DAYS 80 TO 82 – TRIVANDRUM
Day 80 – Tuesday, 14th Jan 2014 to Day 82 – Thursday, 16th Jan 2014
It’s 1 pm, Tuesday afternoon, Khyati and I drag our luggage outside Trivandrum Central station and the hotel gate is right across the main entrance of the railway station. So close, woohoo! We had booked Kerala State Tourism Hotel – Hotel Chaithram. It’s a budget hotel, thumbs up for the location, Service and Room wise – Average.
It’s 3 pm and post lunch at a local restaurant, we walk towards the East Fort area. East Fort is a popular joint and houses the famous Padmanabha Swamy temple. From the locals, we heard that today was a special day at the temple. They were celebrating an occasion celebrated once in every 6 years and 1,00,000 Diyas will be lighted in the temple complex. Wow! we did not want to miss this moment. This was scheduled in the evening from 6 pm onwards. In the meantime, we decide to head to Kovalam Beach. Kovalam Beach is a popular beach for tourists and locals and is 12 kms South of Trivandrum. We hop on an AC bus, very comfortable and smooth ride, it takes us 20 minutes to get there. Once there, we walk the entire stretch of Kovalam Beach and enjoy sweet coconut water. There is a small stretch on the West side of the beach occupied by Leela Group of Hotels (premium hotel chain in India). Posing as people intending to visit the restaurant, we enter the sprawling complex. The Leela Hotel is on a small hill overlooking the Arabian Sea.
at The Leela, Kovalam
We enjoy gorgeous views of the sunset and head back to East Fort area by 6:30 pm. There are thousands of people near the temple and entry is restricted. We find out that for today, the temple has issued 22,000 passes and entry will be only for those pass holders. We slowly walk through the humongous crowd and get a good glimpse of the temple entrance door. This was glittering in gold, marvelous!
Padmanabha Swamy temple
If you are in Kerala, do try the Jackfruit chips – they are good, one of my favorite snacks.
We head back to the hotel by 9 pm and make an itinerary for our next day’s travel.
It’s 10 am Wednesday morning, Khyati and I are back at East Fort area to catch a bus to Poovar. Poovar is a scenic beach town on the border of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It’s 35 kms South of Trivandrum and we take a state bus there. Unfortunately, no AC buses but we weren’t complaining as long as we got seats. The journey goes through many small towns and takes around 1 1/2 hours.
Poovar is famous for the Golden Sand beaches and the best part is the connection between the sea and the backwaters. Only a small strip of sand beach separates the two.
Poovar Beach
We chose to walk on the beach but most people prefer taking a boat ride from the Kerala backwaters. The boat ride can be rented for an hour or more and usually costs Rs 700/hr. We spend the entire afternoon enjoying a beach walk, a walk through the lush green mangrove tree forest and backwaters.
taking a stroll through the backwaters
It’s 5 pm and we head back in the bus to Trivandrum and our hotel.
For Thursday, we planned local city sight seeing. Not far from our hotel is the Natural History museum and Zoo. Trivandrum Zoo is the first zoo that opened in India in 1914 and houses many species of birds and animals. We spend the entire morning at the zoo.
deers resting
Us!
Post lunch, we visit the Museum of Natural History and enjoy the surroundings. We head back to the hotel by 3 pm and wait in the lobby area for our train – Intercity Express to Alleppey which leaves at 5:30 pm.
Kerala is called ‘God’s own country’ and so far, we have been very impressed with what we have seen. We are exploring two other cities in Kerala the next few days – Alleppey and Kochi. We are quite enthused.
Please drop your comments for this one and stay tuned for future posts,
Best wishes,
Paras