[laluks]

It's been a while since I traveled with my family. Changing priorities, growing children, its hard to find even a slot to travel together much in advance. Gone are the days when we used to travel for any given excuse at the drop of a hat. May be it gets even tougher as life progresses.

Coming to think about it, we have never really bothered to visit the places in our home town and our ancestral towns. It was always there and never felt the need to check them out! I shared my views on the same with my wife, she too was in agreement. So why not just go back home, visit our people, check out the places we missed during our near two decades of stay there? Sounded quite interesting. It helped that our places were nearby.

We were in full josh that we could show our ancestral towns to our PPGs. The places where we walked, cycled, went with friends, lazed around, where we missed out till today - all sounded quite interesting to all of us.

Well, thus started a journey - a journey to our roots and a search for what we missed all these years.

[laluks]

The Plan

Day 01 - 28th October 2012, Sunday
Bangalore - Salem - Madurai - Tenkashi - Thenmalai - Punalur - Thiruvanathapuram

Day 02 - 29th October 2012, Monday
Thiruvananthapuram (Meenmutty - Ponmudi)

Day 03 - 30th October 2012, Tuesday
Thiruvanathapuram (Veli)

Day 04 - 31st October 2012, Wednesday
Thiruvanathapuram - Jatayu Para - Kottarakkara - Sasthamkottah - Thekkumbhagom

Day 05 - 01st November 2012, Thursday
Thekkumbhagom - Kollam - Thankasseri - Varkala - Kottiyam - Thekkumbhagom

Day 06 - 02nd November 2012, Friday
Thekkumbhagom - Thevalakkara - Oachira - Kayamkulam - Harippad - Mannarshala - Edathua -Chakkulathukavu - Niranam - Parumala - Chettikulangara - Amrithapuri - Thekkumbhagom

Day 07 - 03rd November 2012, Saturday
Thekkumbhagom - Neendakara - Kappil - Paravur - Kottiyam - Kundara - Monroe Thuruthu - Karunagapalli - Kayamkulam - Thekkumbhagom

Day 08 - 04th November 2012, Sunday
Thekkumbhagom - Sasthamkottah - Bharanikkavu - Adoor - Kottarakkara - Punalur - Thenmala - Thenkashi - Puliyangudi - Sankarankoil - Kovilpatti - Madurai - Salem - Bangalore

Day 09 - 05th November 2012, Monday
Back to work and school


A total of 2324 kilometers


Barring 1500KM of run from Bangalore to Thiruvanathapuram and back, around 800Kms in Thiruvanathapuram and Kollam alone - and that folks by any means is a lot

[laluks]

We stayed here


Evenings were blissful




Woke up to the calls of the fishermen in the morning




Watched the never ending expanse of Ashtamudi Lake




Watched it rain


Watched the day fading away


Caught up with myself, finding myself lost in thoughts!


Caught up with some reading too

[laluks]

We visited a few beaches

Veli Beach


Kollam Beach




Varkala Papanasham Beach




Kappil Beach - Arabian Sea on one side and Paravur River on the other

[laluks]

We visited a Light House


Over a 100 years old


We climbed up the winding stairs


What a view!


We walked over the tree line


Danced to our hearts content


We crossed a few bridges


We ran around happily


Made some new friends


We found some butterflies

[laluks]

We visited a few Temples

Padmanabhaswamy Temple




Chakkulathukkavu Temple




Chettikkulangara Temple


Kappil Bhagavathi Temple


Thevalakkara Thekkan Guruvayur Temple


Oachira Temple




Harippad Subrahmanya Temple




Mannarshala Temple


Poovattur Sri Bhagavathi Temple


Sasthamkottah Sri Dharma Sastha Temple


The Cute Temple Elephant


Shankarankoil

[laluks]

We visited a few Churches too

Thevalakkara Marthamariam Orthodox Church




We offered our prayers to our ancestors


Edathua St. George Ferona Church


Niranam St. Mary's Orthodox Church


Became a part of the festivities at Parumala


Mar Elia Chapel, Sasthamkottah




St. Thomas Malankara Church

[laluks]

We visited a few friends

Alex


Marty


Gloria


And the rest of the gang
















Missed Melman big time

[laluks]

We visited more friends

Nemo was happy to see us


He was overwhelmed


He wasn't


Some one punched him in his eye



We visited Napier's Museum


Kanakakunnu Palace


Krishnapuram Palace too






Found a painting at the resort

[laluks]

We went on a trek






To a beautiful waterfall




We were engulfed by mist at Ponmudi







We collected Manjadikkuru (the lucky red seeds)


We climbed a hill






PPGs pleading that we don't do this again

[laluks]

We went in search of Sea food

Chinese Fishing Net


Sun about to set


Wow that's a lot of prawns


He's happy to show us his catch!


