Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary

Tripoto
19th Oct 2018
Day 1

Kanyakumari, always heard of this place as the far end of the country, place where the three sea meet, place where Vivekananda meditated and found Peace.
Being on my list of places, we planned for Kanyakumari for the long weekend of Dushera from Bangalore. It was when we started looking for options to reach Kanyakumari we had our calculations hitting the roof.
How to Reach :
This place can best be reached by train, directly from Bangalore to Kanyakumari. A journey of 14 hours is nothing more than relaxing for someone who is working 9 to 12 hours a day on a computer screen sitting in a white and grey dull cubicle.
What to do : The day we reached Kanyakumari, boarded an auto from Nagercoil to Kanyakumari the way was very beautiful, if I must mention the perfect scene of Mountains lined with Coconut trees and banana trees all the way till Kanyakumari.
We had booked a hotel which mentioned sea facing, but it was facing a hotel named Sea view. ( You need to really ask and pin your hotel while searching for one ) To our disappointment we saw the hotel and the room without a view, dropped our luggage and headed to take a look. Time being 10am or around we thought it can be early but let's just take a walk around and explore.
On our route to the beach which turned out to be the Vivekananda rock memorial jetty point, we realised the heat is definitely going leave a mark on our AC office pale bodies (remember to take a hat, because caps leaves your necks vulnerable and sunburnt). Bought a hat, took a walk, bypassing the long line of people ready to board the jetty. We found a beautiful Church and nothing else. The long stone clad path looked too hot in that not so afternoon sun and we decided we would come back in the evening to experience the place.
As we started back to our hotel a policeman mentioned the jetty will close by 12 and won't open for the day as it's Dushera, so this is the last jetty if you want to take. We analysed the situation and decided to  board a jetty again past the exhaustive line we saw a board saying 200/- VIP pass. Wasn't a bad deal we went ahead, mere 200/- which otherwise is a price of a dish in Bangalore was letting us cut through the line in that sun,wasn't a bad deal we went ahead. We bought the tickets boarded the over capacitated Jetty and headed to the Rock memmorial.
By this time the sun had already started throwing tantrums and leaving its mark on us.
Even in the month of October it was hot As Hell.
We reached the rock memorial and found out that we can't wear our shoes on the memorial and will have to wander the black rock with naked feet. But later found a thick white line painted on the rock for people to walk and not take boils on the feet with them on their way back.
It was peaceful even with 1000s of people with us around. Had it been a pleasant day I would have sat there for the day, doing nothing but looking at the sea with thoughts oscillating along with the waves.
But in the middle of that peace we heard that it was already time to head back as the last jetty will be leaving soon. And suddenly people travelled from peace to panic in no time. We along with the crowd got up and took a  look at the Mandapam what's inside the Mandapam was the point of the rock where (Facts) Vivekananda sat for 4 days in December.
We started back and realised that we were infact standing at the very last piece of  land that is INDIA. Suddenly we were all thoughts and chose to ignore the last jetty call. Standing there looking at the Vast blue sea, it was something else, can't explain what were feeling suddenly the heat wasn't that bad, the sun wasn't hot enough, the rock wasn't burning our feets anymore.
The kanyakumari experience:
When We got back to the Land we were still deciding on where to have lunch is when we saw a massive crowd and celebration. We spotted some dressed up gods, some decorated Elephants and Music.
That made the day at Kanyakumari for us. As they say festivals are always celebrated with family and friends around but they can experienced when you travel to different places.
Here we saw the procession with drummers in traditional wear and Followed by elephants and the dressed up Gods. The musicians were not just playing the drums they were enjoying all the attention from people. Lesson learnt, Always enjoy what you do, because even in that scorching heat those drummers were carrying the heavy drums and constantly beating them with all their might that made the pictures come out so well. It was the happiness on their faces.
That was the highlight of Kanyakumari for us.
The day was just half done and we were tired and satisfied with Kanyakumari so we decided to head back and catch some sleep as the heat had taken the toll on us.
The later part of the trip: Kanyakumari is known for its sunset and sunrise beach. Although I would argue that I have seen better, but yeah they are not as bad. We got up a bit late for the sun had already set and I had lost all hopes of capturing it, but at the very last moment when we had sat down on the beach in the thoughts of let's enjoy the changing hues of dusk, we saw it. We saw the last ring of sun setting down under the sea leaving the sky with a burning peach orange tone.

