We had a short sleep and woke up at 5 AM and were ready to leave by 6. The sunrise point was hardly 500 mts from our hotel and we reached there by around 6:20 AM. From the point, we could see the silhouettes of Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Thirvalluvar statue at a distance. At the time of sunrise, a sound came and a flag was hoisted at the memorial at 6:40 AM.
After watching the sunrise, he took us to Baywatch wax museum, which is India's first wax museum. The entry ticket was Rs. 50 per head and for camera was Rs. 10. There were wax statues of Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachan, Mohan Lal, Rajnikant, Pope John Paul, Michael Jackson, Jayalalitha, Karunakaran, Manmohan Singh and others. Some were really good, some were awful.
We were back near the sunset point and the guide gathered us all together and told the routes to the tourist places. All were within 300 mts. He let us free to go around the places, have lunch and come back to hotel by 1 PM. All the groups dispersed and we first went to a hotel nearby and had breakfast. First we decided to go to Vivekananda Rock memorial and so came to buy the ferry ticket. But there was a huge queue for the ticket and we had to wait for nearly 45 mins in the line. The ticket costed only Rs. 20 per head for ferry to cover both memorial and statue. Finally when our turn arrived, we were given life guards for safety in the ferry. There were only 3 ferries operating, so the long waiting time. Each ferry could take 80-90 people only.
We disembarked on the Rock Memorial and it too had an entry fee of Rs. 10 per head. The area was so calm and peaceful. First we went to the Sri Pada Mandapam, which has the footsteps of Goddess Parvati in the form of rock. This is situated right opposite the memorial.
In between the Sri Pada Mandapam and memorial, a direction identifier was built.
We then came to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, which was very calm inside. A statue of Swami Vivekananda stood upfront on the rock on which he did meditation for 3 days.
Outside the memorial, we could clearly see the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
We then stood back in the queue for catching a ferry to Thiruvalluvar statue and waited for around 20 mins. On arrival at the statue, we climbed around 3 floors to get to the base of the statue. This statue of the Tamil saint poet is 133 ft long and is one of the biggest statues in Asia. The city of Kanyakumari also could be seen at a distance.
Again we waited for a ferry to bring us back to the shores and finally we were at the mainland by around 11:45 AM. We had to rush to the temple as we were told it would close by 12 PM. On the streets, there were numerous stores of beach items and we ordered a guy to etch names of our homes on 2 shells and that we would collect it after visiting the temple.
The Kumari Amman or the Kanyakumari Temple, located on the shore, is a Shakti Peetha dedicated to a manifestation of Parvati, the virgin goddess who did penance to obtain Lord Shiva's hand in marriage. According to Hindu legend, Kanya Devi, an avatar of Parvati, was to marry Siva, but as he failed to show up on his wedding day, the rice and other grains meant for the wedding feast remained uncooked and remain unused thereafter. As the legend goes, the uncooked grains turned into stones as time went by. Some believe that the small stones which look like rice on the shore today, are indeed grains of the wedding that was never solemnized. Kanya Devi is now considered a virgin goddess who blesses pilgrims and tourists who flock the town. We had a very close Darshan of the Goddess. The doors of the temple is small and one has to bend while entering.
By the side of the temple, a small lane goes which leads to the sunset point and Gandhi Mandapam. We first went to the Gandhi Memorial which has been built on the spot where the urn containing the Mahatma's ashes was kept for public viewing before immersion. Resembling central Indian Hindu temples in form, the memorial was designed in such a way that on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, the first rays of the sun fall on the exact place where his ashes were kept.
We then took a stroll at the back where there was the Triveni Sangama, which is the confluence of Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. This the southernmost tip of Indian continent.
There is also a temple of Adi Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetha on its shores.
We didn't have time to go to the Tsunami Park, so hurried towards the shop where we placed orders for shells, bought some small shells for playing, and went to the same hotel we had been for lunch. After having lunch, we walked up in the scorching sun to the hotel and by that time it was already 1:30 PM. The driver told that everyone were waiting only for us! We didn't care as we also had waited for everyone the day before.
We hurriedly packed our stuffs and left back for Madurai at 2 PM. On the way, just as we left Kanyakumari, we saw the western ghats and a farm of windmills.
We reached Madurai at around 6:30 PM and waited for long to collect our return tickets to Bangalore at some office in private bus stand. Having waited for more than 1.5 hours, we finally got our boarding pass in a semi-sleeper bus. By this time, our group had been split and some got seats for 8:15 PM bus and others got in 9:30 one. We opted for 9:30 PM as we wanted to have dinner before leaving. At a nearby restaurant, we had our food and finally took off to Bangalore at around 9:45 PM. We both had a good sleep in the bus, thanks to all the strain over the last 3 days!
We finally reached Bangalore at 6:45 AM and came home by bus. Upon shifting things from our luggage to wardrobe, we found that my camera had been stolen somewhere :( We thing mostly somebody has taken it from our lodge at Madurai when we were not in our room, as everywhere else we had locked our baggages. We contacted STC Tourism guys and the lodge guys, but in vain. Fully disappointed at the end!
Overall, this trip was stressful and OK, but main thing is that we covered all the places. Hadn't the camera not be stolen, it would have been a good trip.
A word of caution to whoever plan to go by package thru STC Tourism - DON'T TRAVEL BY STC TOURISM. Although they charge cheaply, the facilities, timings and everything is hopeless. Better to opt for other tourists.
I'm researching on my new camera...
No comments:
Post a Comment