Watching the view of the settling sun over the sea at the southernmost tip of India, Kanyakumari, is not just a beautiful sight, but an emotion for all Indians.This is my line and this is exactly what we felt standing in the evening at Kanyakumari.
Nagercoil ->Kanyakumari -> Kovalam -> Varkala -> Odayam -> Kochi -> Kasargod.
Day 1:
We started the trip from our home (Bangalore) at 3:30 am on 23rd December 2022. Just a few weeks before planning the trip I was in a dilemma of whether to take a day halt at Madurai and then proceed onwards or cover the whole route from Bangalore to Nagercoil at one go. Then we all decided to go for the later option because we had been to Madurai before and also if we have started early we would reach Nagercoil before 5pm and could watch the sunset at Kanyakumari.
We had set the alarm at 2:00 am, got ourselves and the children ready, loaded our car and started at 3:30 am.There are some tea shops that operates only at night on the NH44 highway after Hosur. We had a high sugar tea and some equally high sugar biscuits. I don't know maybe the shops make tea with a lot of sugar so that drivers don't fall asleep on the road. We saw the day break at Krishnagiri, the early morning sky hues over the Krishnagiri hills.
The road is extremely good. NH44 the longest national highway of India running through the entire length of the country, joining Srinagar( Kashmir) to Kanyakumari (Tamil Nadu), is the backbone of the country when it comes to surface transport and travel, and its a dream for any road travel enthusiast to drive on NH44. Just make sure to have your FASTag is fully loaded because toll taxes are high on this stretch and you will be charged double if FASTag does not have cash while passing the toll booths. We spend around INR 560 for the stretch from Bangalore to Kanyakumari.
We checked into Hotel Udupi International in Nagercoil at 4:30 PM. It took us roughly 12 hours to reach with plenty of breaks for snacks, pictures and bio.A few kilometres before entering Nagercoil and after Tirunelveli, we saw a stretch of road that has over a hundred windmills on either side. Our little ones were so excited to spot windmills, something that they have seen in cartoons and books.
Hotel Udupi International is a good hotel, properly maintained, right in the city. Rooms are decent, food is quite average and only vegetarian food is allowed. The hotel manager was an extremely gregarious person and helpful as well.Room service takes a little long to arrive.
After a late lunch in the hotel, we set out for a little city acclimation and also for catching the sunset at Kanyakumari. Kanyakumari roughly takes 30 minutes to reach from Nagercoil.
Do check our vlog here:
Nagercoil is a very old city, and so a good part of the city has the old world charms. There are plenty of low height single storey, long buildings. All the doors look uniform and some are godowns, some are old cycle repair shops, flower shops and utensil shops. The garlands that are sold in the shops looks very beautiful and different from the ones we generally see elsewhere in South India.They look like a flat bedded garland done on a straw base. It was much later that I came to know that this flower weaving technique is very unique to Nagercoil and has a special name 'Mannika Malai' which roughly translates to garland of gems.
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| Mannika Mala |
Here I am providing some literature about Mannika Mala, that I got from the internet.
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There are many styles of flower garland making but Manikka malai is a unique one. In Manikka Malai, the red and white oleander flowers are folded along with notchi leaves like beads. Long strips of such beads are then held together to make a broad garland that looks like a carpet studded with gemstones. This unique style garland noticed by the Maharaja of Travancore went on to become the main decoration for the Deity of Shri Padmanabha at the Lord Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram. For decades, till the generation of Late Shri L Madaswamy, the garland was used only as a part of temple rituals and festivals. It was Shri Muthumperumal who made it popular beyond the temples. He invented creative uses of the flower garland like Manikka Malai carpets, decorating temple carts, decoration in marriages, wall hangings, welcome boards, bridal floral jewels etc. Such innovative applications of Manikka Malai garnered attention not just in India but also abroad. The interest grew in people and other artisans to learn the technique. Muthumperumal conducted several workshops and seminars to teach this technique to people to popularise and preserve the tradition for future generations. Apart from carrying forward his family tradition of making garlands for temples, Muthumperumal is somebody who put Thovalai village on the map by dedicatedly popularizing the craft beyond its cultural boundaries. He received several awards including the Kamala award by Crafts council of India for excellence in Manikka Malai craft.There are many styles of flower garland making but Manikka malai is a unique one. In Manikka Malai, the red and white oleander flowers are folded along with notchi leaves like beads. Long strips of such beads are then held together to make a broad garland that looks like a carpet studded with gemstones. This unique style garland noticed by the Maharaja of Travancore went on to become the main decoration for the Deity of Shri Padmanabha at the Lord Padmanabhaswamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram. For decades, till the generation of Late Shri L Madaswamy, the garland was used only as a part of temple rituals and festivals. It was Shri Muthumperumal who made it popular beyond the temples. He invented creative uses of the flower garland like Manikka Malai carpets, decorating temple carts, decoration in marriages, wall hangings, welcome boards, bridal floral jewels etc. Such innovative applications of Manikka Malai garnered attention not just in India but also abroad. The interest grew in people and other artisans to learn the technique. Muthumperumal conducted several workshops and seminars to teach this technique to people to popularise and preserve the tradition for future generations. Apart from carrying forward his family tradition of making garlands for temples, Muthumperumal is somebody who put Thovalai village on the map by dedicatedly popularizing the craft beyond its cultural boundaries. He received several awards including the Kamala award by Crafts council of India for excellence in Manikka Malai craft.
