Riding The Rails.

The moment I left Varkala and boarded the Kanyakumari Express, I knew it would take some time to get used to being on my own again. I made some great connections on the cliffs of that beach, connections that don't come nearly often enough. It ended off amusingly when I made out a muffled yell through the screeching brakes of my train that I was about to board. It was my drunk waiter from the restaurant I frequented nightly. He was the world's best waiter only because he was so bad at his job it was gut wrenchingly hilarious.  He was standing with a group of his friends behind a fence, I couldn't hear a word he said but he had a smile on his face and was waving, I was doing the same.

You come to Tamil Nadu for 2 things; to see temples and sweat profusely. As I awoke that morning on the Cape of India, it didn't take long to get back into the swing of things photography wise. I'm not sure how many times I hit the shutter release button that day, but I do know that I snapped some of my favourite images to date.

The city of Madurai (one of the oldest in South India) was the main reason I came into Tamil Nadu. A 1000 year old temple decorated with hundreds of Hindu deities - smacked dab in the middle of a bustling city. This was near the top of my "to visit" list for India and it didn't disappoint in the least. I can't even begin to wrap my brain around the Hindu faith and all it's complexities. Seeing them pray in one of their holiest of temples, being immersed in all the energy everyone was giving off, gave me one of those tingly feelings.

The kind of feeling where a sudden wave of energy flows through out your entire body and an involuntary smirk adorns your face.

The kind of feeling that you can't wait to have again and that you almost crave, like an addict chasing his next fix.

But you can't buy this feeling like you can a drug, you simply have to do your best and not give in to the downs involved in getting to that particular point and time. All the stress, anxiety, and loneliness that you sometimes experience being away from your friends and family all seems to fade away when you have one of these moments.

I've rushed through the oven that is Tamil Nadu and have almost reached Chennai. I rode the rails like it's going out of style this past week hitting Kanyakumari, Rameswarem, Pondicherry, Madurai, and Mahabalipuram all in a span of 7 days. From Chennai I'll board a flight back to Goa; a state that I didn't give a fair chance to at the start of my trip.

I do suppose that there's worse places in the world to 'give another chance ' than the beaches of Goa, but let's not forget this is suppose to be a vacation.