South India: One of my memorable trip which I'll cherish for the life time.
This is the trip which I travelled from Madurai to Allepey around the Indian Peninsula covering the sacred and spiritual places.
The reason I said this because, As this is my first solo trip in my life and Neither did I had any restriction on my schedule nor anyone to disturb it, so I was the king of my own schedule :)
You should at least have one solo trip in your life to experience it, so for me it happened to be South India (Though I never expected it so soon).
I always had a Plan B option for each and every place which I visited ( in case if something does not work out according to the plan), here I had to make so many plan B as there were multiple places to cover according to the allocated days.
This is the map which shows my journey from Madurai then to Rameswaram , Dhanushkodi ( The dead end of India from Rameswaram),Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari , Nagercoil, Trivandrum, Allepey ( Alappuzha)
The journey was for 7 days and eventually everything went as per the plan I prepared.
So, I boarded the Kacheguda - Nagercoil Express from Hyderabad to Madurai. So, as the train started I sat calmly and was thinking on how to entertain myself throughout the journey.
The time to reach Madurai was exactly 24 hours So, thinking of what to do I immediately plugged in my ears with my Bluetooth device and engaged my phone with music and movies, there were a couple of North Indian guys in my compartment whom I guess were the students of VIT.
They were speaking in proper North Indian slang and watching the Tamil movie of Vijay's "Kathi" in their laptops (Without any subtitles) and a Telugu guy who kept his eyes occupied to his book. I thought of having a conversation with them, but as they looked completely busy with their stuff, I felt not to disturb them and decided to have a chat in the later part of the journey.
So within no time the train reached Kurnool station and I was feeling damn hungry, so I ordered some eatable stuff from the pantry car and after that took a deep sleep, the next morning when I woke up, I noticed that those people had left the train. There were also two Tamil guys in the adjacent berths from the beginning of the journey and they were playing rummy, I was watching their game play and strategy and I couldn't control my laugh on most of the occasions as they were playing with the Joker card open to everyone, even without forming a sequence. hehehe !!! :)
I wanted to join them , but seeing their customized rules and regulations in the game I decided to drop the idea of playing with them.
So, I kept on seeing the locations from the train, it was somewhere in the middle of Tamil Nadu with the nearest coming junction to be "Salem"
It was early in the morning, the enriches of the green paddy fields and with the clouds touching the small mountain ranges in the long distances made me to keep looking on the visuals for most of the time. Different thoughts were creeping in to my mind.
In Salem, after having my breakfast I was listening to music and enjoying the game show of my fellow co passengers, till I met this guy who works in Chennai and travelling to his home town Madurai. With couple of hours left in the journey to end we started to have a conversation.
As he visited most of the places which i was going to witness, he gave me much needed information about Madurai and also about the southern part of the state on the transportation connectives. He suggested me to visit Tanjavur as well, I wanted to visit Tanjavur and I also knew that I couldn't make it as it was not a part of my plan. So I decided to visit it some other time(As I didn't want to disturb my schedule )
As the conversation progressed, I was retrospecting my own experiences on the places which I visited in India and he was quite impressed with me.
Finally, I reached my destination...
Madurai: The City of Temples
Madurai is the second largest town in Tamil Nadu after Chennai , famously known for the beauty of the temples. You can find many temples in this town and the very famous temple known here is the "Meenakshi Amman Temple".
The temple is very near to the Madurai railway junction (not more than a KM). You can also find the bus connectivity to the different districts which is adjacent to the railway junction.
Most of the temples here have the beauty in their sculptures and the history left behind them.
I believe that the Kasi's (Visalakshi) and Madurai's (Meenakshi) are one and the same with the different names.
So, I took a stay near to the surroundings and refreshed myself and had some lite meal before heading towards the temple.
The cuisine habits of Tamil Nadu are mind boggling especially in the veg departments and breakfasts. The kind of "Chutney" and "Sambar" they prepare will make you to lick your fingers. The kind of ingredients they use in making the recipes is something which never changes in taste.
Then, I headed to Madurai temple and since it was less than a KM, I decided to walk across the streets of Madurai to see its beauty.
The temple has four towers, all have the replica of one another (except the names), I headed into the temple from West tower. You are not authorized to carry any electronic item into the temple premises (except your phone).
