Thiruvananthapuram is the capital of Keral and the largest city of Keral. I visited Thiruvanthpuram while attending a conference at VSSC, ISRO on 17 Dec 2015 . During this visit, I also traveled to Kanyakumari.
Journey to Keral:
I traveled by Keral S Kranti from New Delhi railway station to Mangaluru on 11 Dec and attended FMFP 2015 at NIT Surathkal from 14 Dec-16 Dec 2015. Then I traveled to Trivandrum by NZM TVC SF Express. The train departed Mangaluru at 5: 40 pm and arrived at Thiruvanantpuram at 5: 30 am on next day. My accomodation was allotted at ISRO guest house at Veli. Exploring Thiruvananthapuram:
Thiruvananthpuram has many tourist destination. Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple is the most prominent destination of Thiruvananthapuram. The temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. the temple is very big and an architectural marvelous. We visited the temple along with my colleagues. No electronics items are allowed inside the temple. Only Hindus are permitted to enter the temple. Also strict dress code is followed to enter temple. There was a huge queue in front of the temple. We moved along with the people standing in the queue. After security check, we enter the temple. We passed through the long corridor to reach the main sanctum where Lord Vishnu is enshrined. After spending approximately 1 hour, we exited the temple and moved to Kuthiramalika (Puthenmalika) Palace Museum which is located near the Padmnabhaswamy temple. The palace is made of wood with Keral architecture. The palace museum displays paintings and various priceless collections of the royal family. There was a elephant in the museum premises. After visiting the Museum, we returned to the guest house. Veli lake:
I had my presentation on the second day in the morning session. In the afternoon, we visited the Veli lake located nearer to the guest house. We reached the lake by walking. There is a park in the Veli lake. It is required to puchase a ticket to visit the park. We spend few hours in the park. The sea beach is nearer the lake. We had fun at the sea beach. The beach is very beautiful. Kovalam:
On the last day of the conference, we planed for Kovalam and Kanyakumari. We hired a cab and traveled to Kovalam at 8 am in the morning. From the Kovalam we again hired a boat which sailed through a narrow river. The boat journey was exciting. finally, the boat dropped us a Golden beach. The Golden beach was very beautiful and very crowded with tourist. It is very dangerous to go to the sea as the tide is very high and the slope is steep. Kanyakumari:
From the Golden beach, we moved to our next destination, Kanyakumari. It is located at a distance of 90 km from Thiruvanantpuram and situated in Tamilnadu state. It is very popular due to Vivekanand Rock and Devi Kanyakumari. It was already 4 pm. Due to rain, the boat travel to the Vivekananda rock was halted. We spend time near the beach and spend time near the Devi Kanyakumari temple. Kanyakumari Temple is one of the 51 Shakti_Peetha. Kanyakumari is the last point of main land India where Bay of Bengal, Arabian sea and Indian Ocean meets. Hence, it is called as Triveni (confluence of three seas). It is considered as sacred for Hindus. The rocks at the sea beach and the low tide flowing over the rock makes the atmosphere more beautiful. There are many shops of food, dry fruits, souvenir made of snails etc. After spending 2 hours at this place, we returned to ISRO guest house at Thiruvanantpuram. The journey to thiruvanantpuram and kanyakumari was memorable. The stay at the ISRO guest house and visit to the Space center was amazing.
|
17 Dec 2015
About me
Tapan Kumar Pradhan Post Doc Researcher, IIT Kharagpur PhD, IIT Kanpur http://tapankp.weebly.com Distance:
Delhi - Khajuraho = 650 km. Kanpur - Khajuraho = 220 km. |