The Picturesque setting. Review on Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari is a place everyone is intrigued about because its the extreme lower end of India and the land ends there and what you can see around is sea everywhere.

We left by train from Madurai junction for Nagercoil which is a nearby place to Kanyakumari.We left at about 4pm and reached Nagercoil around 9pm. We ate thick dosas in train which a vendor was selling and when asked why they were so thick, he said these are the original dosas which are made in local homes.

After reaching Nagercoil, we took a taxi to Kanyakumari which was about 15-20 minutes ride from there.We went to TTDC cottages for boarding, they were good, but we left because they were far away from Vivekananda Memorial rock and local restaurants.We then went straight to Hotel Samudra which was suggested to us by a family which we met at Kodaikanal.

The recommendation was excellent as not only the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Thiruvallur statue were nearby, but we got a sea facing room too and all the local restaurants and eateries were nearby. The room was also good and we soon went to sleep as we wanted to witness the famous sunrise of Kanyakumari. We kept an alarm in cellphone, but the staff of Hotel was good enough to wake us up and opened the terrace of Hotel for us, we thought we may be the first, but soon we found out that at least two sunrise points near sea were full of tourists and many were running towards them to catch a glimpse of sunrise.Many terraces of hotels were full of people, it was worth watching, sun came up like we watch in a scenery, first half and then another half.

We came back in room, had bath and left for breakfast in a north cum south Indian restaurant where we had dinner last night.We took a taxi then for local sight seeing, first we went to an ancient Nagaraja temple where a lady told us stories of that temple.It was quite unusual as mostly the guide kind of people are men.Then we went to Suchindram temple where men can not wear anything on the upper part of body inside the temple.Also there is a huge Hanuman statue inside the temple in black

color which was quite unusual as his statue is in orange color everywhere mostly.Then we went to a very beautiful place called Circular Fort which I liked very much.Its an old fort of 18th century made in circular shape near sea, we went inside it and then climbed stairs to reach the first floor.As soon as you reach there, you get a breathtaking view of sea with waves coming, coconut trees and enchanting Nilgiri Mountains plus windmills in the backdrop on one side and cottages on one side.We sat on the wall of Fort and could see sea waves lashing the rocks beneath our feet.Many films are shot there as told by the staff there.I wanted to remain in that place for some more time, but as we wanted to see more things there, we left the place.We then went to see Vivekananda Ashram and Museum, There is a beautiful temple inside the ashram and in Museum, they have displayed pictorially the spiritual history of India and life story of Swami Vivekananda.After that, we hurriedly went to see Vivekananda Rock memorial as there is a long queue for ferry which takes you there.It was really hot at that time and humid.We took tickets for ferry and settled in the queue, after some time we went towards ferry and put on life jackets.I am not sure why the life jackets were given for such short distance and seemingly peaceful sea, i think either the sea was dangerous or the Sunami scare?I have heard that when Sunami came, people ran for their life and hid behind Vivekananda Rock Memorial.Anyway, we reached the Rock Memorial by ferry and saw long queue of people who were waiting to be carried back.Its a long climb upstairs, you've to deposit your shoes and go towards a temple which has seemingly glass floor and then to rock memorial, it was very hot there, but one thing I saw there was a thick white line painted on floor, when you walk on it, it's not hot, it's some kind of paint which makes it cool, I wonder why they didn't paint it on entire floor, anyway, we climbed on the memorial and inside they have a big Swami Vivekananda statue in middle and small temples dedicated to Swami Paramhansa and his wife.

You've to maintain perfect silence inside it or either you can leave, on the back side of memorial, there is endless sea and sea and sea, downstairs there is a meditation hall where you can meditate for a while, then there are some bookshops and memorabilia shops, we bought some books and memorobilia for family and friends. The whole story about this memorial goes like this that when Swami Vivekananda came to Kanyakumari and wanted to meditate there, he chose this rock to meditate, but had no money to catch a ferry to this rock, so he swam all the way and came here and meditated for some days.We were given an option to visit Thiruvallur statue nearby named after famous Tamil poet, but we chose to remain on ferry as we were getting late for other locations.

We then came back to Hotel and rested for a while and again started to visit other locations which were nearby like KanyaKumari temple and a very interesting place called Triveni Sangam where three seas are meeting, that's why the name. The three seas are Bay of Bengal, Pacific Ocean and Arabian sea.

A special quality what I saw in KanyaKumari sea is that there are rocks in sea and waves come and strike those rocks and it looks great.It started raining heavily and we had to wait at least half an hour there inside a watching point, I must advise everybody who comes to KanyaKumari that Please keep an umbrella handy there always as it starts raining anytime, we had to come back to Hotel in heavy downpour and we were soaked.

We changed and visited some other destinations like Shankarcharya Temple and another good Vivekananda Museum.Gandhi Mandapam was closed by now and we settled for dinner in a nearby restaurant.We then took auto for Railway station and it was interesting to see KanyaKumari railway station.After a long run up, we found a lonely train parked there called Varanasi Rameshwaram

Express which took us to Rameshwaram.

It was a good visit and a must see is Circular fort area, a picturesque setting, a dream like ambience.It haunts me still.

Thanks for reading my review, Hope it helps you in some way.