South Kerala

 Another F5escapes.com trip lead to South Kerala, that includes Trivandrum and Kanyakumari, for 4 days.

Day1:

Landed Trivandrum Airport and after the group met, we went straight to Anjengo Fort. Its a British Fort established in 1699, known for its colonial architecture, trade history and strategic location between the Sea and Backwaters. Anjengo in Malayalam means 5 coconut trees.  

Then visited the Light house (entry Rs10) which was just next to Anjengo fort. It has 200 steps appx to reach the top. The view of the Sea and Backwaters was amazing. 

We then reached our stay at Elixir resort. The Sea view was beautiful. After lunch we took some rest. Then left for Varkala beach at 5pm. It was too crowded and so left for the Cliff view. From there we walked into small lanes to reach the beach. Due to heavy rush, the beach access was closed for public. Hence, left back to our stay after spending sometime watching the sunset at the beach. Had dinner and called the day off.

Day2:

Morning went to the beach in the resort itself and the waves were really ferocious. Spent sometime and then after breakfast left for Jatayu Earth center. The entry fee for Cable car was Rs 295 (Cash only) and for the cable car it was Rs 315. Its a 4min ride to the top. The statue of the Jatayu is a giant sculptor of an eagle. There's a temple of Rama beside the statue. A museum (in progress) was closed. Came down after clicking pics. Had lunch at Aanandhas on the way to Munroe Island. 

Munroe island had many small small islands. We had our stay in one of the island. A boat took us from the shore to the stay. It was peaceful place surrounding the nature. We rested till 4pm. Had tea and local banana fritters. Some guys were fishing. At 5pm our boat came to take us for a village tour for 1 hour. It was a boat tour only. We dint get down anywhere to see any village by walk. At one spot, water level was good enough for us to get down. Many people clicked pics and left. Our group got into the water and had fun. We reached our stay around 7pm after seeing the sunset. It started raining and we just watched the rains and few fire flies after dinner. 

Day 3:

After local breakfast, puttu and kadala curry, we left for Kanyakumari. It was a 5hours drive. On the way we had lunch at Arya Bhavan. Reached Kanyakumari at 3.30pm and checked in. The last ferry to Vivekananda Rock memorial was at 4pm so had to just run to get into it. The ticket was Rs 100 for normal but we took VIP Rs300 as rush was less. After getting down, we had to again take tickets for Vivekananda Rock memorial Rs 30 per person. Due to festive holidays, the place was so crowded. The meditation centre was good. We went to see Thiruvalluvar statue beside it. From down we cant even see the face of Statue. Felt it was not worth coming here as we can have a good look of the statue from the Shore itself. Then came back and went to the sunset point. Had a great time in the beach watching the sunset. At 8pm we returned to our rooms and had dinner at a nearby Punjabi dabba restaurant. 

Day 4:

The sunrise view was perfect from our room window. There was a siren for sunrise. So many people came to witness it. But it was a cloudy day and just after sunrise, it went into the clouds. We then got ready and went to the temple a 6.30am. There are no tickets for darshan.. but as we know there are people who take us through short cuts for a reasonable amount. We had good darshan of Kanyakumari Goddess and went to see Triveni Sangam. Its the place where Indian ocean, Bay of bengal and Arabian sea merges. After breakfast, we started back to Trivandrum which was 4 hours road trip.

Checked into our hotel Rangamallika which was walking distance from Padmanabaswamy Temple. Went out and had our lunch and strolled around the place. We went for darshan at 5pm. There's a dress code for everyone. In simple words there shouldn't be a divide of clothes between legs. Hence, for Gents its only Dhotis and ladies Sarees, skirts (2 pieces) or dhoti over pants. We took VIP darshan ticket of Rs500 and so had a darshan of the Lord in front line. After coming out, we saw many people were doing Bharatnatyam and so settled to watch the dance. It was really amazing experience to see kids, adults dance. Later came back to our rooms after dinner. This ends our trip itinerary.

Day5:

Some went to have darshan in the early morning around 4am. There was only one line. No special darshan tickets. Not much rush during early mornings 

After breakfast, we left for airport and back to our homes. Trip was little hectic due to the climate being humid too. But at the end, had a good time!