Trivandrum Travel

Mr. God (if there is one) has efficiently busted my plan to visit ‘the God’s very own country’ for quite some time now. But this time, Work (The Demon God!) finally dragged me to Kerala (which as you might already know is also known as God's very own country). To be honest, I have only just seen the tip of it though (literally!)

My flight landed in Trivandrum on a pitch dark evening. The first thing I noticed while Ubering to the hotel was the big bright green chilies hanging in bunches in the street side vendor stalls - waiting their turn to become pakoras! Ah now that I remember those, I regret not remembering it on time, whilst I was still there! :(

Might have missed the Chilli Pakoda, But didn't miss this Kingfish Tawa Fry. Still drooling!

Kanyakumari

The morning next to my arrival, I found myself getting driven to Kanyakumari. I know I know… It’s a dragged drive of 2 hours straight. But as the car hit the road, I found myself enjoying this city cruise. Once we were a little outside the city, it was even better. The roads were very clean and the road sides were very, very green. You can never have too much green! I was loving the ride.

Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Kanyakumari Temple

But disappointment struck when we reached there and I found myself at the back of a very long queue. Not able to see where that queue leads to, it was one sweaty, smelly affair! Testifying my stupidity yet one more time, I was there right when the Sun was hot, conveniently missing out the Sunrise or the Sunset. It was scorching, I could feel every inch of skin burning! (I can still feel it!) After a long and grumpy wait of 2.5 hours in the queue, we were about to board the boat that would take us to the Vivekananda Rock, just a few metres into the sea. I didn’t understand why after waiting in a queue, everyone felt the need to start a stampede just before getting on the boat! But all of that angst vanished when I set my foot on the Rock. The Sun was still hot but the breeze from all sides was soothing. There is a monument on top of the rock. This serves as the main Vivekananda Rock Memorial. There is also a temple dedicated to Goddess Kanyakumari. The best bit was a little meditation hall at the base of the monument. When I entered this hall, my eyes took a while to adjust to the darkness and quietness inside. I sat there for a bit, closed my eyes and was almost on the verge of dozing off! It was that peaceful indeed.

The Vivekananda Rock Memorial - View after the boat ride to the Rock.

Having walked around this rock, we kept marvelling at Swami Vivekananda’s immense rigour to have swam this part of the rough sea to get to this rock, to have climbed up this rock through its slippery mossy edges and to have spent 2-3 days & nights there, meditating and attaining enlightenment whilst the huge waves might have splashed around the rock from all the sides! It is something extraordinary, a miracle beyond my imagination. My respect for this great personality just increased ten fold, yet one more time.

Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea & Indian Ocean - A perfect Merger!

Once back on the mainland, we walked further ahead and came by a rocky shoreline. Lots of people were enjoying a splishy-splashy afternoon in the sea. We found a quiet corner and sat there, overlooking the sea, the Rock in the distance, wondering about which particular rock bit could be considered as the southernmost tip of the country’s triangular section (the southernmost tip of the country is actually in the Nicobar island) and then devouring a juicy succulent mango sprinkled with some chilli salt and a bag of peanuts from a street side vendor! Perfecto. This part of the beach was very quiet, except for a few crows who kept budging their necks to steal a share of our peanuts.

Khatta-Mitha (Sweet n Sour) Mango with Chilli Sprinkles.. yum yum!

Poovar

After spending almost the entire day at Kanyakumari, we started our drive back to the hotel at around 3:30ish in the afternoon. When the car was running through a shady sleek road, our driver mentioned, ‘that’s poovar on the side’. We peeked, but couldn't see much. ‘Should we have a quick look?’ And just like that, we got out of the car and found ourselves standing in front of the Poovar backwater. I have heard so much about Kerala backwaters and the scene in front of me did a complete justice to it.

Serene Backwater at Poovar

The person in front of me didn’t do much justice though. He quoted INR 8000/- for a 2hours boat ride in the backwater. I don’t know what made him think that under my shabby look, I could be that rich! No point in bargaining - we thought. We nodded negative and turned around to go back to the car. And just with that simple gesture, the quoted fare came down to INR 2000/- magically! Even that seemed a bit pricey and with no local friends around, we were a bit out of depth. But we gave in and got in the boat.

While cruising through the water...

We cruised through the winding water surrounded by long slender coconut trees, heaps of mango trees and so many others. The boat took us to the beach where the backwater meets the sea. We strolled around the beach, watched the sky turn golden and then orange. The Sun set in the distance and we tracked our way back through the steel grey water of the evening. If I had time, I would probably go back there once again, just to be a bit more familiar with the silent turns of the meandering water and the muffled sways of the trees.

Took another turn there...

Work & Play!

The rest of the week went by in a whirlwind of activity. I met my team - the team with whom I have spent days and nights and sometimes even weekends over virtual mediums, was finally in front of me, after about 2 years; courtesy Covid. In spite of working for digital transformation and being in this world of digitisation, it’s funny (and ironic) how satisfactory it can be to meet people in flesh and blood as opposed to some pixels on screen! I loved going to work every day there, meeting people, sharing a good laugh. Be it the Banana chips I was welcomed with on the first day in the office to the Filter Coffee that was brought in a foil pack to save me from the yucky vendor-coffee in the office to the adhoc trip to the beach or to the Silk shopping in the major shopping street in the city with our product owner or those lavish lunches and the office tours that the team endearingly took me to, I felt extremely loved and blessed.

