and took the bus from Chennai to the very southernmost tip of India, Kanyakumari.

The tires blew out twice, so instead of taking 16 hours it took 21. Surprisingly, I didn't even care. Maybe it was because this was a nice A/C bus, or maybe I've just grown numb to long rides. Probably both.

Anyway, apparently it's monsoon season in southern India, but aside from a torrential downpour this morning, it hasn't been to bad.

I'm going to keep moving on tomorrow, both because there's not much to do in Kanyakumari and because my lodging (at an ashram spiritual center) is godawful.

So I'll be heading over to Valkara tomorrow (in Kerala), only about a four hour bus ride away. But between Valkara and Kochi (further up the coast), I'll be taking my sweet, sweet time. I don't plan to be back to Chennai for a week.

But before I go, three quick observations on southern India:

1. Everyone speaks English. In the Hindu north, a large majority speak English; but here, everyone does.

Remember that movie I went to see, 2012? It was in English, with no subtitles. I have never seen this before, even in Hong Kong.

On the bus ride down here, the Bollywood flick had English subtitles, so that Tamil speakers could understand it. Tamil Nadu, like nearly every province, has its own film industry ('Tollywood'). You've heard of Bollywood, of course, but it's actually only the largest of India's many film industries. Wild, huh?

2. Lot of Christians and churches here. I sat next to a nun coming down, and every village has at least one church. Legend has it that the region's large Christian population is due to St. Thomas, who came to Kerala before his death.

I went to the barber today, and saw a picture of Mary above the wall. Right next to Krishna. Reminds me of when I was in China, and saw clandestine Protestant missionaries befuddled when their 'converts' prayed to Jesus... and Buddha, and Confucius, etc.

3. It's very socialist here. I know that Kerala has been (successfully) run for decades by India's Communist party, but I didn't know that it had seeped into Tamil Nadu as well. Hammers and sickles everywhere.