First of all I would like to apologize to my readers that this post is not like my other post. You might not get details about hotels and other stuffs as it was a trip to my friend, Michael’s home. But still I can’t stop myself from sharing the experience.
Duration of the trip: It was a 3 days and 4 night’s trip from Bangalore. We started from Madiwala, Bangalore at 7 pm on Thursday and reached back to Bangalore on Monday morning.
Transportation: We travelled by bus from Bangalore to Marthandam and vice-versa. We board
SRM travel’s bus from Madiwala at 7:00pm and reached Marthandam next day morning around 7:30 am. For coming back, we board the
KPN travels bus from Nagercoil bus-stop at 6:45 pm, Sunday and reached back to Bangalore next morning around 8:30 am. There was a huge jam in Hosur road which caused the delay.
Both the busses were A/C sleeper coaches. Ticket cost Rs 870/- and 860/- per head for going and coming back.
Details of the Trip:
Night 1: After we had started from Bangalore, the bus stopped at Shoolagiri for dinner, around 8 pm. There were many options for food like Mc. Donald’s, Cafe Coffee Day and Shri Krishna Restaurant. The restaurant was pure vegetarian where we took a parcel from and got into the bus. Other facilities like restroom, petrol bunk and parking also available over there. Restaurants were very clean and hygienic. We had a stop for around 30 minutes there.
Day1: We reached Marthandam around 7:30 am. Mike picked us from Marathandam and took us to his native, Vicicode, a beautiful place with full of greenery all around. Spending some time in that place will refresh you for at least a month. We had some other friends also who joined us from Chennai. We got freshen up and had breakfast and lots of tender coconut water. One more speciality of this place is red banana. They tasted very good.
After breakfast, Mike hired a Scorpio and we went for sightseeing. We started by 10:45 a.m. The places we visited were,
Padmanavapuram Palace was constructed around 1601 CE by Iravi Varma Kulasekhara Perumal who ruled Travancore between 1592 CE and 1609 CE. in the late 18th century, precisely in 1795 CE the capital of Travancore was shifted from here to Thiruvananthapuram, and the place lost its former glory. However the palace complex continues to be one of the best examples of the hallmark of traditional Kerala style architecture. The palace is located at the foot of the Veli Hills, which form a part of the Western Ghats. The atmosphere was awesome which made Mike to express one of his dreams to trek at the top of those hills. The river Valli flows nearby. The palace is administered by the Government of Kerala archaeology department.
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| Entrance of the Palace |
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| Inside the Palace Campus |
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| The Palace |
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| Top view from Palace |
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| Corridor made in Kerala Architechture |
The Padmanabhapuram Palace complex consists of several structures like,
Mantrasala, the King's Council Chamber.
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| Mantrasala |
Thai Kottaram; though it literally means, Mother's Palace but it was not mother’s palace. It was the first building or the mother of the buildings over there, believed to have been constructed before AD 1550.
Nataksala, the Hall of Performance, or of Performing Arts, a four-storied building at the centre of the Palace complex.
Thekee Kottaram, the Southern Palace. Navaratri Madapa and a Museum where the belonging of the king family and the stone sculptures are kept for exhibition.
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| Navaratri Mandapa |
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| Musuam |
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| Ancient Weapons of Royal Family |
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| Weapons of Royal Family |
Parking cost is Rs 50/-, entry fee is Rs 10/- per person and Rs 25/- per camera. Shoe keeping charge is Rs 3/- per pair. Govt. trained guides are available inside the palace who will give you good details about the place free of cost.
Udhayagiri Fort is a reserve forest and a zoo more than a fort. Parking cost is Rs 50/-, entry fee is Rs 5/- per person and Rs 25/- per camera. One of the main attractions was ‘Rope Sliding’. They charge Rs 25/- per person for rope sliding. But it’s a rare experience people should not miss the opportunity and except me no one missed it. I was scared of the height.
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| Rope Slidding |
Ideally that place is a good hang out place for kids. They can find deer, peacock, turtle and other birds and animals. They have good play ground also for kids with variety of rides.
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| Peacock in the Zoo |
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| Deer in the Zoo |
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| Tortoise in Udhaygiri Fort |
After visiting those two places we had our lunch at Hotel Prabhu in Nagercoil and headed towards
Kanyakumari.
The place is beyond any description. The main attractions are Vivekananda Rock and Thiruvallavur statue. There are regular boats which take people from sore to Vivekananda Rock, from there to Thiruvallavur statue and again back to sore. Ticket costs Rs 20/- per person.
