We spent two days in the seaside city of Kanyakumari at a hotel that served us all a big slice of humble pie. The hotel itself wasn't very bad by India standards but for a privileged and spoiled westerner the hard bed, dirty towels, lack of hot water, rusted wires, and abundance of insects made us all miss the "old" hotel.

Once we checked in at the hotel Medhini we were given the day off. Surrounding the hotel were many shops, restaurants, and even an all female police station. When Lizzy, Logan, Jessi, Maralyn, Sharon and I went to explore we were quickly overwhelmed by all the people and one man on a motorcycle even tried to play chicken with me! However, the view from the roof of the hotel was well worth everything though. We could see the entire city and all the surrounding churches. At night some of the churches even lit up. The Vivekananda Rock Memorial could also be seen off the coast.

The day off was a nice way to kick back, catch up on sleep and eat the cheese crackers that I had packed for dinner. Unfortunately this time off would come and go too quickly.

The second day we were to wait in the world's longest line, according to Jerry, for a ferry that would take us to the rock memorial. While waiting in line we were hounded by both beggars and salesmen. The salesmen were easy to haggle with and even got one to offer me a packet of postcards for 50 rupees (~$1.00) and I got a pair of Ray Bans for 100 rupees (~2.00). The beggars made me feel really uncomfortable but I had already dealt with similar situations while in Puerto Rico and just kept moving forward through the line. The man that had legs thinner than my wrists and a broken knee got to me the most when he started crying until I noticed that several other beggars followed suit. I feel awful for being able to buy things that I don't really need for really cheap out here while the people can't afford food. Poverty is definitely a subject that I feel strongly about, but giving money to street beggars is another thing that I couldn't bring myself to do. I am privileged and understand this, but I can't help feeling guilt. So I am very thankful for all the things that life has granted me.

The Vivekananda Rock Memorial was amazing! It was all built on a giant rock off the coast and included a giant place to meditate and admire the great philosopher, as well as a footprint of a god that had apparently visited the site. The vast amount of people there only added to my own interest. I thought it was funny that several people had their children take pictures with us or requested to be in pictures with us. Not sure if this is something to be happy or upset about.