beautiful kovalam

i have just spent 4 days in kovalam with my friend kim, i met her about a month ago in mamalapuram. after separating for a few weeks as she went north she arrived in trivandrum on the 15th and the next day we took a rickshaw to kovalam. it's only15km away but very different, it's a little beach village. very developed for the size, lot's of package tours come here but fortunately for us this is a bad season for tourism here so it's quite lovely. the beach is relatively quite and much less people then goa, and allot smaller. the sun is allot stronger though and after
2 1/2 months here i had my first sunburn yesterday. i bought a hat today though so i'm all set, and i'm going through the sunscreen like crazy. for the first 3 days we stayed in a hut, then had to move today as someone had reserved it already. we are right next door though in another lodge so it wasn't to bad. we are behind the beach so it's much more quiet, and cheaper, we are surrounded by coconut trees and birds, and wake up to some chanting every morning. unfortunately kim only has about 3 more weeks so we are leaving tomorrow and heading to kanyakumari, it's about a 80 km away, a 3 hour bus ride. it's actually in tamil nadu, the next state over just on the border with kerala. it is the most southern point in india where the bay of bengal meets the indian ocean and the arabian sea. it has many temples and has great spiritual significance for hindus, they come on pilgrams to bath in the surrounding waters.
we will then come back to kerala as so far it's both of our favourite place, the food is the best i've had yet, lots of coconut is used and tons of seafood. for breakfast yesterday i had appam with vegetable curry, appam is rice flour crepes but a little thicker that you dip in the curry. fish moile is another favourite, it's a mild yellow coconut curry with butter fish. lots of fresh curry leaves as well as the spices here and fresh coconut make it something i know i wont be able to duplicate at home, but i will try.
as well as the tourists on the beach, it is full of fishermen, they are at it all day, going out and setting the nets then pulling them in, well yelling and chanting, it's pretty cool to see. although i wonder what they think of us getting in their way trying to suntan and swim where they work.