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Nagercoil gets its name from the Tamil word 'Nagaraja Koyil'. Nagaraja is the king of serpents and Koyil in Tamil translates to temple in English.So its the city belonging to the temple of the King of Serpents.The temple is more than a thousand year old temple.
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| Nagaraja Temple |
Nagercoil is not only an old city but was a commercial hub as well. Referred to as the 'Granary of Travancore' by the Travancore rulers, this old commercial centre has its mention in Pliny the Elder's notes in which he mentioned Nagercoil as an important commercial metropolis having trade links with Rome.
Till a decade after Independence, Nagercoil remained as a part of Kerala, but then in 1956 was assimilated to Tamil Nadu and put under Kanyakumari district.So even today the city has a very interesting mix of people who speak both Malayalam and Tamil.
We reached Kanyakumari well ahead of sunset. One can stand anywhere along the coastline to see the beautiful sundown, not necessarily one needs to go to the sunset point. We went to a place called Kovalam beach ( yes Kovalam in Kanyakumari!! ). It is a mix of a rocky and a sandy beach where one can easily get down and touch the waters. There are two watch towers as well for seeing the sunset and the amazing curve of the adjacent beach. Take your water bottles because there are no shops but do not throw the plastic bottles once they are done because this beach has marine life that comes close to the shore. We saw sea urchins, fishes, crabs and eels.
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| Kanyakumari beach |
The water is beautifuuuuuuuuullll. Its clear and turquoise. We did see the beautiful sunset but because of the clouds we did not get the perfect sunset, the one with the yolk red Sun setting down the sea. Just when we were about to get back to our car, we spotted an old fisherman selling real pearls at amazingly hard to believe prices. And they were all real pearls, not the perfect shaped but absolutely genuine ones.
One annoying thing in Kanyakumari is municipal taxes from private and commercial vehicles.It does not matter which municipality it is, once you approach the area in a car, some folks( it can be 8 year old or 14 or 32) will be there on the road with some printed paper and a stick receipts to collect money from you. Not sure if its a scam or not, but they will take money only in cash from every vehicle. The amount varies from Rs 30 to Rs 100. Its not parking fee or entry fee but some municipal fee and I am not sure why municipalities collect that money from tourists, although they provide no facilities, not even basic toilet facility.So better is to carry some chiller cash.
Our today's checklist is done. Tomorrow we will be seeing visiting Kanyakumari one more time and then see the nearby places in the morning and will then proceed to Kovalam in Kerala.
Key points:
How to reach Nagercoil:
Airports: Trivandrum International Airport
By Train: There is no regular trains to Nagercoil from other major cities of the country. The nearest Railway station is at Thiruvananthapuram which is located at a distance of 67kms.
Railway Station(s): Kazhakuttam , Veli
By Road: NH44 connects Nagercoil
Places to see:
2. Padmanabhapuram Palace : A beautiful Palace and museum made in Kerala style of architecture.
3. Kanyakumari: The southern most tip of India, Kanyakumari is very close to Nagercoil
4. Mathur Aqueduct: The aqueduct was built in 1966 to carry water for irrigation from one elevated region to another. We skipped it, because of time constraint.
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