Trivandrum, capital city of Kerala

The third destination in our itinerary of Kerala trip was Trivandrum or  Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of Kerala. After Periyar, we wanted to drop the anchor at Trivandrum mainly because it was near to Kovalam beach. 

  We left Periyar at around 2 pm and reached Trivandrum city close to 8 pm. The distance isn't that long; however, as it mostly passes through different cities, the pace of driving gets slow. Add to that, most of the roads are two way. For the first 10-20 kilometers you can see rubber, banana and pineapple plantations on either side of the road.

  Anyway, just after entering the main city, we spotted a hotel on MG road called "City Tower Hotel". Tired out of the journey, we quickly checked into the hotel. They had their own parking and a restaurant. 

  Though not luxurious, the rooms were decent with clean toilet. Only few things were left to be done for the day. Food and sleep. The food at the restaurant was superb. We savored parathas, chettinad chicken and fried rice and chilly chicken. WOW! That's a big menu, isn't it? 

   After this huge meal, we headed back to our room and crashed for the day.

  Our plan for the next day was to cover the sight seeing places in the city and  spend the sunset hours at Kovalam beach.

  So after breakfast, we headed for Shanghumugham beach. Since the daytime temperature in Trivandrum rises very fast, we thought of covering this beach first. This beach is within 6 KM from city center. It's very close to the airport. It's a nice long beach. During that early morning hour, we found it very less crowded. 

Sanghumugham beach

Crab and the sea

Schedule of cultural program that happens by the beach

  From Shanghumugham beach, we went straight for Veli, or rather Veli Tourist Village. We parked our car within the paid parking space. There's a lake surrounded by a park at this place. If you cross one bridge within the park, you get to see the sea as well. There's also a floating KTDC restaurant, in case you feel hungry after the walk in the park. If you are a butterfly lover, you will find this place well suited for you. There are different types of butterflies within the park. We spotted different tiger butterflies and eggfly butterflies.

Swan at Veli Tourist Village

Beautiful butterfly at  Veli Tourist Village

Blue tiger butterfly at  Veli Tourist Village

Eggfly butterfly at Veli Tourist Village

Colorful wasp at Veli Tourist Village

  Next on our list was Napier Museum and Sri Chitra Art Gallery. Both of these places and many other tourist attractions are within the Zoo complex of Trivandrum. Parking is available either inside or outside the zoo complex.

Map of zoo complex

Napier museum from outside

  Napier museum hosts different antiques. Ranging from old coins to big statues, this museum is a collection of different art forms. Statues made of ivory were also in abundance in here. We specifically remember one statue where we found cherubs flying over a statue of  Shiva and Parvati. It was also made out of Ivory.

  We also visited the fish aquarium within the zoo complex. It was nothing special.

Fish Galaxy within zoo complex

Fish within fish gallery

   Sri Chitra Art Gallery was also on our list. However, as the temperature was becoming unbearable with midday, we decided to give it a miss and headed back to our hotel.

   We also wanted to get to Puthenmalika palace, but couldn't reach the place as parking was not available. The palace is situated next to Padmanavaswamy temple. In case you are planning to visit the palace, please note that it is closed on Mondays.

  After a lite lunch and small nap we started for Kovalam. Kovalam is around 14 KM from Trivandrum city center. It takes around 25 minutes to reach Kovalam beach. We started a little early for we didn't want to miss the sunset. If you want to read more about the time we spent at Kovalam, you can read our blog post here.

Sunset at Kovalam Beach

  We came back to hotel at around 8 PM and went for an early dinner to the same restaurant. This time we had parathas, Nilgiri chicken and chicken 100. Food was awesome as usual and very reasonably priced. 

  It was all for the day. We were both excited to see all the snaps that we took throughout the day and here are some more for you.

Tiger butterfly at Veli Tourist Village

Fish within fish gallery

Squirrel at Veli Tourist Village

Sunset at Kovalam beach

  Trip info:
  City Tower Hotel: Double Room Non- AC Rs. 650/-
  City Tower Restaurant: Average meal for two: Rs. 300/-
  Veli Parking: Rs. 10/-
  Veli entrance: Rs. 5/-
  Napier Museum entrance: Rs. 5/- (Photography is not allowed inside the      museum)
  Aquarium entrance: Rs. 5/-
  Kovalam parking: Rs. 20/-