My visit to Kanyakmari...

It was with ample interest and enthusiasm I booked tickets to visit Kanyakumar. From my childhood days visiting kanyakumari , the end point of mainland India was like a dream and its one of the places i wanted to see. To add spice to my anxiety my friend from Kerala added instances of the sunrise and the places around. 

Coming to the travel bookings travel by train is the better option then any other mode as it takes close to 10-11 hours to reach kanyakumari from Chennai. Nearest airport in Trivendrum from where a 90 minutes drive will take you to reach Kanyakumari. Buses too are available. but train journey is the best & economic. I would suggest to book an ac coach as the hot & humid climate is tough to adjust. I would suggest to book tickets in the kanyakumari Express which leaves Chennai in the evening & will reach kanyakumari early morning around 6.30 am.

This time it was  Hotel Tamilnadu which hosted my stay there and the Indian railways catered to my travel needs. It was my friend who said it was a bad choice to choose hotel Tamilnadu to stay and referred hotel seaview. But it was the other way around when i reached there and checked both the hotels. Location and the view from Hotel Tamilnadu was better in all aspects. I would suggest you all to go for Hotel tamilNadu and you can book hotels online at www.ttdconline.com/hotel.

Best time to travel to this end of the country is between December & January as rest of the months the climate would be relatively humid & hotter.

Place like Kanyakumari does not have much places to visit but in and around kanyakumari you will take a day or two to visit completely. hence plan it for two days for a comfortable stay. 

Sunrise

The first thing you should not miss is the sunrise behind the meeting point of the 3 seas. It would be an amazing view to witness the sun rising from the water and the big Thiruvallur statue. Early morning 5 am at least 1000+ headcount were there at the beach road to witness the sun rising.By the time the sun was in full swing we returned back to hotel & finished refreshing.

Suchindra temple

Next it was the local travel guide who rang the hotel bell and offered full day cab services to visit places around Kanyakumari. First it was the Suchindra temple in kanyakumari wherein the unique combination of the 3 deities ( Lord Brahma, Vishnu & Maheswar) worshiped together. The age old temple with the Pallavan temple architecture clad with huge stone structures and the very own rituals just made the day.

Wooden Palace

Next, it was the remains of the king of Travencore, the Wooden palace, which we went to see. Nothing much but the huge pot which were used to store pickles was just astonishing. We dint waste much of our time & headed to have lunch in a kerala resturant. The typical south Indian cuisines rich in spice and with a rice bowl was ample to address the mid day hunger.

Kerala Backwaters

Up next it was the beautiful back waters of kerala which was en-thrilling and amazing. it was awesome to sail in the motorboats in the narrow lanes on water. With the unique scenic experience covered with tall coconut trees, mangroves and the houseboats on water was of its own kind. we too witnessed the river loosing its existence into the sea and the narrow beach between the sweet & salty water, was memorable. I would have spent some more time there but time was up for us to return. 

Padmanabhaswamy Temple, Trivendrum.

If you have come to Trivendrum then make a point to visit the mighty Padmanabhaswamy temple where you will witness the resting lord Vishnu on the consort of Seshanag. The black stone resting lord will heal your soul and the ambiance is just heavenly. The huge temple with 4 gates on each directions stands tall on every devotees belief and devotion of each devotee and offers peace to the visiting souls. This is the same temple wherein the the king of Travencore chose to hide his wealth and we witnessed the wealth few months back when with court orders few of the closed chambers were opened. But I would request to pay a visit to the lord not because of the wealth but because of the heavenly belief you have for the lord himself. With loads of love & blessings from the lord we returned to the hotel. 

Kumari Amman temple, Kanyakumari

Next morning we paid a visit to the Kumari amman temple at the seashore and paid our prayers to the unmarried goddess to complete the visit. epic story describes the goddess, the one who waited and did "Tapasya" here before she got married to Lord Shiva. from then till today the goddess has been offered a boon by lord Shiva to be preset there and heal the needy people.

Coming out of the temple I could see a kilometer long queue of people to get on to the boat to reach the Vivekanand rock. As the queue was so long I dint find time and patience in me to wait for a hour or two to visit the Vivekananda rock. Hence we made our mind to return to our hotel to check out.

During the visit I would suggest people to carry water cans as even the packaged water is not sweet and to arrange alternate ways to get lunch in the train as the trains don't have a pantry cars.