A short enjoyable trip to Kerala and Tamil Nadu..

avi's been busy with his work lately and me and veda were also bored of the routine.So we decided to go on a vacation ,not very hectic and a place where we can get veda her food.So we planned a Tamil nadu-Kerela trip..we went to coimbatore,took a taxi and went to Malampuzha dam in Palakkad or palghat.the dam was closed so we didnt had much to look for.

We went to Gurvayur-the abode of Vishnu..it took us 2 1/2 hour for us to reach there.in the way we have passed Thrissur, which is called as the cultural capital, had lunch there and moved on. A occasional sight was a lorry full of animals. Later the driver told us that they are going to be slaughtered as beef consumption is pretty high in Kerala. it wa s kerela style designed temple the traditional hut style..the temple was not as rushed up as we thought but it still took us 2hours for darshan..lot of waiting time..but the lamps lit in the temple just put u in another world.each side of the wall of the temple has nearly 700 lamps..well they didnt lit up all the lamps of the temple till we were gone..but we saw at least 1500 lamps beaming on our face that night whch was wonderful..the gents are allowed for darshan only in their dhotis and women in their saris..that thing we knew but one thing we didnt know was children under the age of 5 were not allowed into the main temple as they do not have toilet training..it was a bit shocking and sad as our darling could not see the deity but then we had to abide by the rules..so we took the darshan in turns.














we were over with the day...next day we went coimbatore local sight seeing..we went to isha yoga ashram founded by sadguru jaggi vasudev.it was very serene and beautiful in the middle of large teak woods..th most amazing thing there was the dhyana linga ,a wide circular room with a huge shiv ling .the whole room was cut in perfect sphere thus enhancing the power of the shiv ling..its really appeasing to your eyes..there was a canteen in there .we had some snacks and pushed off to Perur temple, kovai kuttralam falls.it was not all water but we enjoyed the falls with some local tastes of masala raw mango and pineapples..we went to the famous Mardhamalai temple(Subramanya Swamy) in coimbatore.





After a night jouney from Coimbatore to Trivandrum, we boarded an AMBASSADOR to Kanyakumari. Not seen an ambassador for a long time and it is not used for taxis in Bangalore,Hyderabad or Mumbai. Every city has its own differences. An old person negotiated the rate and after that assigned to our driver.The distance is less than 90 kms but took us more than 2.5 hours because of the small towns and their traffic all across the way. Lot of banana fields is a common sight. Did not know when we have crossed Kerala and come to TN. Many buses had KSRTC board on them. At a first thought got confused with Karnataka Road Transport, but later realised that Kerala Road Transport is also KSRTC.




Sunset and sunrise is the main attraction in Kanyakumari. Kanyakumari is also in the southern most tip of the country.Also merger of 3 seas, and all the hotels are marketed using the same theme. It is very funny to see the merger of the 3 seas because it appears it is just the names we have given but no difference in the waters. Only tiffins are available in the night times in most hotels. What if we miss the sunrise is one common fears. The wake phone up is usually given by hotel management to allieviate this fear. Also a siren rings just 3 minutes before sunrise for the entire town to listen. However if it is a cloudy day, then nothing can help. We had a good view of sunrise and sunset from the sea. The moon rise on a full moon day is also a good sight as the sea that can be seen beautifully from the moon rays. A nearby temple, suchindran temple is a very distinct temple. A statue with 3 heads one of brahma,vishnu and shiva each. Wenever heard of it earlier. Also a laughing subramaniay swamy. A very old and big temple. On the way back, we had booked Jesus taxi. Kerala is truly a land of hundreds of churches. There is one in almost every street and some of them are built very differently and looked great.





Padmanabhapuram palace is a very old and huge house that is currently in TN and being maintained by Kerala government. It will surely take one away back by more than 200 years.
A scenic bridge and waterfalls on the way were also very good.





Trivandrun also has backwaters and it has been developed since 6-7 years. Usually when we hear backwaters we are reminded on Aleppey but it was surprising to know . We had a great time in the boat navigating through, lake, river and then sea. A beautiful view of thousands of coconut plantations across the border and the sea on the other side, is a sight that will be stored photographically into our memories. Later we had a visit to Kovalam beach. Filled with people, few things noticed were the restrooms were called chainGING rooms and the toilets had a note which read, Keep silence. Sayana Vishnu was the last temple residing in the Trivandrum city is one of the last places we had seen that day. Very old and beautiful temple it was. Finally night stay at Bed n Breakfast hotel beside Trivandrum airport and back to Bangalore next morning ended the memorable trip.

The clear pictures are uploaded to picasa and available here
https://picasaweb.google.com/avirads/Kerala#

Places been to on map
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=213318603995860173038.00049aff9ba5a790f3866