The moment you enter into the temple, you 'll get confused by the architecture as everything looks similar, so my suggestion is to keep one base location in the temple as a reference point. I was walking inside the temple to find the inner doors to search for the starting point.
There is one more shiv temple ("Surandeshwar") inside the Meenakshi Temple, So first I visited Shiv temple and after that I realized I lost my way, I was asking the local people for the way to Meenakshi temple line , after making 2-3 circumferences round the temple, I finally came across the Meenakshi temple line, It was a pleasant evening with less crowd on that day.
I was roaming around to see the architecture and the sculptures across the temple and believe me I didn't feel like coming out of the temple.
My Mind was like an empty vessel (got freed of everything...), I sat there for some time and was looking at the people, the way they offer their prayers to the god by enlightening the "diyas". I felt I was like under the divine power :)
You can have the license to take videos and photos from your mobile by purchasing a ticket inside the temple premises.
Below are few snaps :
The West Tower of temple Inside the temple
In the streets of Madurai
After the temple visit, I came to my room and was searching for nice cuisines for my dinner, I had a heavy meal as I couldn't control my appetite. Soon after my dinner, I started roaming on the streets again to check the night life and also it would help me in digestion.I started inquiring on how to reach to Rameswaram from my nearby location as that was my next destination (Its only 170 KM from Madurai).
So I reached my room by almost 12 in the mid night and decided to start by 3 AM, so that I can reach to Rameswaram in the early hours of morning.
Temple sculptures
I thought of having a power nap in between, but I was scared as I knew if I sleep, then my next day schedule gets ruined as I don't have the habit of waking up early in the mornings. hehehehe !!!
So just to pass the time, I was watching the high lights of the world cup matches of that day.
"Mattuthavani" - is a place located on the outskirts of Madurai from where you can find the bus services to reach Rameswaram.
Soon after by the time it was 2 AM , I started packing my bag, checked out of the room and headed towards the station, there were no train to catch to rameswaram.. so I booked a cab to reach Mattuthavani. Every bus will ply from Madurai to Rameswaram via Ramanathapuram, There are few beautiful locations in between where the driver doesn't stop. So,I decided to take ticket till Ramanathapuram( As you can see in the map) and from there I hired a private cab just to capture few locations.
I was having a power naps in between the travelling time, by the time I reached the place it was 6 AM.
There is a lot of language barrier in Tamil Nadu as people here either know Tamil or English, so there is a huge communication problem. Either you should have the knowledge on the base
version of Tamil to understand what the other guy is speaking or you should have a conversation with a guy who knows English.
And the problem much more arises when you travel to the southern part of the Tamil Nadu like in Ramanathapuram ,Tuticorin and Tirunelveli ( where people only know Tamil , you hardly find a guy who knows English) .
I hired a cab guy, who luckily was relenting to give me a company and he was with me for later part of my day, till I completed all my rituals in Rameswaram.
Here are some beautiful locations of "Pamban Island".
The Pamban Bridge connecting to Rameswaram island
This rail track is in the middle of the ocean with 1.4 KM to connect to Rameswaram
Believe me , I could see the depth of the ocean from the bridge , its hardly not more than 8-10ft deep.
If you see the above image carefully, you can see the rail tracks visible in the bed of the ocean.
The boats for fishing near the island
The view of the Bay of Bengal( as this is one of my super clicks)
The other side of the bridge
As the moment I reached to the middle of the bridge, I could see nothing except water, the entire 360 degrees is with water with the thin line bridge connecting the island.
The Ocean color with the pure Navy blue content enlightening its richness and the windy breeze touching your skin amidst of the bridge will make you to feel like the heaven on earth.
The best part of the ocean is, you can see the depth of the ocean from the bridge. If you are 10 ft tall, I believe you can walk across that ocean to the island.
Rameswaram: The sacred place, It is believed that this is the place where Rama worshiped lord shiva before starting his journey to Lanka by building a bridge from Dhanushkodi.
I felt little comfortable in communicating as people here knew Hindi. (considering it to be the pilgrimage)
So, first I went to the ocean to take bath which is behind the temple, The water here is absolutely stagnant and calm , you just can't even find a small wave coming across the temple and that is the beauty of the location. Spiritually, It is believed that Rama made this water to remain calm.
