[HappyWheels]

You paid 60Rs for the bridge?

I made a trip to Rameshwaram last Aug/Sep and do not remember paying any toll fee! Strange!

[snaronikar]

Originally Posted by gowda79

For Darshan at Madurai we went for a special darshan paid 15rs for a ticket went inside, later a more special darshan was awaiting us. One of the temple person who took us inside to the temple says Sir pay 100Rs per head and he will take us inside the temple and will let us have very good darshan of the goddess. We paid him 600Rs and believe me the Darshan we had was really un forgetful, we had very close darshan we were right in front of the garbhagudi.

Last we went to Thiruvannamalai and we had the special darshan. The actual rates was Rs.20/head. We were 3 people. My brother tok Rs.100 note and seeing Rs.100, the guard took us to the special darshan w/o any tickets right in front of the Lord (Garbha gudi). We had a wonderful darshan of Lord and handed over Rs.50 note after coming out. He as happy and we also did not speak.

Did you have Jigar thanda...its good. Last time when I went to Madurai, I had the same that was a year back.

[gowda79]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

You paid 60Rs for the bridge?

I made a trip to Rameshwaram last Aug/Sep and do not remember paying any toll fee! Strange!

Suresh, even we would not have paid if we had continued at the speed. But as we saw people waving hands we reversed the car went to them and paid.

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Last we went to Thiruvannamalai and we had the special darshan. The actual rates was Rs.20/head. We were 3 people. My brother tok Rs.100 note and seeing Rs.100, the guard took us to the special darshan w/o any tickets right in front of the Lord (Garbha gudi). We had a wonderful darshan of Lord and handed over Rs.50 note after coming out. He as happy and we also did not speak.

Did you have Jigar thanda...its good. Last time when I went to Madurai, I had the same that was a year back.

Sir it is different price at different temples.

Tasting Jikharthanda in that hot weather, nope did not want to take chance and spoil health. As no one had tasted earlier.

[gowda79]

After the darshan at Rameshwaram there were some people in front of the temple selling precious stones. They did approach us to take those stones, but we ignored the same as we could not ascert the purity of the stones. We should be careful while purchasing these kind of stones as some of these people try to cheat and sell some invaluable stones at high prices. We thought we will have our dinner on our way to Kaniyakumari and had a light dinner and went into our Mrs.AB's Hotel and had Dosa's which were not so great, but we had to have as there was no other options.

We did miss out visiting the Rameshwaram beach, Dhanushkodi and the Adam's bridge as it was already late and had to drive again for 400kms to Kaniyakumari. Dhanushkodi is the place where Rama did pierce a arrow and got water for Sita and this the place from where Hanuman built the bridge to Lanka for getting back Sita.

When we left Rameshwaram it was nearly 10pm, my brother took the steering and i settled at the back of the Safari doing my work along with my laptop and reliance card. This route was via Madurai and was nearly 400kms distance, now my brother was in dual mind saying that we will stay back at Rameshwaram and live to Kaniyakumari in the afternoon next day. For which i opposed as it was not practical to drive 400kms and 700kms back to Bangalore in a single day with family. At this moment my brother was a bit upset and later settled for Kaniyakumari.

We had taken directions from a person at the hotel and he had given a very good description on the route and i do appreciate that person for helping us that day. According to him we had do this route - Rameswaram to Ramnad,Paramkudi take left to Arrupkotti, Thoothukkudi, Tirunalveli, Kaniyakumari. The roads were good and we did good speed on this road and had our regular tea intervals, at 1st break i took over the driving seat and continued on the route. When we reached Arupukottai we stopped to ask the route from a person who was waiting for bus and he says we can take road through Thoothukkudi and reach Tirunelveli or go to Virudhnagar and join the NH7. When enquired on the road condition he says Thoothukkudi road is better than the NH7 as it was newly laid and he says NH7 has more diversions.

