Trip to Trivandrum Kadalateeram Kanyakumari

I had taken Artha Health option's travel tickets last year, which gives you two holiday stay free. You have to choose one among the destinations they are having. Timmi and I decided to goto Kadalteeram beach resort which is near Trivandrum. Idea was to make an extended to holiday and visit Trivandrum and Kanyakumari as well. Plan was made sometime in Jan 07 and booked with Artha also. One of my ex-colleague, Madhavi stays in Trivandrum.. She helped me in planning my trip. Thanks to her.

Plan was:

1. Reach Trivandrum, visiti Padmanabha Swami temple, Ravi Varma Art galley and some more places inside the city and head to Kadaltheeram beach resort by evening which is around 70 KM north from Trivandrum, rest for the day

2. Next day Saturday enjoy the resort, beach

3. Check out early on Sunday and head towards Kanyakumari which is around 70 KMs south from Trivandrum, and visit some of the places on the way like: Padmanabha puram palace, Sucheendram etc reach Kanyakumaru by afternoon, have lunch, visit temple in the evening, sunset, rest for the day

4. Next day get up visit more places: Thirparappu Water falls and head towards Nagercoil to catch bus back to Bangalore at night.

It went almost as it was as planned.. Feb 9th, Friday early morning 6:30, we had the fligh to Trivandrum. Deccan Airlines, it started and reached as planned. We reached there by 8:30AM. temple. Madhavi had told best way of commutance within city is by Auto, but we need to negotiate as they do not use meters unlike Bangalore. He initially asked Rs. 80 to Padmanabha Swami Temple which was not even 4 KM from Airport. As per strict instructions by Madhavi we negotiated for Rs. 40. Peculiar thing about this temple is, everyone has to wear Dhotis or Sarees. Even some women wore dhotis :-). This temple is vert huge and we spent around an hour there and looked for a restaurant for breakfast. Had some dosa and watery coffee we started towards another Devi temple called Attukal Devi temple which was not too far from there. Again commuted by Auto for Rs. 20. Being Friday, it was very crowded there.

From there we headed towards Zoo. We did not know Zoo and Ravi Verma Art gallery (Actual Name is Sri Chitra Art Gallery) are in the same compound. We reached Zoo at around 11 AM and found a place to keep our luggage. Then we went to Art gallery. By looking at Amazing paintings of Raja Ravi Verma, we felt as if we visited some other world. Finishing Art gallery, we went to Zoo. Zoo is not that great compared to our Mysore Zoo. Crocodile were really attractive. But there was an explicit reptile park which was an attraction. Just beside Zoo complex, a Palace was there. We visited that too. It was around 12:30. Had some refreshments and started towards Verkala.

We never knew reaching verkala was so tough. The final destination was Kadaltheeram resort in Edava. Edava is a small Village in Verkala. In the bus station we understood that, direct bus to Verkala is not available from Trivandrum. We should reach a place called Attingal and from there we need to catch another bus to Verkala. Oh my God, we had already tired. We took a bus to Attingal but could not get a seat. After say 30 min we got seats. Reached Attingal and boarded another bus to Verkala and from there reached Edava and our final destination. From Verkala bus station to Resort its not more than 4 KM, but he took Rs. 100. Uff.. we were so tired and it was already 4 PM. Once we reached resort, we got know the best way to rech Verkala is through Train. Anyway it was too lare :)

--- To be Continued