An Indian Odyssey

Kanyakumari to Kashmir

Before visiting India, I heard someone describing it as being “more like the EU than a country”, and having experienced the length of India from north to south with my own eyes, I couldn’t agree more. It is a melting pot of languages, cultures and religions which change from place to place but often exist all at once in the same cities and towns.

I have always been fascinated with India. Before arriving, I had spent a month in Sri Lanka, a beautiful island nation located just south of India and also an incredible place to visit should you get the time; feel free to check out my travel tips for Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka Destination Guide

I like to cross borders without flying where I can, it feels like more of an adventure! I knew I wanted to go from Sri Lanka to India and given their incredible close proximity to one another, I was confident there must be a boat I could take to get from Sri Lanka to India. I was shocked to find out that unfortunately, there wasn’t, however, while looking at maps of southern India, I noticed that the town of Kanniyakumari, located right at the southern end of India, had an awesome statue reminiscent of Talos from the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts, which I love. In the film, Talos comes to life to terrorise Jason and his crew. For nothing other than that, I decided to go straight there when I went to India.

I found a cheap flight to Thiruvananthapuram (known as ‘Trivandrum’) in southern Kerala, the state just north of Kanniyakumari, which was located in the adjacent state, Tamil Nadu. I arrived in the small city with no India Rupees and only my bank cards and a 20USD note for emergencies. I headed into the city but found no ATMs working with my foreign cards but luckily managed to exchange my $20USD for Indian Rupees just in time to get the last train south to Kanniyakumari.

Despite the stereotype of Indian trains being crammed, this one was almost empty and I had basically the whole carriage to myself to spread out on a bed in and watch the beautiful countryside pass me by. In case you are wondering, south India is far quieter than north India where stereotypes of overcrowded trains are more apt. When I arrived in Kanniyakumari, I found a hotel and rested up after a long day of travel.

After managing to withdraw some cash, get a sim card and have some food, I headed down to the waterfront to see the statue I had been so eager to see. On the way down, I asked around for an Indian flag to buy. I had done the same in Mongolia and enjoyed getting people I met to sign it and posing in photos with it. I managed to find one, although unfortunately it wasn’t large enough to have people sign it, but it was good enough for me! I put it in my small backpack and carried on. The town was busy with people, animals and tuktuks (rickshaws).

I saw one other foreigner the whole day, but being by myself and pasty white, I did stand out a bit. I didn’t mind at all though as the locals were happy to talk to me and I was interested to learn about them, especially because so many were Hindu pilgrims wearing iconic black robes. Many of these pilgrims were also bathing in the sea which overlooked the island and statue which I had planned my trip to see.

On the island was the statue I was so eager to see, rising 40m (133 feet) high Thiruvalluvar Statue looked awesome. It was very similar to how I had imagined it and it was awesome to see it!

Since I had come all that way I was keen to take the small boat over to visit the island. At the time, boats weren’t going to the island with the statue on; however, a second island opposite it with a temple on was still open to tourists, so I landed there and got a closer look at the statue from there too.

It was a great trip and I was asked for lots of selfies. Being asked for selfies was something I had long been used to having travelled in south-east Asia too where I found it common in rural areas. I had decided some time previously that instead of just having a photo taken on their phone when someone asks me for a selfie, that now, instead I agree but ask for one to also be taken on my phone. I am so gla that I do this becuase now they are some of my favourite photos to look back on. Many of these selfies are of people I have spoken to very briefly, while others I have got to know far better, going for food and chai with many in India. Here are some of my favourites.

The people were all very friendly, if not surprised to see a foreigner there. I found this a recurring theme in India, that many incredible destinations are frequented by thousands of Indian tourists but remain largely unexplored by foreigners.

I had a family from Mumbai (formerly Bombay) ask me to be the centrepiece of their family photo on the temple steps, which was very flattering and which is a photo that always makes me smile. In many countries, especially in the less-touristy places, people ask you for selfies. Now, when I agree, I do so on the condition that they take a photo on my phone too, this means I now have loads of selfies with strangers, which show funny snapshots of my travels and are easily some of my favourite photos from my travels. I also saw children on a school trip on the island, which set the bar very high for the rest of my trip in India. The school children politely asked me for photos with them. I had one taken with the girls and one with the boys. I’m pretty sure I was the first white guy they had ever seen. They were all very excited, but once I had taken my photos, I remembered about my flag and I thought, what a way to kick off my first India flag photo! I asked them to wait while I fumbled around in my backpack as they all stood around curiously. As I pulled out the flag, they went wild. It was like the atmosphere at a festival when a headline act comes on stage! They then proceeded to sing at full volume the Indian National Anthem. It was amazing to see and I can’t express in words how happy it made me.

I got the brief ferry ride back to the mainland, exploring the towns and chatting with the locals. I had a great chat with one man and his brother, who kindly invited me for food. I can’t count the amount of Indians who paid for my food, chai, etc. They are incredibly friendly, hospitable and welcoming to foreigners and no matter how much you protest, they often will insist even harder in the opposite direction; Indian hospitality is incredible! My friend was on a motorbike roadtrip with his brother and he told me that lots of Indian ride motorbikes the length of India, from Kanniyakumari to Kashmir; Kanyakumari where I was being India’s southernmost part of the mainland in India and Kashmir being India’s northern-most state; given that the Himalayas are in the north of Kashmir there is no real way of getting to India’s official northern-most point hence why reaching Kashmir is good enough! Following that conversion, I began formulating the idea of doing the same, going overland from India’s southern-most point to Kashmir.

Three months later, I had achieved this goal. I didn’t use motorbikes for the whole journey as I wanted to experience Indian buses, trains and other modes of transport however, I did travel India’s entire length overland without taking any flights. As you can imagine, travelling the length of India for three months is a long story, one far too long to write about here, but I hope this gives you a flavour of what was, in fact, what happened in my first afternoon and first full day in India.

Below are some photos from my time in Kashmir. I was there at the end of February having drive a Royal Enfield Hiimilayan motorbike up there from Punjab. I saw only one other motorbike rider in Kashmir and I now know why; nobody else is stupid enough to drive a motorbike to a part of the world famous for cold, snowy winters in the winter! Lessons learned, but it was still a great trip. I also found it surreal to see a mosque in the snow, as I have typically seen mosques in warm climates.

I hope that you have enjoyed this blog, which gives a flavour of my travels in India. I will be talking about it more on my podcast and releasing more blog posts, so stay tuned! Be sure to visit my Support Me page, where you can subscribe to email alerts and my social media.

I am in the process of writing a Destination Guide for India. If you have seen my other guides, you will no doubt realise why they take so long for me to complete, especially for a country so large and diverse as India! Head to my Support Me page if you would like to leave your details and be updated when this is released.

Thanks for reading and happy travels!

Andy Argo