Claire and Morten Travel Blog in India 2012: 29/02/2012

This morning we got up at 6:00 to go and see the sunrise. I was originally woken up at 5:00 by loud music outside for half an hour followed by something resembling prayers. Not sure what was going on but the guess is some kind of Indian ritual before the sunrise where 1.000's meet along the seaside to witness it, undoubtedly this sunrise/sunset business means a lot to them at the southern most point of India.&lt;br&gt; 
We were somewhat disappointed again as it was too cloudy to actually see the sun rise but I got a couple of colorful pictures before returning to the hotel.&lt;br&gt; 
We then took the opportunity to have a 7:00 breakfast and afterwards went up to bed for another snooze until 10:30.&lt;br&gt; 
We got up, showered and checked out, leaving our luggage behind in reception.&lt;br&gt; 
Then we were on our way to see the sights of Kanyakumari, which involved a three legged boat journey Kanyakumari Devi temple, Vivekananda Rock, and the Thiruvalluvar Statue. 
Afterwards we had a walk around town and saw the Lady of Ransom church and found a British bakery where we provianted for the journey. 
After sitting near the lookout point in a small park, we returned to the hotel where we had something to eat, got our luggage and were on our way in a rickshaw to the railway station. 
We were two hours early and sat down for the long wait. However Indians quickly took notice and started chatting to us - we ended up with a dinner invitation at an Indian family home in Chennai, got the name and address and even directions on Google Maps :-) 
We had also noticed some Indian guy who got a lot of notice by the locals and with whom they all wanted pictures - turns out that his name is Lakhbir Singh and that he's a very famous singer that you can find all over YouTube - also, when we boarded the train he gave away a few shawls for women and Claire got a picture with him too. Not only that but he got a berth just one down from us in the same carriage and he came to shake our hands and say hello :-) 
After sitting at the station for 1.5 hours we boarded the train at 18:45, about 30 minutes before departure, and got our gear locked down and relaxed in the lower seats of my berth. The train took off more or less on time at 19:20 and we were on our way.
We spent a bit of time talking while waiting for our bed linen, which was distributed by a couple of guys. When they handed us the bed linen Claire immediately set to work and made her upper berth bed and went to bed. I tried the same but it was really hot in the carriage due to the air conditioning not be on full whack. Also there was a lot of noise from passengers talking and boarding up until after 0:00 so instead I read and listened to music from my phone. At around midnight I even had guy ram his luggage up my arse - not once but twice, which made me pretty pissed off and I gave out to him - when he must have mistook my behind for an obstacle, the little shit! Well he did sort of apologise and I let it go. Also there was a loud argument breaking out between the singer's band members, some other (loud) guys, a western girl who boarded at around midnight, the train conductor etc. So they were standing in the aisle having this argument of theirs while people surrounding were trying to sleep - not much point joining in, although they should be spanked!
I probably got 3 hours of sleep with a lot wake-ups overnight. AC2 overnight trains are probably not for me - Claire, of course, was completely out and didn't notice a thing - and thankfully the next couple of booked train journeys are first class, which should mean a separate 2 or 4 bed cabin - with preference to the 2 bed cabins given to couples, although there are no guarantees - and the cabins will be allocated on the day so you won't get your seating assigned on the ticket and until the day you travel, unlike the other classes.