That's a lot of fish








Fish getting ready to be transported

We drove on dead fish


We went to the land's end


We saw boats coming in with more fish

[laluks]

This is where I spent my child hood




We went in search of our ancestral home


PPGs trying to get water from the Open well


We went by boat to some small canals






We stopped by the river and relaxed


We got some coir making tips






The lines that go far away


Civvy gets a Jhankar ride

[laluks]

We had our share of food too

Banana Fritters - Mallu's cant resist this


Hot Chai at Ponmudi


A nice place to have chai


A stylish breakfast


Beef Fry - Another thing Mallu's can't resist


Yam - Baked, Home special


Wow - this is how all meals should be


Priceless

[laluks]

Before I get on to the story, a few words about Thiruvanathapuram and Kollam is needed I love wikipedia for this!

Thiruvananthapuram

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiruvananthapuram

Origin of name

The city gets its name from the Malayalam word thiru-anantha-puram , meaning the "City of Lord Ananta".The name derives from the deity of the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple at the centre of the city. Anantha is the serpent Shesha on whom Padmanabha or Vishnu reclines. This temple of Vishnu reclining on Anantha remains the iconic landmark of the city. It is estimated that the value of the monumental items and assets of the temple partially revealed are close to INR100,000 crore (US$18.2 billion), making it the richest temple in the world. The city was officially referred to as Trivandrum until 1991, when the government decided to reinstate the city's original name Thiruvananthapuram.

History

Thiruvananthapuram is an ancient region with trading traditions dating back to 1000 BCE.[21][22] It is believed that the ships of King Solomon landed in a port called Ophir (now Poovar) in Thiruvananthapuram in 1036 BCE.[23] The city was the trading post of spices, sandalwood and ivory. However, the ancient political and cultural history of the city was almost entirely independent from that of the rest of Kerala. The early rulers of the city were the Ays. With their fall in the 10th century, the city was taken over by the rulers of Venad.

The rise of modern Thiruvananthapuram began with accession of Marthanda Varma in 1729 as the founding ruler of the princely state of Travancore (Thiruvithamkoor in the local vernacular). Thiruvananthapuram was made the capital of Travancore in 1745 after shifting the capital from Padmanabhapuram in Kanyakumari district.The city developed into a major intellectual and artistic centre during this period. The golden age in the city's history was during the mid 19th century under the reign of Maharaja Swathi Thirunal and Maharaja Ayilyam Thirunal. This era saw the establishment of the first English school (1834), the Observatory (1837), the General Hospital (1839), the Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library and the University College (1873). The first mental hospital in the state was also started during the same period. Sanskrit College, Ayurveda College, Law College and a second grade college for women were started by Moolam Thirunal (1885–1924).

The early 20th century was an age of tremendous political and social changes in the city. The Sree Moolam Assembly, established in 1904 was the first democratically elected legislative council in any Indian state. Despite not being under direct control of the British Empire at any time, the city however featured prominently in India's freedom struggle. The Indian National Congress had a very active presence in the city. A meeting of the Indian National Congress presided by Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramaiah was held here in 1938.

The Thiruvananthapuram Municipality came into existence in 1920. The municipality was converted into Corporation on 30 October 1940, during the period of Chitra Thirunal Bala Rama Varma, who took over in 1931. The city witnessed many-sided progress during his period. The promulgation of "Temple Entry Proclamation" (1936) was an act that underlined social emancipation. This era also saw the establishment of the University of Travancore in 1937, which later became the Kerala University.

With the end of the British rule in 1947, Travancore chose to join the Indian union. The first popular ministry headed by Pattom Thanu Pillai was installed in office on 24 March 1948. In 1949, Thiruvananthapuram became the capital of Thiru-Kochi, the state formed by the integration of Travancore with its northern neighbour Kochi. The king of Travancore, Chitra Thirunal Bala Rama Varma became the Rajpramukh of the Travancore-Cochin Union from July 1, 1949 until October 31, 1956. When the state of Kerala was formed on November 1, 1956, Thiruvananthapuram became the capital of the new state.

With the establishment of Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in 1962, Thiruvananthapuram became the cradle of India's ambitious space programme. The first Indian space rocket was developed and launched from the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) located in the outskirts of the city in 1963. Several establishments of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) were later established in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Trivandrum Central Railway Station-2012

A major milestone in the city's recent history was the establishment of Technopark—India's first IT park—in 1995. Technopark has developed into the largest IT Park in India and third largest in Asia, employing around 38,000 people in 280 companies. This placed Thiruvananthapuram on the IT map of India and it is today one of the most promising in the country in terms of competitiveness and capability.

Kollam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kollam

There is a well known saying in Malayalam.

"kollam kandavanu illam venda
kochi kandavanu achi venda"

Which means that, Once you have seen Kollam, you would no more need your home and those who visit Kochi will forget his wife. I hope this saying gives you an idea of the beauty that these places hold.



Let me see how much of Kollam's beauty I am able to share with you guys

[A350XWB]

Super post Lalu. The food especially, made my mouth water. I miss the "Naadan" food and ambiance here in Bangalore. Beautiful pictures too. Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam both are special to me, so is Sasthamkotta. I keep visiting those places now and then. Your travelogue brought out lot of good memories. Thank you
(Beef fry and banana fritters are truly irresistible for mallus!)