Entry fee for
Vivekananda Rock is Rs 10/- per person. There are three main part of Vivekananda Rock, Charan Mandap, here you can see the foot print of Swami Vivekananda. Darshan Griha is the main temple of this premise. A huge statue of Swamiji and photos of Shri Shri Ramkrishna Dev and Ma Sarada is there. You can feel and heavenly peace inside the temple. Dhyan Mandap is a place to concentrate and remember or deity. Other than these three places also, you can spend some time in the Vivekananda Rock premise. The feeling of spending time in this place can’t be expressed in words.
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| Vivekananda Rock from Boat Stand |
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| Darshan Griha |
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| Vivekananda Rock from Thiruvallavur Statue |
Thiruvallavur Statue, a gigantic 133 feet (41 m) tall statue of Tamil saint-poet Thiruvalluvar is one of the biggest statues in Asia. There was not entry fee for this place. For reaching to the foot-steps of this statue, from the boat-stand, one has to climb more than 150 steps.
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| At the foot step of Thiruvallabur Statue |
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| Thiruvallabur Statue |
After visiting the statue, we came back to the sore by boat and went to
Kanyakumari Bhagavati Ammana Temple. According to Hindu mythology, Kanya Devi, an Avatar of Parvati, was to marry Siva, but as he failed to show up on his wedding day, the rice and other grains meant for the wedding feast remained uncooked and remain unused thereafter. As the legend goes, the uncooked grains turned into stones as time went by. Some believe that the small stones which look like rice on the shore today are indeed grains of the wedding that was never solemnized. Kanya Devi is now considered a virgin goddess who blesses pilgrims and tourists who flock the town.
There is no entry fee to go inside the temple and no photography is allowed. The only rule is, men have to take off their shirt and vests before going inside the temple.
The Gandhi Memorial has been built on the spot where the urn containing the Mahatma's ashes was kept for public viewing before immersion. Resembling central Indian Hindu temples in form, the memorial was designed in such a way that on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, the first rays of the sun fall on the exact place where his ashes were kept.
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| Gandhi Mandapam |
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Sotha Vilai Beach is one among the most important beaches in the district of Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. The beach here stretches over 4 km which make it one among the longest beaches in Tamil Nadu. It is also one among the most seriously affected areas of the district during the 2004 Tsunami.
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| Sotha Vilai Beach |
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| Sotha Villai Beach |
Most of the tourists are unaware of this beach, therefore it was crowd less. Except our group, hardly 15 people were over there. The beach is very clean. Shanmu and Mari, two of our friend were so excited to capture some of their picture in motion that almost 100 times they jumped from the top of a wall. We spent almost two hours there and left the place after sun set.
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| Mari and Shanmu at their best |
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| Sotha Vilai beach after sun set |
We went back to Vicicode and had dinner at Hotel Gowrishankar at Nagerkoil. We reached Mike’s home around 10 pm.
Day 2: We had breakfast at Mike’s home and started around 9:30. That day our destination was places around Trivandrum.
The first place we visited this day was
Velli Tourist Village, picnic spot, where the Veli Lake meets the Arabian Sea, offers boating facilities. Pedal boats and paddleboats can be hired to explore the charms of the lagoon in a leisurely manner. Other than paddle boat, rowing boats and speed boats are also available. The best thing about this place is you can row your boat by yourself, even if you don’t know how to row a boat, you will get people to help you. Children enjoy climbing over the huge sculptures which dot the landscape and horse riding which Austin enjoyed a lot too. The beach is also very beautiful, clean and clear. You can rent some chairs and spend the entire day in the beach.
In this tourist village you can find one floating restaurant. I have no idea about the foods of that as we didn’t go there. But overall the place is awesome.
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| Velli Beach |
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| Floating Resturant |
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| Sculptures at the beach |
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| Austin feeding pop corns to swans |
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| All in the Floating Bridge |
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| Austine and his horse |
Parking cost 10/- rs. , Entry cost 5/-. , Boating paddling 60, rowing 100, teaching rowing 25/- .
After spending all our energy in tourist village, we went to Residency tower for lunch. It is a three star restaurant in heart of Trivandrum. Food was good and price was reasonabl.
