Short vacation to Keral via Kanyakumari

Recently I done with my short vacation to few tourist destinations in Kerala and Kanyakumari. However the trip was so special as we witnessed marriage in Keral, it was one of my friend who tie knot at the same time. As most of my friends asking to put down my experience on paper so that they can share or plan their journey. I'm trying my level best to put everything so that it will be more informative to reader.

We had marriage to attend at Ernakulam district in Kerala, it is one of the central destination in Kerala. We booked tickets of 'Garib Rath' train two month prior to our journey from Kurla, Mumbai. Simultaneously we booked return tickets from Kochin to Pune via Indigo airways. Again, we booked flight tickets couple of month ago for better discounts. So in total we spent 1100/- for train and 2750/- for flight.

We started our journey from Kurla on Friday at 4.55pm, we traveled via Udupi -> Mangaluru -> Kasargod -> Shornoor to reach Ernakulam at 4.30pm on Saturday. Our friend arranged transport to his home. On Sunday, we attended his marriage. It was wonderful experience as we witnessed their rituals first time on the occasion of his marriage. A couple will attend temple to tie the knot with blessings from God and Bhataji. 

It was followed by reception at nearby hall where we found a folk dance which was so symbolic to their culture to welcome newly married couple. I have complete video and will share soon.

In whole stay at this marriage place, we had typical South-Indian meal with rice with number of vegetables and pickles. As we belongs to Maharashtra, we used to with Chapati-Sabji and Rice. But in Kerala, we hardly found Chapati during our five day stay.

Then we bag-pack and started our journey to explore Kanyakumari. As we have no package tour, we generally get in touch with local people on how to commute to other places. We reached Ernakulam station on Sunday night where as lady at ticket counter guide us to reach Kanyakumari. As she suggested, we need to take route of Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil to reach Kanykaumri. We board train around 11.00 pm at Ernakulam and started heading to Thiruvananthapuram, immediate after reaching their we found train to Nagercoil which reach at 5.30am. At Nagercoil we had train to Kanykumari at 6.20am only reach to our final destination at 7.00am. 

We already had booking for a Hotel to stay in Kanyakumari. We checked in at Hotel 'Gopi Nivas', jsut 1.5km away from Station, so no need to take auto-rickshaw unless and untill you have heavy luggage. Hotel reception hand-over keys along with tourist places and in and around Kanyakumari. This is what I prefer when I travel unknown places to get the list of famous places, check with local people on commute. I found all places at Kanyakumari are few steps away. We ggt refreshed and started our heritage walk in Kanyakumari.

At first, we visited 'Vivekanand Rock'. You need to take ferry to reach there. They charge around Rs. 40/- per person. At Vivekanand Rock, you will find 'Vivekanand Statue', few book sellers. We spent couple of hours there.

A ferry include visit to 133 feet statue of poet and philosopher Thiruvalluvar, however due to low tide, a ferry was suspended for time being. Next time good luck :-) After having fun at Vivekanand Rock, we head back to hotel to have some rest and meal.

At 4.00 pm, we again wear our shoes and headed towards Mahatma Gandhi memorial and fish aquarium. A plan was followed by sunset at the last. Kanyakumari is the only place in India where you can witness Sunrise and Sunset at the same place. I am luck to have glimple of both the occurrences as we had stay in the Kanykumari.

After sunset, we visited local market for shopping. We spent time until we get hungry. Post shopping we had our dinner, kept everything we shopped at hotel and went to Sea-Shore to only witness sound of waves when there is no-men :-) We came back to hotel at 11.45 pm to have some rest as we planned to visit Thiruvananthapuram on the next day.

We got up early in the morning to catch glimpse of sunrise. Post sunrise, we visited Kanyakumari temple. Then we came back to Hotel to check out and started journey to North (geographically we moving north :-) )

We come to Kanyakumari station where Tea-vendor suggested that instead of waiting for train, you can take auto rickshaw to reach Nagercoil where you can visit Suchindram temple on your way and autowala will halt for some time. We hired auto for 380/- to travel Nagercoil via Suchindram temple. We reach there at 9.30 am and spend an half an hour. This ancient temple had very nice architecture. The only constraint is to take off you cloths before entering the temple.

Then we moved to Nagercoil to have train to Thiruvananthapuram, we had train at 10.25 am which reached at 12.45pm. After reaching Thiruvananthapuram, we had lunch. We had little chat with hotel owner and found that Padmanabhaswamy temple is now closed and will open at 5pm. He suggested to hire auto rickshaw and roam around to visit tourist places till 5pm. We hired auto-rickshow for 600/- for a day where auto-driver promised that he will accompany us till evening and will drop us at train station.

The first place we visited was Poovar beach. Here you will find lot of vendor who offer back-water drive for an hour with Rs. 2000/- per person. However we were not in mood to spend an hour due to time constrain so that we head back to Kovalam beach.

On our way back to Kovalam beach, we visited government owned Fish Aquarium followed by Shipping Harbor.

The another destination on our way to Kovalam beach was Light House. It was wonderful experience to reach at the top of Light House and have view of Kovalam Beach and Arabic sea.

After having some fun and photo session at light house, we traveled to Kovalam Beach. This beach has clean water so that you can have boat ride, surfing and swimming at same place. We spend some time here.

Then we head back to Padmanabhaswamy temple at 5.30pm. Again we had take off our cloths before entering the temple. A temple is so huge that you need at least an hour visit each area accessible in this temple. Due to recent gold-rush at this temple, it has multiple fold security inside and outside of the temple premises.

After Padmanabhaswamy temple, it was almost done for our trip. The only mistake I did was flight booking I made from Kochin. So that we traveled back to Ernakulam from Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday night. We had our flight from Cochin on Wednesday to reach our home in Pune.

I have summarized our trip in very short words as most my friends asked me pen down so that it will help other netizens. Thanks for reading this blog and hope this will be helpful to you.