After his suggestion a person on my right comes and pats on the window and asks her to down the window, i cooly down it and then later i came to know that he was a Police person on night duty. He had observed my car from long distance glaring 6 lights - 2 Hella Fog / 2 Osrams HL's / 2 Philips Fog lamps, he saw family inside the car and without disturbing anyone inside he asks us to switch of unwanted lights, so that the vehicle from Opp direction do not get obstructed. I was totally surprised to see the cop giving suggestion and i did take his suggestion.

After all this drama and route explanation we thought we will take Thoothukkudi road and happily i took the left turn continuing our journey towards Kanyakumari. Little did i know what was waiting for me on this road i would not have dared to take it. The time was nearly 1am - 2am do not know exact time and joined the Thoothukkudi road which was a breeze to drive on King and touching 100kmph without any disturbance from vehicles on opp direction. When we crossed just around 2-3kms we got the taste of going in two minds or our bad luck or switching Off the 2 Fog Lamps .

[PAVAN KADAM]

Gowdre nice,

The travelogue is getting interesting now. Nice pics

I still feel it was really hectic to finish such a nice part of south India in 3 days flat.

How did the Safari fare, and its FE please.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by gowda79

Suresh, even we would not have paid if we had continued at the speed. But as we saw people waving hands we reversed the car went to them and paid...

I did not say that we blasted through the post without paying, did I.

I said there was no one doing any collection when I traveled. If there are people doing collection, they are sure to wave / dance / jump in the middle of the road to stop the vehicle.

[gowda79]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

Gowdre nice,

The travelogue is getting interesting now. Nice pics

I still feel it was really hectic to finish such a nice part of south India in 3 days flat.

How did the Safari fare, and its FE please.

Pavan the trip was a bit hectic and as you know i had got very short time and had to return to Singapore.

It was a very nice part to travel and we will be planning one more trip next time when i am there and will see to that will spend more time driving in the morning and enjoy the scenic beauty.

Coming to talk about The King, he just fared as i call him The King.

The car gave a mileage of 12.5kmpl with 100% AC.

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

I did not say that we blasted through the post without paying, did I.

I said there was no one doing any collection when I traveled. If there are people doing collection, they are sure to wave / dance / jump in the middle of the road to stop the vehicle.

Suresh, that's true that these people will do anything to stop the vehicle and collect the money.

The person did give the slip of the toll fee and i do not know since when they have started collecting it.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by gowda79

The person did give the slip of the toll fee and i do not know since when they have started collecting it.

During Nov 2005, i was in Rameshwar.
I remember, we paid toll tax at Indira bridge.

At Danushkodi, there is police outpost near the end of tar road. Cops at that place do collect rs 20/50 from tourist vehicles and private vehicles from other state for unknown reason. That may be their chay-paani...errr....nariyal paani.

@gowda,
this is fast and furious travel from you.

[gowda79]

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

During Nov 2005, i was in Rameshwar.
I remember, we paid toll tax at Indira bridge.

At Danushkodi, there is police outpost near the end of tar road. Cops at that place do collect rs 20/50 from tourist vehicles and private vehicles from other state for unknown reason. That may be their chay-paani...errr....nariyal paani.

@gowda,
this is fast and furious travel from you.

We did not go to the Danushkodi, if we had visited most probably we would have paid the same.

Coming to the trip yes it was a fast & furious trip as i had very less time and had not done any trips for a longtime after i got my Safari.

The Safari never let us down in this conquering spree of 2000kms.

The last day travelogue with more and more pictures of the Kanyakumari yet to be posted

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by gowda79

...When we crossed just around 2-3kms we got the taste of going in two minds or our bad luck or switching Off the 2 Fog Lamps .

Please break this suspense, Raghu! So, what happened?

[gowda79]

This road was a two lane newly tarmaced road and great to drive with no lights in the road, we were on the fast lane stepped on the gas and car started doing 80-100kmph there were no vehicles behind and in the front. There was a small gap in between the lanes for vehicles to take U-turn for Opp direction. We saw that junction could not spot anything and kept
cruising as we were nearing the spot suddenly a group of 20-30 pigs which were black in colour started to cross the lane.