The second place we visited was
Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple. Recently this temple becomes more famous for getting label of the richest temple of India. The temple is one of 108 Divya Desams (Holy Abodes of Vishnu) – principal centres of worship of the deity in Vaishnavism. The temple, constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture, is glorified in the Divya Prabandha, the early medieval Tamil literature canon of the Tamil Alvar saints (6th–9th centuries CE), with structural additions to it made throughout the 16th century CE, when its ornate Gopuram was constructed. The Temple is a replica of the famous Sri Adikesavaperumal Temple at Thiruvattar.
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| Shree Padmanavaswamy Temple |
We were not able go inside the temple. As per the rule maintained by the temple trust is guys have to be in dhoti and ladies have to be in saree which none of us were in.
Parking charge were Rs 25/-.
From there we started for Kovalam beach. On the way we visited one of the view points but I am not sure about the name of that place.
Kovalam Beach is one of the most famous beaches in India which doesn’t need any introduction for it. Kovalam has three crescent shaped beaches separated by rocky outcroppings. Shallow waters stretching for hundreds of metres are ideal for swimming. The beaches have steep palm covered headlands and are lined with shops that offer all kinds of goods and services.
The larger of the beaches is called Light House Beach for its 35 meter high light house which towers over it atop Kurumkal hillock. The second largest one is Hawah Beach. Visitors frequent these two beaches. The northern part of the beach is known as Samudra Beach in tourism parlance. A large promontory separates this part from the southern side. Samudra Beach doesn't have tourists thronging there or hectic business. The local fishermen ply their trade on this part. Unlike the other places, the sands on the beaches in Kovalam are partially black in colour due to the presence of ilmenite and Monazite.
We enjoyed more than 3-4 hours in this beach and sea until the coast guard asked us to come out of the water. The experience of this place is not to discuss in words but to feel.
There is no entry fees other parking cost which is Rs. 25/-. Changing room facility is available in beach and outside beach as well. They charge Rs 10/- for changing and Rs 15/- for bathing and changing.
We had dinner in Chitra Resturant of Marthandam and reached back home around 9:30 at night.
Day 3: This was the last day of our trip. We had a bus to catch for returning Bangalore, so we decided only to visit some nearby places so that we can come home by lunch time.
We started from home around 10:30 am at went to visit
Mathur Thottilpalam or the hanging bridge. This bridge was constructed in 1966 by the late Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, K. Kamaraj, as a drought relief measure across the river Pahrali. Its purpose is to carry water for irrigation from an elevated level of one hill to another. The irrigation water feeds the taluks of Vilavancode and Kalkulam. It is the tallest as well as the longest trough bridge in Asia, having a height of 101 feet and a length of one kilometer. The canal is being shouldered by 28 huge pillars.
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| Rubber Plantation |
Parking cost of car is Rs. 15 and Rs bike is Rs. 2/-. Entry fee is Rs. 2/- per person and Rs. 5/- camera.
From there we headed to
Thirparappu falls, a natural beauty spot that attracts many tourists coming to Kanyakumari District.Thirparappu Falls is located 42 K.M. from Nagercoil and a distance of 5 kms. from kulasekaram (Kanyakumari District), and this famous falls in the Kodayar (Kothai River). Children's Swimming Pool & Dressing Room are available at Thirparappu.
The Kodayar makes it descend at Tirparappu and the water fall at this place is about 13 km. from Pechiparai dam. Thirparappu Waterfalls is 300 feet long and consists of a rocky riverbed. The water falls from a height of nearly 50 feet and the water flows for about seven months in a year. The whole bed above the falls is one rocky mass which extends up to a distance of about quarter of a kilometer upstream where the famous Thirparappu weir has been constructed for supplying water to the paddy fields.
On the left bank of the river in between the waterfalls and the weir, there is a temple dedicated to Siva enclosed by strong fortification.
Entry fee for this place is Rs 3/- per head and Rs. 75/- per camera. Parking costs are Rs. 30/- for car and Rs. 5/- for bike. There is a way to go inside the dam other than the main entry that is if you go taking the lane next to temple and most important that is free. Boating cost Rs 100 for 4 people and Rs.5 for camera.
After visiting these places, we went back to Mike’s home and had lunch there. In the evening, we went to Nagerkoil to catch bus for Bangalore.
Disclaimer:We went for this trip in
Aug’2011. There are chances that price and timings has got changed. Please check with cabs service providers or travel agents about current timings and rates.
I have tried to provide as much as details is possible for the trip. For any further clarification please feel free to contact me @
dutshilpi@gmail.com.