Kovalam

Kovalam !

It was one afternoon at work, suddenly few of us started white-boarding - what should we do this evening! Turns out, the flowchart on board led us to Kovalam beach! It was pitch dark when we arrived at the beach after an eventful Uber ride. The sequence of the event was such that - we got a drop off at one road junction and then decided to book an Uber. Only one of us knew Malayalam, so that helped because the driver couldn’t be convinced for the ride in any other language (or so it seems!). Finally, a deal was struck - the Uber was cancelled - but the driver agreed to pick us up (from wherever we were! We were on the highway somewhere in front of a SBI stop!) and drop off at Kovalam and then again pick us up from there and drop us off at the hotel. Well, all set and done. We waited for another 15-20mins after which the car arrived and the first question the driver asked was, ‘Where are we going!’ Isn’t it too late for that question, bro!

Fish on Display - at one of the Shacks in Kovalam!

Anyway, like I mentioned earlier, it was already super dark when we got to the beach. We were only about to make out the white foams on the water when a wave splashed in the otherwise dark canvas. The other side of the beach was lined up with extremely busy shacks - shacks with a whole variety of fish on display, proudly showing off their catch of the day! We picked a big red snapper and in no time, the bright red gorgeous looking fish turned up in our plates, fully covered in Kerala spices and fried shallow in a tawa!

And we chose the Red Snapper!

Pushing our sympathy for the fish aside, we gorged on it; except our only vegetarian friend who sat in a corner and had some veggies (She is always going to be special as she is my first ever Keralite Vegetarian acquaintance! A true contradiction in herself! :D) The vibe in the shack was pretty cool - tawa fry fish, sea breeze from the limitless darkness in front, white sparkly foams and beer bottles covered in newspapers! (apparently, liquor is not legal there, but I’m sure the police know that!)

Now we killed the fish! :/

We paid a visit to Kovalam once again on our last day of the trip. This time during the day. We climbed up the rocks and the big boulders at one end and also the Lighthouse at the other end. The best part of this day was a long idle chat in one of the shacks, overlooking the sea and sipping cold coffee and lemonades. We watched a few people running along the beach, getting some cardio done whilst we slumped in our comfy chairs, munching finger food. The usual crows paid us a visit, looking for french fries and fish fingers. The idling continued…

Lazying at Kovalam...Pic Idea - Rana

Varkala Beach

On our last working day of the week, our entire team set off for an evening in Varkala Beach. It is a tiny hamlet with a beautiful beach skirting the cliff that adds to the rugged, green vibe of the place.

Varkala

I read that this place is famous for an ancient temple, medicinal water springs, also an ashrama but as you can imagine, none of that fit into our itinerary for just one evening. Priority assigned on going down to the beach and gorging on some more sea fish in one of the shacks. The beach was gorgeous with its green and brown outline of the cliff. As soon as I arrived there, few of us went down the beach for a bit of splish splash. An end of the week winding down in such a scenic place is always perfect. We watched the sun go down on the beach and then retired to our shack for an evening full of chit chat and rolls of laughter.

Sunset at Varkala. Pic Courtesy - Ligin

Padmanabhaswamy temple

On my last day of the trip, after spending the entire day in Kovalam, I thought of checking out the Padmanabhaswamy temple which was only a couple of KMs away from the hotel I was staying in. I had to wrap a saree around my waist (men had to wear a dhoti) - it’s a mandate there. Conveniently, you can buy these sarees or dhotis just outside the temple. There was a little lake in front of the temple and the golden reflection (as all the lights were lit in the evening) on the water looked beautiful. The architecture of the temple was magnificent. I loved its long corridors and intricate wall designs. When I set my foot in the inner chamber of the temple, I had the feeling of being transported to a different era altogether. It had a strong mystic vibe in the air and everything looked straight out of some period movie. I was quite pleased having made that choice about visiting the temple but when I came back to the hotel, I learnt that our client, being a non-resident of India (and possibly for being a non-Hindu) was not allowed an entry inside. Apparently, this temple is considered as the richest place of worship in the world (source Wikipedia). Sadly, it didn’t feel so rich to me after I heard about the incident.

No, this isn't the temple! :D Just a church I liked on a random city stroll..

And that's a Wrap!

All in all, it was a good trip, jam packed with work, site scenes, events, fun and food! If I am being very honest, I haven’t really explored Trivandrum. I did go to Kovalam, Varkala, Shangumugham Beach, Poovar, Kanyakumari, Padmanabhaswamy temple and walked around the main streets of the city. But nope, I haven’t really been there. I haven’t walked around the city till my legs throb, I haven’t really sneaked into the green outliers there, haven’t quite soaked in the waves of the many different beaches there and so much more.

Until we are back again!

Next time, (if there is a next time), I would love to go back to Trivandrum. I would want to spend a while in Varkala (that has been my top favourite in this short quick trip!), explore all those medicinal water springs and Ayurveda massage centres there; I would want to cycle my way through narrow green roads to Poovar and all the hidden unknown backwaters of the area; Oh, and the next time, I will definitely carry SPF100+ sunscreen so I don’t have to burn again. Ouch! :D

Misty Arabian Sea at Night - Varkala. Goodnight :)