Weekend Getaway to peninsular tip of India

Day 1:

Hello friends, I am going to pen down my experience of the first trip of this year 2020. We are eagerly waiting for things to be normal and we can be back on our travel obsession.

This trip is about our travel tale to Kanyakumari, the peninsular tip of India. Kanyakumari is the last city of India situated on the southernmost corner of India. It is also known by the Confluence of three major water bodies surrounding India, the sangam of Arabian sea, Indian ocean and the bay of Bengal. City has been distinguished because of its sunrise and sunset, the only place in India, where sun rises and sets at the same place.

As January was very special for us, being the month of our wedding anniversary, we want to make it more memorable and have decided to start from the southernmost corner of India. We had done a lot of cramming about kanyakumari in advance and found it perfectly fit for weekend getaway.

We chose the upcoming weekend for our trip and had opted for an overnight bus journey from Bangalore to kanyakumari. It's around 700 kms from Bangalore. We started around 8 in the evening and reached there by @9 in morning. As we arrived, we felt the humidity in the air, temperature was rising and making us a little clumsy over our choice.

We straight went to our pre booked hotel for check in, but fate was not on our side. All rooms were booked, as check out time was 12 pm,but with god's grace and the generosity of the hotel manager, he somehow managed to give us a room for freshen up.

Pro tip: There are many hotels, one can easily manage to get rooms here at discounted price rather than spending a higher amount on pre booking. In case you want a sea facing hotel, you must pre book it.

After getting ready, we headed for breakfast . We thought of exploring nearby places and within 200 mtrs radius, we found a nice south indian restaurant for breakfast. Although there were many north Indian, marwadi, gujrati restaurants as well, we opted for a local cuisine centre. It's been a popular saying, When in Rome do as Romans do…… so as we does, we bumped in for idli vada & dosa with aromatic coconut chutney and Sambhar. For sweets, we picked sweet pongal. It was a perfect combination, a wholesome brunch for the day .

After filling our tummies to the next level, we searched for places to visit on the same day. For the day one, we had in our itinerary:

1. Gandhi Mandapam

2. Kanyakumari devi temple

3. Beach

4. Sunset point

It was around 12pm, we reached back to our hotel. The room was perfect in budget has all the required amenities and was sea facing. After a quick shower, we had a good nap to refresh ourself for exploring the town.

At around 3pm, we headed straight towards Gandhi Mandapam which was just at a distance of 1 km walk from our hotel. We chose to go by walking, getting more acquainted to the city.

Gandhi Mandapam or Memorial is a big hall having various pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, his associates, family and various aspects of his life cycle. Many travel guides were available to tell you the history of Mandapam.

As per their tales, after the demise of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948 his ashes were kept in 12 different urns so as to transfer them to different parts of the country. One of these urns was brought to Kanyakumari. Before immersions, it was kept at the spot where the memorial is built now for the public so that they can pay their last homage to one of the greatest sons of India. Later the ashes were immersed in the sea waters.

Another prominent feature of Gandhi Memorial was the view of the surrounding areas from the top of the memorial which was breathtaking. Entry fee to mandapam was free of cost. Only 5 rs were charged for keeping foot wears.

Spending sometime over there, we went to Bhagvathy Amman kumari temple. The temple is among one of the 51 Shakti peethas, so marvellous and so glorious. It reflects the richness of Indian heritage and culture and puranas. Many people come there to pay their gratitude and take blessings from the goddess.

Encasing the glory of shakti peeth, we left for our final destination of the day, the sunset point. It was around 3km from the devi temple. Many local commuting vehicles were available to take you to sunset point at a minimal cost of just Rs. 10. We had decided to take a walk, along the sea side hand in hand with my lifeline what could be better than that – A perfect walk to remember.

While going, we went to view tower which was on the way whose panoramic view was awe-inspiring. Many local shops were around selling sweet corn, seashells; women were handling small stalls of beauty products and hair accessories.

Finally we reached Sunset point, it was an exotic destination to end our day. We had clicked few photographs of sunset to make it memorable. At seaside, we got a nice place to sat and enjoyed the beauty of sunset, as the sun was descending in the horizon flaunting its colours. Letting us believe it was not the end, it was an end to day with the promise of rejuvenation with a dusky sunrise. It felt like colours were giving a message, you have the potential, you have your colours, just recognise.

After sunset, people were going back to their home, tired after the day. Although it was winters, we felt like that of summers. We stopped at a place, our eyes got stuck at a stall, the famous pani puri stall. Wherever you go, in any corner of India you'll find the mouth watering pani puri, golgappe, pani batashe/ pani patashe. We felt like our stomach was giving us a signal, take the plate in hand and let the pani puri in. Afterwards we had a shikanjee, the lemonade. It was super awesome, had forgotten all our tiredness.

We reached our hotel by 8pm, had dinner and went to sleep as were quite tired.

Our next day itinerary was:

• Sunrise point

• Kanyakumari beach

• Swami vivekanand memorial

• Saint Thiruvalluvar statue

• Lady ransom church

Day 2:

Next morning, we headed early in the morning for sunrise at 5:15@m, as sun rays were making their way, sky was full of different colours red pink yellow which was so captivating and was stealing our heart. Wind was blowing at a very high rate giving us chills with warm sun rays falling on us making it more momentous.