Brother who was in the navigation seat spotted and started shouting pig pig and then i spotted it and pressed the brakes hard to our luck the Car stopped exactly in front of the Pigs. When we closely saw it was 2-3 bigger pigs and other were small ones, according to me one of the pig was touched by the bull guard. According to some people on our travelling if a pig is hit by the vehicle it is a apshakun and we need to stop the vehicle for 5-10mins. My mother and everyone in the car were a bit worried as it was not a good sign to hit the pig, we continued slowly and suddenly we see a lorry doing good speed on our lane.

We reached a small tea shop the person was sleeping and did not want to disturb him and took some water which was in his shop cleaned the vehicle and left the place after 15mins continued our journey to Kanyakumari. After this incident KDK was bit worried and took the steering from me, the road continued to be good and it was no problem till we reached Tirunelveli.
After we reached Tirunelveli we stopped for a cup of tea, then i did not want to sit idle in the passenger seat, so went on and sat on the driver seat before KDK sat. Thank god they did not oppose and handed over the keys to drive, it is very difficult to stay away from driving The King.

The windmills welcomed us to Kanyakumari and we were happy to see those windmills which are laid on the side of the roads instead of on the hills. At the entrance of Kanyakumari we enquired a person for accomodation as we had not booked our rooms and he takes us to Hotel Maadhini which is a very good hotel and well priced.

We went to bed at 4.30am and by the time we woke in the morning it was already 11.30am, everyone got ready by 1pm and left for the Vivekananda Statue and Tiruvalluvar Statue.



On our way to that place we just had our breaklunch and paid Rs.500 to have just 6 Dosas and a juice, guys all the hotels here it is very high charge. We then go to the lounge where we collect ticket for going on the Ferry for the Vivekananda Rock, after collecting the tickets we had to go through the passage to reach the ferry.



Here we had to wait for 15mins for the ferry to get full and move, this journey is of 5-10mins but the water is very rough as the ferry moves u can feel the waves hitting the boat by sitting inside the ferry.



After reaching the rocks guys please mind your foot if you are going in the hot weather and see to that you walk on the painted part of the rock or else you will be able to taste the foot kabab. The place was very good and breezy, there you can also see "SRI PADAPARAI", the footprints of the virgin goddess.



The statue of Vivekananda is a site to see and situated in this building and this is the spot where Vivekananda swamiji had stood for 3days, the personality standing with his hands folded and head high.



The silent room is very good where you can sit and meditate and never feel like getting out from that place, we were there in that room for 20-30mins without any disturbance.

We left from there around 2.30-3pm and came back to go to the temple where the we had a very good look at the Virgin Goddess Shakthi and the Nose ring which was shining and you cannot describe it how bright it was. A person needs to see it to believe the brightness of those Nose rings. After the darshan we went to the beach and enjoyed a bot in the water, but my suggestion is to keep away from the water as it is too rough and the beach is very small.

[gowda79]

The Hotel We stayed - Hotel Maadhini



The Ferry which took us to the rocks



The waves





The Father & daughter duo -



The device used to collect the Oil which is leaked by the ferry from the water



The Tiruvalluvar Statue -



The Windmills in the background -



The Rock

[suman]

Raghu, an excellent & truly engaging travelogue, keep 'em coming

Close shave with the pigs, eh? Glad you guys were unharmed.

[hillram]

Nice travelogue and scintillating pictures.The waters are somehow green.

[HappyWheels]

Good one, Raghu!

Hitting a pig, well, they say it is bad luck and you should... hold you breath... actually sell the vehicle! But then, this is only if you run over a pig. So, I guess this is not a issue here!

Great photos. This is one place which I always wanted to visit!

And what is that? You seems to be having your own way of 'signing' your photos with a dark spot on the side!