Kanyakumari – Munnar

Bangalore to Kanyakumari: We started our journey towards Kanyakumari on 26th Dec 09 at 5AM. Surendra came to my house and from there we left to pick Shashidhar. After picking Shashidhar at Koramangala, we then picked Nandish who had just finished his night shift work at Electronic city. We filled the diesel tank of our car in Hosur and proceeded towards Salem which is 210 Kms from Bangalore. Nandish and Surendra had got song DVD’s to hear them in my car and unfortunately the music player does not support DVD’s. We had horrible time inside the car listening to one CD most of the time. The roads were pretty good and we sometimes felt that toll rates were quite high. We reached Salem at around 8.30 AM and we had good tasteful breakfast in Salem. I don’t remember the hotel name; the hotel is situated close to some circular junction. We then proceeded towards Madurai. Most of the driving was done by Surendra with occasional support from Nandish. Surendra is a lot better driver than Nandish and I was always afraid whenever Nandish drove; mainly because what happened in Salem; He almost hit a person walking on the road. We reached Madurai at around 11 AM which is around 440 Kms from Bangalore. Madurai was crowded; with traffic jam greeting us and we reached Meenakashi temple after asking for directions inside the city. We somehow with difficulty parked our vehicle and visited the temple complex. The huge exterior of the temple was impressive with all its colors and we walked along the temple complex as Temple was closed when we visited. We also saw some great sculptures in one of surrounding temples and we were quite disappointed when we saw shops set up there and were poorly maintained. We came out of temple complex and we were very thirsty. We went inside a hotel and hotelier suggested to have Madurai special candy/Juice (Mixture of flavored milk, ice-cream); It was pretty delicious. We made some purchases in Madurai and moved towards Kanyakumari at around 1PM. Kanyakumari is around 250 Kms from Madurai and we have to go through Tirunelveli. From Tirunelveli there is some direct road to Kanyakumari; we missed it, instead we took Nagercoil road. From Nagercoil, Kanyakumari is 22 Kms away and there are two small bridges on the way; where only one 4 wheeler can go and can trigger a traffic jam. We reached Kanyakumari at around 5.30 PM

Kanyakumari: We were for a bit disappointed as weather was cloudy at Kanyakumari and we had missed the great sunset because of gloomy weather. We walked towards Kanyakumari temple after parking our car. Kanyakumari was filled with lot of people; most of them were Sabrimala pilgrims and in few places there was very little space even to walk. We could see Vivekananada Rock and Thiruvallur statue from a distance and as we proceeded towards the temple, the crowd became larger. I visited a small temple of Swami Vivekananda and felt great having paid my respects to my guru. As it got darker we stood near the temple compound facing the Vivekananda rock and we sipped tea amidst the cold breeze coming from the shore. We visited the temple; had dinner and then we went in search of accommodation. We could not get any lodge in Kanyakumari and one ac room which was available was expensive Rs 3000. We then left to Nagercoil in our hunt for a lodge; due to one way small bridge near Nagercoil there was a traffic jam of more than 1 km. We did not get any hotel for stay in Nagercoil also; then we came back to Kanyakumari and slept in our car at around 11 PM. We did get half sleep, waking up numerous times during the night. I got up around 4.30 AM and went for a walk in search of public toilet. We got fresh using facilities available in railway station and it was a smart idea suggested by Shashidhar. We were hoping for a better sunrise and again yet another disappointment because of cloudy weather. We had bad breakfast in a hotel and went in search of boating facility to Vivekananda rock. There was a huge queue for boating at 7 Am itself and my friends were reluctant to stand in the queue. I had always wished to visit Vivekananda rock and I was upset because of my friends’ reluctance to visit the rock. My wish to pay my tributes to swami Vivekananda at the rock remains unfulfilled. Perhaps there were more than 1 Lakh people in Kanyakumari; facilities available for such a large crowd were pathetic. Kanyakumari being a plastic free zone; one could see lot of garbage everywhere, there were very few dustbins and public toilet available was just not enough. The sacred place Kanyakumari had become a place with lot of dirt. At around 8 AM we left Kanyakumari and our next stop was at Suchindram temple close to Nagercoil around 13 Kms from Kanyakumari. Suchindram temple is a vast temple dedicated to the Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. We were really impressed with the architecture and where glad to see the musical pillars. We heard the music by placing our ears to a pillar and tapping various pillars by our hands.

Kanyakumari to Munnar: We had a map of South India and the route we decided to Munnar was via Thiruvananthapuram – Kottayam. There were few sign boards and we always found it difficult to find the exact routes. Even small towns looked well developed; also one could find lot of jewelry shopping complexes and photo cut outs of Mohanlal and Mammootty all along the way. Major hurdle we faced was the pronunciation of place names and we would ask for directions and sometimes people just did not understand what we were trying to ask for. We had great lunch in a hotel and I particularly liked fish fry. We filled our diesel tank just after Kottayam; we met some who had come to fill petrol and had settled in Bangalore; they gave us correct directions to Munnar. The directions they gave was Manarcad-Kidangnoor-Pala-Thodapuzha-Kothamangalam-Adimali-Munnar. The information they gave was very helpful and we came to know the exact route we have to follow. We had light snacks at Pala at around 5 PM and again proceeded. It started to rain heavily and I cannot describe how well Surendra drove the car with very less visibility. We reached Adimali at around 9.30 PM and rested for the day in a hotel; Munnar was around 25Kms from that place.

Munnar: We were ready to leave to Munnar by 7 Am on 28-Dec-09 Monday. We could see beautiful landscape with clouds below us and a wonderful waterfall on the way. The morning journey was pleasant and we reached Munnar at 8AM. We had quick breakfast and left to Eravikulam National park. We had to wait in the queue for about 2 Hrs to buy entry tickets and for Notional park buses to take us to top of the hill. As the bus made progress towards the hill we could see stunning surroundings. The bus stops near the entrance and we need to walk further one Km to reach a view spot. As we walked we saw few Nilgiri tahr’s which are endangered species and I got the feeling that they are familiar to humans as they seem undisturbed by the presence of crowd. The national park was very well maintained with virtually no garbage. We also saw lot of foreigners and we thought that they have better knowledge than us about the places they are visiting. We came back to the entrance of the national park at around 12 PM and ate tasty pineapple. From there we decided to take the route Chinnar Sanctuary - Annamalai Wildlife Sanctuary - Udumalaipettai - Pallamdam - Tiruppur - Avinashi - Dharmapuri – Krishnagiri to Bangalore.

Munnar to Bangalore: We moved towards Chinnar wildlife sanctuary along beautiful landscape of tea gardens. After driving for few Kms and the entire region was covered with clouds and we were now moving with misty clouds with very less visibility. That was one of finest moments and we enjoyed being in the midst of such surroundings. We stopped at one of the water falls close to Chinnar sanctuary and from there went through Chinnar and Annamalai national park checkpost by giving our details. Kerala side check post personnel did not ask for any money and but to cross Tamilnadu forest checkpost the person asked 10 Rs bribe at two check points. From there we asked for directions to places based on our route map and reached Tiruppur at around 5 PM. we had some snacks at ananda bhavan and started our journey towards Bangalore and once again a nice gentleman gave us correct route to Bangalore. After an eventful journey we were back to Bangalore at 10.30 PM

Which was the better place we visited in this trip? Well each place was unique in its own way and I liked all the places we passed through and I feel this world of ours is Diverse and Perfect.