Kanyakumari Sightseeing

Kanya- Kumari Sightseeing

This tip of India is worth visiting for its own historical reasons. After visiting this place, you can proudly say, ‘I visited tip of the country. ’ We checked in Hotel Sparsa, a hotel which has beautiful landscaping.

1. Swami Vivekanda Rock Memorial

This is must visit place if you are the tip of the country. A boat ride worth Rs 30 per person takes you to this rock memorial in the midst of the ocean. A place where Swami Vivekanda did his meditation is now an attractive tourist spot. Sri Lanka is just 2 hours away from this place via water ways. If you have good eyesight, you can surely see three oceans joining (Indian ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian sea)- Triveni Sangam. Look at the color difference.

2. Temple

Also, there is a temple to visit near the beach. A simple religious temple built centuries ago depicts the art and sculpture of the country.

3. Beach

Last but not the least, the beach is one of the tourist spot where you can see amazing sunrise. Do not miss the sunrise here. Otherwise, the beach is not that clean that you would like to sit and enjoy the nature. But yes, if you are a fan of first copy sunglasses, this is the place you will get one. Do bargain a lot. Also, a female shopper needs to be aware because at times plastic ball necklaces are sold by saying they are real pearls.

Hotel Sparsa - Kanyakumari

Hotel Sparsa - Kanyakumari

As we entered this hotel they welcomed us in a traditional way. The staff made us wore a beautiful neckpiece made of sea shells. She also did a traditional Tilak to us. It was a royal treatment. Featuring the marvellous landscape this hotel stands out as one of the best hotels in Kanyakumari at a reasonable rate. The service was good. The rooms were well decorated with the modern furniture. The restaurant had a limited choice of vegetarian food, but the food served was nice. We had breakfast included in our package; however, as our schedule was changed at the last moment and we had to leave the hotel at around 4:00 AM, they arranged for breakfast for us. It was appreciable.

Kovalam Sight Seeing

Kovalam Sightseeing

This is a city where you can relax yourselves at the beach in the evenings and also enjoy the culture of Kerala during the day time. Also do note the climate here in the afternoon is not very pleasant. It is hot during the day time.

1. Padmanaswami Temple

Our first tourist spot was Padmanaswami Temple. Recently, this temple was in news as tons of Gold was found here, so we were excited to visit this temple.

In this temple, the men are not allowed to wear pants and their shirts, they have to wear Lungi’s and remove their shirts. Even females need to cover themselves in a sari like cloth. Temple trust provides such things at minimal rent. Please do not take your mobile phones, glares, cameras etc while visiting this temple. You can drop such things with your driver. Temple trust people charge you separately depositing such things for example: camera Rs25, sunglasses Rs 10 etc so finally your bill will be too high.

Once you enter this temple, you will get the feeling as if you are at the set of some historic Hindi Movies. Soon you will recollect movies like Jodha Akbar. I must admit here that temples in South India are made in an amazing way. They are so big that you cannot see the person standing at the other end. I have noticed that South Indian temples always have four doors according to the direction and they also name them in the same manner. We did offer some Pooja at the temple and enjoyed the sculptures there. The temple is worth visiting.

2. Science Centre

After the temple we visited a Science Centre. Here we saw few basics of Physics, Biology. It was a very big centre and we did not have time to visit that completely. However, it was something similar to Nehru Planetarium in Mumbai. Here we also saw a 15 min movie in a 4D theater. It was fun. In 4D your seats start moving; you feel the water splash and also the bubbles. People going with kids to Kovalam must visit here. It is not very expensive also.

3. Poovar Island

To visit this beautiful island one needs to go via boat. The charges are approximately Rs 700- 800 per couple. There are various places from where one can start this boat ride; however, they offer similar rates. They will try their best to convince you to take a 2 hour boat ride, but one hour ride is enough. We took a one hour ride and it took us from the midst of the mangroves to an island. Here you can see the famous Poovar Island Resort and take some snaps in the soft sands of the island. Also do not forget to enjoy the scenic and most important thing out here; the meeting of ocean and lake. Yes there is a visible color difference and you can actually see the waters merging. 

4. Fishermen’s Routine  

Now this is no special tourist spot but we did see this activity right from our hotel. So if your hotel is at the beach side or you visit the beach early in the morning you might get a chance to check out the routine of fishermen. One gets to see how the fishes and other aquatic animals are auctioned.