The Ocean behind the temple
There are few tiny wells in the temple premises which are called as the sacred water, so before worshiping the lord shiva , It is believed to take a bath across these wells.
The place themselves tells about the epics of Lord Rama.
So after I was done with my things , My cab driver was eagerly waiting for me to have a breakfast, we had a nice "Pongal" and from there I went to see "Dhanushkodi".
Dhanushkodi is considered to be the ghost town of India ( Not technically), As the place was once washed out by the Tsunami in 1964. They say it ideally because there is no scope of living in this part of the area ( After Tsunami), except the fishermen living in huts. Its the remote area and there is no electricity.
It was once the ideal location for the business frontiers between India and Srilanka before Independence where the Britishers used to export and import goods on daily basis.
The island stretches to the Dead end of the India called as Dhanushkodi, from where the Rama started to build the bridge to Lanka. It stretches to 14-15 Km from Rameswaram to the Tip and the place gets narrowing as soon as you move forward towards the tip.
You can see the ocean's stretch on both the ways with narrow thin line with road and trees. Its a place from where Lanka is just 13 odd KM and probably the shortest route to reach Lanka.
At some point even the normal cars stop at Dhanushkodi and from there still the stretch extends to 3-4 KM, the land from this point keeps on decreasing into the sea
Currently, the govt is building a road project on this sand to extend it till the stretch, hopefully it gets completed very soon.
The description itself suggests the place
So, If you want to visit Dhanushkodi make sure that you reach the destination and come back within 5 PM, because there is no electricity and the road is very accident prone,you won't find any person if something happens even to the vehicle.
At the tip of dhanushkodi -- one part of ocean
While leaving rameswaram, the clouds were approaching the bridge towards the island,
From long distance I can clearly see the rain at one end of the bridge while the other end of the bridge was wide open to sun.
So after Dhanushkodi, my next destination was Kanyakumari, you can find buses and trains directly from Rameswaram to Kanyakumari, since I hired a cab I had to go back to Ramanathapuram and from there you have to reach Tuticorin. I had the worst experience over here as I couldn't find any person guiding me with proper directions. Somehow, I managed to reach Tuticorin,
As there is no proper road to reach Kanyakumari from Tuticorin, one has to go to Tirunelveli to reach Kanyakumari. By the time I reached Tirunelveli it was 6 PM, you can find many buses plying to Kanyakumari, I boarded a bus to Kanyakumari and was enjoying my music.
When I reached Kanyakumari it was already 10 PM, I was so tired that I desperately wanted a sleep , I immediately jumped into the nearest hotel and took a stay for that night, I refreshed myself and had some dinner in the nearby place and took a sleep. I was scared again of waking up early in the morning, as the main event was to see the sun rise from the Cape Kanyakumari. But some how managed to wake up early in the morning by 5.30 by keeping backup alarms. :)
Though the locals here are tamilians, most of the people here also know hindi ( Might be because of the tourist spot).
There isn't anything much to see in this place except the sunrise and sunset points, I just saw the sunrise point and dropped the sunset (though it was a part of the plan) as I didn't had any idea on how to spend my time till the sunset,
The other places you can see here is the Memorial rock of vivekananda , The Triveni Sangam ( Where the three oceans meet) and some beaches.. since I visited many beaches, I wasn't interested in them...
The place is much more sultry and the sun always lies on the ocean.
The Rock is just few meters away from the cape. Govt had made this a tourism spot by adding the ferry services to reach the rock.
Here are few snaps of the location:
--> The Triveni sangam ( Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean )
The Panoramic view of the cape in the early morning
From here, the only place you will be reaching is the guaranteed South Pole (Antarctica) !!
Ferry Services to reach the rock
From the rock
It was afternoon and the sun was over my head and haunting me to reach to my place to have a cool bath, Soon I went into my room had a cold shower and checked out, I had some nice meal near to the place and was waiting for my kerala bus(KSRTC) to come as my next destination was Trivandrum...
I boarded the bus at 2PM and headed towards Trivandrum , No sooner did I reach Nagercoil, the atmosphere kept on changing from the very sultry to the cool breeze, I was entering the western ghats of India, I can clearly see the clouds bursting down on the top of the mountain ranges.
