The Traveller: family travel

Monday, 28 October 2013

Murudeshwar, bless us Lord Shiva

The next day from Jog Falls we headed towards Murudeshwara, the coastal town that is towered by Lord Shiva. The distance from Jog Falls to Murudeswara is approximately 87 Kms and since the road is also very good it didn't take long for us to reach Murudeshwar.

Lord Shiva (Murudeshwar)

The good thing about the temple of Lord Shiva is that once you are near the temple you do not need to ask anybody about the direction. And that is because, from quite a distance, one can see the huge towering figure of Lord Shiva to guide them towards the temple.

Lord Shiva (Murudeshwar)

Once we were at the feet of Lord Shiva we were awestruck. We have never seen such a huge statue of Shiva anywhere before. This is the 2nd highest statue of Lord Shiva in the world and the sitting pose of Shiva is 123 feet tall.
There was also a huge 20 storied Gopura near the temple. You can take the lift here which will take you to the top of the Gopura, from where you can enjoy a 360 degree panoramic view of the place.

Gopura

We climbed up a series of steps to reach the temple situated at the foot of the Shiva statue. The temple is in the design of a cave.

After seeking blessing from Lord Shiva we looked around the place from the temple complex. Since the temple is at a good elevation we could see the surroundings clearly. The temple is surrounded by the sea on all sides except the one that connects to the mainland.

The scene is mesmerising.

Sea line from top of the temple

Chariot of the Sun God

The Murudeshwar beach is just opposite to the temple. Tourists are advised not to go to the sea as the sea is dangerous. So once we got down from the temple we did not go to any beach, instead headed straight to one of the numerous restaurants all of which serve vegetarian dishes.

Hand of Murudeshwar statue

Murudeshwar Statue

Sunday, 7 April 2013

The visit to Kerala, God's own country

During the last 2 years of our stay in Bangalore, we visited several famous tourist destinations around it. Starting from the local charm, Nandi Hills, to beach lovers paradise Goa. Didn't miss any. We saw the winter of Ooty and Coonoor. Crawled the Nilgiris on the the Nilgiri Mountain Railway. We spent one of our summer vacation in Madikeri, Coorg. The list is pretty impressive, isn't it. And it goes on.

However, we were yet to visit the crown jewel of Southern India. Well, it definitely deserved some special arrangements like long vacation etc. And most importantly, to visit a vast and diverse place like this, one needs to be mature enough with his/her travel experiences. After all, it's the God's own country, Kerala.

The vastness and diversity of the landscape and life in Kerala is so huge, that you need to time everything perfectly. There are famous wildlife sanctuaries that needs a touch of the summer to churn out life. The hill stations look misty and heavenly during the winter. Well, the beaches, don't really need any specific season; but winter is more enjoyable around the beaches.

After all the calculation, we chose early February as the perfect time for us to visit Kerala. Our trip duration was from 8th of Feb, 2013 to 15th of Feb, 2013. We left Bangalore during the early hours of 8th Feb and came back by the early evening of 15th Feb. As always, our good old Sparky(Chevy Spark) was our chariot.

Our trip to Kerala was amazing, out of this world, breathtaking and memorable. To express everything in detail, we decided to divide our blog post on Kerala into a bunch of posts, much like what we did for our Goa trip.

Here they are. These links are laid out in the chronological order, just the way we actually visited different places in Kerala.

Miscellaneous information bout the trip:

Overall route:- Bangalore->Salem->Dindigul->Theni->Munnar->Periyar->Trivandrum->Kovalam->Alappuzha->Kochi->Kozhikode->Mysore->Bangalore.
Time of Travel:- February 8, 2013 to February 15, 2013.
Transport:- Our good old sparky(Chevy Spark).