Day 35 - Heather

We had a very lazy start to our day, reading and relaxing in hammocks. We decided to head into Kollam to do some exploring in the afternoon. Our host very kindly offered to drop us off at the beach. Our first stop was the local fish market, where the day's catch was being sold as the boats returned - there was a variety of fish being sold of varying sizes - we saw a couple of large swordfish. Then it had been suggested by our host that we head down the beach to the local lighthouse. The walk there was pretty grim.  On the beach were were a large number of woven huts/tents where the fishers and their families lived and surrounding these were large piles of stinking rubbish - it was as though the community had decided to dump all their rubbish where these people lived. 

The lighthouse was painted with traditional red and white stripes and was beautifully maintained. Andrew and David climbed to the top and both returned saying that it was very steep and scary. By this time it was very hot and the kids were reluctant to walk any further so we all squashed into an auto rickshaw and headed to the local beach - let's just say it was covered in rubbish and despite there being people there it felt very desolate.  By the time we had walked for about 3 km around Kollam trying to locate a functioning ATM we were all in agreement that Kollam town was grotty.  The redeeming feature of our visit to town was having a yummy dinner at a great restaurant we found (on Tripadvisor - some recommendations are accurate!!)

We were very glad to get back to our beautiful, peaceful lakeside bungalows.