All of a sudden it started to rain after Nagercoil... The rain continued till Trivandrum which was 3 hours from the cape.
One of the location, somewhere near to Nagercoil , where the clouds hitting the western ghats, this pic was taken from the bus.
When I reached Trivandrum it was already 5 PM, Finally the rain stopped.I have one college friend who works in Trivandrum, when I called him and said I was coming to Trivandrum, he was pretty much excited, because its been a year since we met when he was in Hyderabad. He was little surprised to see me roaming on the southern peninsula and couldn't believe it that I was travelling all alone.
So the plan was to visit the Padmanabha Swamy temple, which is now the wealthiest temple in India, surpassing Tirupathi...
We visited the temple and kept our belongings at the lockers available and headed to worship the god "Vishnu"..
You are not supposed to wear any shirt and also the trousers , the only material you are supposed to wear is the "dhoti". There were ready made Dhoti's available next to the temple. So we had to buy two before entering into the temple.
After that we marched towards his flat, we went to Kovalam Beach to dine the following night. The place was filled with full of exotic flavors of the restaurants and the foreigners enjoying the beach view.
So we opened up two beer bottles and reopened up all the old stories of the college days and the mischievous things we had done,
The conversation extended almost till the mid night... hehehe!!!
We were the part of the same gang during college days, it was good to see one old friend meeting at a new place and dining and hanging out till the mid night...
So by the time we came to his flat it was already 1 AM, I slept off as I had to go to Allepey, the next day.
The Next day when I woke this was the scenery from his balcony@ Techno Park in Trivandrum:
It was full of Coconut trees all over the place...
The buildings belong to some IT company.
The next day I took the help of my friend on how to reach Allepey As, I was packing my bags, my friend suggested me to come to Trivandrum again after visiting Allepey as there is nothing much to see in Kochi, except the beach and the seaport. Since my return travel was under dubious, ( As the return date was not confirmed in my mind on when to book and from where to book) Initially, I was thinking to book a bus ticket from Kochi to Hyderabad from his place. All of a sudden we search the train tickets and see that there were some tickets available in tatkal from Trivandrum to Hyderabad, The tickets were also available from kochi, but later I thought to drop that place as there was nothing much to see in that city.. My friend described Its a city which is very very classy in compared to its capital.
So, I booked a tatkal from Trivandrum to Hyderabad and immediately jumped out to reach to Allepey As I had only one day in my bucket.
I took a RTC bus to reach Allepey, its 5 hours from Trivandrum and by the time I reached there it was 3 PM.
The food in kerala is really Atrocious(especially the street food and local restaurants), you just can't predict the item of what you are eating. I ordered one eatable chips I was thinking it to be a hot chip, I ultimately ended up knowing it to be sweet banana covered with Chilli flavour.
Yuck!! its horrible.. if you want to try any cuisines , make sure that you visit that authentic places by knowing it predefined.. Otherwise you will end in real hard pain....
So Finally I came to Allepey : The Back Waters...
The Back Waters in India :
In India, Alappuzha is famous for its back waters.. These are nothing but the part of the ocean water which extend into the town making it much more beautiful and site seeing..
You can find house boats which extend up to the ocean amidst leaving you for an entire evening and also the entire night to enjoy the scenic beauties of the coconut trees and the sunset.
You can also find the normal ferry boats which will take you on the entire back waters and charge you on the hourly basis. I booked a ferry for couple of hours and I rate those 2 hours as the best part of my life in travelling...
Just see the natures beauty over here:
That's the Eagle on my hand ( the owner of it was quite surprised to see it coming towards me)
Sunset time in back waters
After few snaps it was already 6 PM and I boarded the bus back to Trivandrum and reached at 11PM , we searched for dinner and luckily found one fast food center..We bought the food to the flat and enjoyed it seeing the highlights of the day's match.
The next day my train was at 7 AM in the morning from Trivandrum central. The train reached the Kochi station at 1 PM, I said good bye to Kochi and decided to visit it some other time....
So my Next trip is to the mighty Himalayas ( along with the Kashmir region) but before that I might write a small blog on Vizag and Araku Valleys trip!!!!
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