The first view of the rock memorial and the lined up Jetty

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan

The beautiful Church, no this isn't the famous church in every other post they mention, this is just one church on the corner of the sea

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan

That's the way to Sunrise point

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan

The proof of standing on the very corner on the Maps

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan

And we forgot the sun and the heat for the moment

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan

The heat bothers the god as well

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Day 2

Rising up in Kanyakumari to setting down in Kovalam The day started with running to see the Sunrise, the stone clad sunrise point at 6 in the morning had a lot of people, although the Dawn had already ended but the day had just started for us. We saw the lights going off on the Thiruvalluvar statue and the rock memorial. Beautiful dance of artificial lights against natural lights. The sun didn't show up in the sky that day, I mean it was day and the sky was as lit as 9 o clock sky but there was no Sun persay.
We had a train to catch for Kovalam as the previous night we decided that there is nothing much to see in Kanyakumari, but we missed the train by 2 mins was what we were informed when we were running on the platform like two crazy people. The alternate was given as Buses from Nagercoil to Kovalam. We didn't mind them much as we wanted to reach kovallam as soon as possible because Kanyakumari had nothing else to cater to us. Also if were going to a new place we should have as much as time possible to explore the new.
How to reach Kovalam:
Prefered - Trains from Kanyakumari to Kovallam (2 hours)
Not Prefered - Local Buses from Nagercoil (3 hours) the way is beautiful but horrifying at the same time because there is no Road, hence I said not Prefered. But as we went ahead on the way, it was beautiful Kerala all the way, so it wasn't as bad but wasn't the best I would say.
Now Kovalam was our plan B, after the Plan A Kanyakumari had ended too soon on us and we still had 2 days of our weekend to us. And it was worth all the efforts and last minute tensions.
On reaching Kovalam, although we had booked our Sea View hotel on OYO online while in the bus, but when we reached the place we almost fell in love with this small place named Beatles Inn
Where to Stay: Beatles Inn, if you want a real sea view without any obstacles or anything else crowding your view of that unending sea, I urge you to stay here. We were right on the sea, the Sea was so close that the waves scared us at times, having had the recent Kerala floods. Not joking, we really went on Google and checked for weather report if it's ok stay here.
The day was just perfect then, we ordered chilled beer and Sandwiches and the music of the waves in the background, couldn't have asked for anything better than that. After lazing around for sometime, we headed to the beach only to find the most picturesque beach I have ever seen, in real life.
The Light house beach, have always seen those beautiful pictures of lighthouses and the waves splashing at the rocks never knew the Plan B would end up being way better than the plan A.
The light house beach is everything but calm, and thats not because of the people visiting the place that's because of the waves. Those were the largest waves I have seen after Palolem Beach, Goa. People were surfing, no not the Indian style, log surfing. Proper surf board surfing all because of the high crazy Waves.
To add to our pleasure it started raining, now being a water person I love rains and I love beaches but the combination just made me forget everything else in the world and I wanted to be there like Throw my anchor and stay. We didn't catch the sun set here as well as it was all cloudy and rainy, but the Color the sky had taken up reflecting the same on the beach, I didn't carry my camera because I wanted to experience the waves and live the moment. But words fall short to paint the picture of that sun less sunset at the Kovalam beach. We saw the birds flying back home, boats venturing in the sea for overnight fishing session. That was a paradise I would want to live everyday.
So we ended our day with food at the local cafes lining the beach.

Sunrise, starting the day early

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan

The view on the left from the room at Beatles Inn

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan

View on the Right from the room at Beatles Inn

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan

Light house beach, Kovalam

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan

Rains and Waves

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Day 3

This was our last day at Kovallam, Kerala.
So we decided to end it on a high note. What better than climbing the Light house and take in as much of this beautiful beach as I can. And that's what we did. We brought the best of Kovallam with us.
And as they say Photographs are the best way to time travel.
Take away from the trip:
Don't be afraid to take the plan B, it's not the failure of Plan A but a mere extension to the Travelogue. And a beautiful one at that.

Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan
Photo of Kanyakumari to Kovalam. Plan B can be better than Plan A sometimes #southindiaitinerary by Akanksha Chouhan