[dreamdiesel]

Originally Posted by pramod

I spoke to a few localites to suggest a good Veg restaurant for our dinner and they all pointed us to "Modern hotel".
It wasnt that clean, nor the food was great. But it was decent and we were done with our dinners for the night.

On the same West Perumal Maistry street there is Sabari's Vegetarian Restaurant. Very good veg food. The meals served during lunch is very good. Highly recommended. Not sure about dinner.

Nice pictures pramod. Did you get confused about where you left your footwear at the temple?? We had a hard time looking for the entrace where we had left our footwear as the temple complex is pretty huge and can be confusing.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by dreamdiesel

Nice pictures pramod. Did you get confused about where you left your footwear at the temple?? We had a hard time looking for the entrace where we had left our footwear as the temple complex is pretty huge and can be confusing.

Its so happens that my better half has been robbed of footwear now thrice. Last time I went to crowded temple (Puttaparthi), I was suggested by their staff, to separate the pairs and keep them in really far off places. I was laughing at myself as to why I did not realize this simple trick!

[pramod]

Originally Posted by dreamdiesel

We had a hard time looking for the entrace where we had left our footwear as the temple complex is pretty huge and can be confusing.

Probably, we were lucky/Coincidental to exit from the same gate

[pramod]

We planned to visit the Thirumala Nayagar Mahal and Theppakolam inside Madurai city.

It took a while to locate the "Palace Road" and we finally arrive at the palace.

Snaps below from the Mahal.









































Then, we leave the palace and visit the Theppakolam. It is basically a water tank (Kalyani) with a Temple built at the center of the tank.

[ElantraGT]

Thats a Nice narration Pramod. I love the snaps of the Meenakshi temple and trust me you did justice to the gopuram snap. have you been to Thiruvannamalai.. the gopuram there is really massive.

[ampere]

B&W ones look very nice. Makes a nice contrast to the other ones !

[MX6]

takes me back to the kannalane days. do you know that there is a secret passage from the mahal to the temple?

[pramod]

Thnx ampere.

Originally Posted by MX6

takes me back to the kannalane days. do you know that there is a secret passage from the mahal to the temple?

They arent far away from each other.. So if its there, it isnt a big surprise.
Most of the structures of those times used to have some or the other secret passages.

[pramod]

After visiting the palace and the theppakolam in Madurai we start driving towards the NH7 to proceed towards Kanyakumari.
The feeling to reaching the southern most tip of our country is a very cool feeling. To be surrounded by seas on all the 3 sides is also very nice to think of.

With all these running in my mind, we set to drive the next 230 Kms from Madurai to Kanyakumari.
Cross the Railway bridge and proceed on the same road for another 13 Kms to join the 4 laned Bypass NH7.

On the NH7, you would find the following landmarks:
1. A junction, where left turn leads you to Rameshwaram (NH49-NH7 junction).
2. RAMCO cement factory on your right.
3. Virudhanagar
4. Sankar Cement factory to ur left (Sankar Nagar). this is 2 Kms before the city of Thirunelveli.
5. Windmills on both sides of the road (loads of them) after Therunelveli
6. Y fork, where left leads you to Kanyakumari, and right is the NH47B which leads you to Nagarcoil.

Will provide the times a bit later.
Snaps of the drive to KK:



























The road is broken and filled with potholes because of the flyover construction in the entrance of Thirunelveli city. Crossing this city would take atleast 15 min.

230 Kms distance should take you not more than 3 hours 15 min at the max. We took 3 Hours to cover the same.

We reached KK at 2 PM. Straight away took a left at the Gandhi bhavan circle and drove for a while with the sea on ur left. It was sticky for sure, nevertheless it was amazing.

















We checkin into Hotel Maanickam. I highly recommend this hotel as it is atleast 1000 bucks cheaper than SeaView hotel (best here).
Hotel Maanickam is very clean (pretty new) and very big and tidy toilets and bathroom. Tariff is 1200 for 24 Hrs.

Hotel Saravana was chosen for our late lunch. We rest for a while and at 4.30 we enter the Kanyakumari temple. The queue was long because of 3 bus loads of Maharastrian crowd. Finally got to see the Godess and the glittering diamond on it.

If people are not aware, the diamond on the nose ring of the goddess actes as the leading light for many a fishermen on the high seas in the earlier times. Now, there are too many buildings infront of it to still occur.

After coming out of the temple, we head to the beach and click snaps of the Vivekananda rock and the Thiruvalluvar statue on the other rock next to Vivekananda.

A big crowd on the beach. I dint wet my legs.

Then, at 5.45 PM, we drive on the right side,with sea on our left to reach the Sunset point. Sunsetting on the Arabian sea.

A decent sized crowd gathered waiting for the spectacle. I dint realise for a while that it was a sunset which would occur every single day! and we are waiting for it so eagerly. But yes, it was worth all the effort we put-in to reach this point to watch the sun go down.




















I love Kanyakumari.
I love India.

[ampere]

Pramod,

I stayed at a place called Singaar international. Good rooms and food was OK. Although a bit on the costlier side, but the place was good.
KK always rocks, esp. seeing waters ! NH7 as always has been fantastic shape after its completion. I had done 1 years back, when they were doing almost the final touches to the road. Even then it was good.

[anup7649]

Looking at your snaps, few of the ramps on NH7 really look like airstrips. Absolutely fantastic!

I am really surprised to see so much of greenary all along NH7 in this hot summer. I believe the summer has not started much of in there?

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by MX6

hmm. Reminiscing nostalgia through your photos here. Ever tried climbing down to the devil's kitchen? It's also called the guna caves. I did that once, lost grip, fell and almost fell off the crevice. Near call there. Had to clamber up with bleeding hands and legs. Still the place has something about it. Learnt the lesson never to climb down when it's wet!

Devil's kitchen (Guna caves) is fenced off and closed to the public now.

[Gansan]

Originally Posted by pramod

Then, at 5.45 PM, we drive on the right side,with sea on our left to reach the Sunset point. Sunsetting on the Arabian sea.

A decent sized crowd gathered waiting for the spectacle. I dint realise for a while that it was a sunset which would occur every single day! and we are waiting for it so eagerly. But yes, it was worth all the effort we put-in to reach this point to watch the sun go down.

I agree, the sunrise/sunset view will be the same when seen from any beach on the east/west coasts of India. The specialty of KK is one can view both sunrise as well as sunset in the sea, probably the only place that offers this view on the Indian mainland!

Excellent pics of the sunset!

[MX6]

Originally Posted by Gansan

I agree, the sunrise/sunset view will be the same when seen from any beach on the east/west coasts of India. The specialty of KK is one can view both sunrise as well as sunset in the sea, probably the only place that offers this view on the Indian mainland!

Excellent pics of the sunset!

Not sure about the KK being the only place. There's also a place called Kotra nes near Somnath, Veraval, where this spectacle might be possible. I've seen sunsets in somnath. Was lazy not to catch sun rises.

Another greatness of somnath is that between the temple and the tip of Antarctica, it's claimed that there's no other land mass! There's a statue with an arrow pointing to south pole, where it claims this.
India is indeed a land of wonders!

[pramod]

MX6 -- I agree that there are more places where both Sunset and Sunrise are indeed viewable.One such place in Karnataka is "KUNDADRI PEAK" near Agumbe. The peak is the tallest among the lot in that area and hence it is possible to do so.

Anup -- Amazing roads to say the least. Greenery is there in a few places in this stretch, mainly where there is a river flowing.
Near Madurai, you have Valgai river flowing and hence it is decently green. But in most of the snaps, you see Palm trees and "Thaatining" which grow in very arid zones.