Hotel Uday Samudra

Hotel Uday Samudra - Kumarkom

This hotel has more than 200 rooms. It has three swimming pools and a private beach. The unique thing in this hotel was that it is constructed in a way that all the rooms have a sea-facing balcony. We enjoyed a beautiful Sunset from our room. Here we had ordered a cake, it was in Orange color but it was just melting in the mouth. The huge restaurant served us delicious hot breakfast.

Allepeey - Sightseeing

Alleppy Sightseeing

This water city is just two hours away from Kumarkom. This city gives you a chance to stay on waters for one night. It also gives you an option of selecting a houseboat having 1 room to 5 rooms (deluxe to super deluxe rooms).

1. Houseboat Stay

Once you check in your houseboat the journey to this beautiful city begins. In the beginning of the journey we will meet many other tourists who have also just begun the journey. Along with them you will encounter various types of houseboats, ranging from houseboats with balcony, decorated and many more. You will have around 100 houseboats sailing near you. And just like a traffic jam on road, you might experience a traffic jam of houseboats on certain routes.

As the houseboat moves, you reach the interiors of these amazing backwaters and you are away from the busy city LAND life. Here you will see a small village which lives on waters. No land and land vehicles exists for them. They just had their huts or houses on the banks of the backwaters. Their entire transportation is waterways.

En-route this ride, along with the beautiful view, one will also see the routine life of the villagers whose life is hooked to these waters. At one side you will find housewives getting their daily groceries on a small canoe, one side you will find students waiting at the bank to catch their School Ships to reach home from school. You will also see Public Ship stops and Public ships carrying local people from one part to another. You will surely encounter different types of canoe used by the locals. They do not believe in any Merc, Honda, their status is defined by the type and size of the canoe used.

If you are in a houseboat, it will stop at one of the corners for Lunch. You will get dal, chappati and an authentic South Indian Vegetable. The motorman and his helper prepares the food for you. The ride again starts after the lunch and now to the other side of the village. Along with the local life of the people, you will also encounter various types of birds. You can also get a chance to see birds picking up their prey (fish) from water. Also, a view of Sunset will be worth remembering. For all of this you need to sit in the main room and strain your eyes to locate something new every moment.

I would say that if given an option kindly do not stay in the houseboat. Though it has an amazing experience, the rooms of the houseboats are generally small and in the night it halts at one place. When the houseboat halts, it gets occupied with all mosquitoes and insects. I suggest you can stay in a hotel in Alleppy and take a full day ride of the boat available there. These boats are comfortable. They have proper chairs on them to sit. Again there are few varieties here.  

I must say this place is really the,'Venice of India'

Kumarkom Sightseeing

Kumarkom Sightseeing

This is place surrounded by Palm trees and has amazing backwaters. We checked in at Lakesong Resort in Kumarkom. We were welcomed by chilled Coconut Water, one of the famous drinks of South India.

1. Sunset Cruise Ride

Now this was a complimentary to us by the hotel, but I am sure you can book it from somewhere else too. This one hour cruise ride takes you through the backwaters where you can enjoy a beautiful stretch of palm trees. If you are lucky enough, one can also spot few species of the water birds and their routine activities which included hunting for prey, a rare sight. One of the memorable sights for us was a Kingfisher picking up fish from water. Do not forget to take your cameras here; you surely don’t want to miss capturing the beauty here.

2. Kumarkom Bird Sanctuary

We did not visit this place, as we did not want to get up early in the morning. However, this is a place where nature lovers will enjoy the most. If you are lucky, you will get to see various kinds of bird species here. Do capture these species in your cameras; you might not see them again. Also, remember to be careful while you are in this sanctuary. No litter, no noise as there are lots of birds here. Also, for the best view of this place try to reach as early as 5:00 AM.

Tusker Trail Resort Club Mahindra, Thekkady

Tusker Trail Resort - Thekkady

When we reached this resort, there was a record breaking rainfall which lasted for more than 24 hours. As we entered the resort, we were welcomed with a cool refreshing welcome drink. The staff was co-operative. Mr John the head manager gave us the choice of rooms. He showed us two different types of rooms and asked us to select one of them.  We liked it. The rooms were like Machaan. The roads towards the rooms were too confusing, one actually feels that one is in a Jungle and hence the name was Tusker Trail. Even the room number plates were made of animal´s face. There were big rooms with a nice sit out place to sip a cup of coffee. It is a recommended resort.