South Indian Trip

                

      Planning a trip is not an easy task. At the same time executing the plan is equally tough. We plan so much beforehand, but most of the times we fail to execute it. Same thing happened with me when we planned a trip to south India. Let’s see how we succeeded with a failed plan.

                                Three of my friends Sameer, Sainadh, Rajshekar and myself planned a tour to South India. Sameer and myself had gone to Bangalore on 31^st of October. Four of us boarded the bus to Wayanad at 8:15 PM.

1^st November

                We reached wayanad early in the morning at 5:30. We had a tough time finding a room. Finally we came across a gentle man who helped us in getting a dormitory room. He also arranged a cab to roam in wayanad. We quickly freshened and started to Eddakal caves. We expected a lot but when we finally reached there, we were disappointed. There was nothing special about the caves. I personally felt that Borra caves in Araku are better than that. Next, we went to waterfalls which were quite far from the caves. To reach the waterfalls we had to trek the hill all along by walk. When we reached there, we were almost tired for the day but the beauty of the waterfall rejuvenated us. It was an awesome sight of water falling from that great height and with so much force. No one can withstand the force of the water if they stand directly underneath the falls. After enjoying the scene and bathing in that cold water, we started back. Unfortunately it was raining all the way back and we were drenched completely because of the heavy downpour. We were supposed to visit Pookot Lake on the way but because of the rain and our tiresome bodies, we ruled out the idea. We directly went to Cochin in the same car.  We had communication problem with the driver all the way. He didn’t even know where the bus station and railway station is. He took us all over Cochin and finally with the guidance of local people we reached the railway station. We got in to almost a running train. In the train we found out that our plan for the next day was washed out because of heavy rains in that area. As an alternative we decided to visit Guruvayor temple near Trissur. So, that night we stayed in a dormitory in palaghat.

2nd November

We got up early in the morning and started to Trissur by train. From there we went to Guruvayor temple in a bus. The custom of the temple imposes that we have to wear only dhoti and a cloth covering the upper body. We thought we can finish the darshan in one hour. But it turned out that it took almost four hours for darshan. We started back to Trissur in the bus and got in to a train to Allepy from Trissur. We reached alleppy late in the evening. We had a plan to go to beach that evening but unfortunately we couldn’t go because of the dark night. We booked a boat for the next day for backwaters ride in Alleppy.

3^rd November

We started to the place where the boats were stationed. From there we took a boat ride in the nearby villages of Alleppy for almost 6 hours. We thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of the place around us. Around 3 in the afternoon we reached back Alleppy. From there we went to Varkala beach which took almost 2 hours to reach. By the time we reached it was already dark. So we couldn’t see much of the beach. In Varkala, we can find so many foreigners and couples roaming. Almost each and every shop sells beer and fish.

4^th November

We went to beach early in the morning. We enjoyed beach by playing in the water. Beaches were not new to me since I was brought up in the coastal region. But for my friends it was a rare sight. We started to Thiruvananthapuram in the afternoon in a bus. One of my friends (Sainadh) had a friend in Thiruvananthapuram. So we went to his room and from thereon he only took us to the temple “ Anantha Padmanabha Swami”. It was a beautiful temple and it was very well maintained. After the darshan we started to Kanyakumari in train. We reached Kanyakumari late in the night.

5^th November

We reached the beach early in the morning to view the sun rise.  Unfortunately, because of the clouds, we couldn’t see the sun rise properly. After the sun rise we came back to the room and refreshed and stared towards the beach again to see Vivekananda rock memorial. We have to go in a boat to reach the rock. We thought it will be very easy. But we found out that there was a line to enter the boat which was almost 1km long. We somehow managed to poke in the line. Even then it took us almost 2 hours to just board a boat. The Vivekananda memorial was beautifully constructed in the midst of the sea.  We quickly came back to room and started towards the railway station to board a train to Madurai. Unfortunately, we missed the train and we have to reach Madurai only by bus. We reached Madurai in the night and had a darshan of Goddess. We stayed in Madurai for that night.

6^th November

We had gone to temple once again in the morning to see the architecture of the temple. We saw thousand pillar hall in the temple. After the darshan, we started to bus station to catch a bus to Rameshwaram. We reached Rameshwaram at around 12 in the noon. There was a bridge by name Pamban which comes just before Rameshwaram. It was constructed on sea. The water was very shallow that we can actually see the bottom of the sea. In Rameshwaram, we took an auto and saw all the places around it. We entered the Rameshwaram temple in the evening. There was a custom in the temple that pilgrims have to take bath in 22 wells which were located around the temple. Though it was not compulsory, we took bath in all the 22 wells. After that we had darshan of Shiva. Immediately after the darshan we started back to railway station. 

7^th November

We reached Chennai in the morning and one of our friends T N Prashant came to railway station to receive us. From there we went to one of our classmates’ room. From there Sainadh and Sameer started to Bangalore and Vishakhapatnam respectively. Myself and Rajshekar started to Puttaparthi that night in a bus.

 That’s how our successful tour ended.