On the Thursday morning we started our trip to Kanyakumari from Sankarankoil. We have been planning to visit Kanyakumari for a long time now but could not make, had to cancel it twice at the last minute. So this time we went though its not part of this trip's plan. We took a break at Tirunelveli to have our breakfast, but for that we drove straight to Kanyakumari non-stop.
The national highway 43 which leads to Kanyakumari was pleasure to drive. As we neared Nagercoil on either side of the road one can see numerous large windmills swinging. As we near the end of this subcontinent the temperature started soaring. As we reached the beach we realised its been pouring with visitors. Everywhere you turn you can see a huge crowd. After round and round to find a parking space, we got one after 40 mins as the usual parking areas were all full. We did get hold of a open space but could park there conveniently for Rs. 50 just near the Food court opposite to the beach. Got ourselves refreshed at the food court and went to the Kanyakumari temple first.
It was not going to be so easy darshan of the Kumariamman. The queue started from 1 km from the entrance to the temple. As we moved along we saw many North Indians, they have all set out in large numbers on a tour to this part of the county owing to the Christmas holidays. After worshipping the Kumariamman we came out but could not go around the temple due to the huge throng of devotees. Once out we went near the beach where the 3 seas merge, wetted our legs there and came out. Here we could see many of them have a dip in the water. This is a rocky beach.
When we enquired about the boat ride to Vivekananda rock we were shown in the queue that starts from the Kumariamman temple. Thiruvalluvar statue could be seen undergoing renovation work so we could go only go the Vivekananda rock through boat. The boat ride is by the Tamilnadu tourism, we are charged Rs.50 and Rs.200, while Rs.200 queue starts from Kumariamman temple to boat ride counter, Rs.50 seems longer and they are started standing from 5 AM in the morning it seems. Ultimately both ticket category visitors would ride in the same boat. Following the queue for more than 1.5 hours, we bought the Rs.200 tickets and boarded a boat. While talking to the boat operators, we learnt that Rs.200 was introduced to control crowd, next month the crowd will come down and much takers for Rs.50 ticket also, it seems. The operators who are locals expressed concern that this season visitors count is overflowing and they have littered Kanyakumari so such extent in these few days that it'll take few months to clean up the place.
The boat ride to the Vivekananda rock was not so pleasant with the standees in the boat were falling all over you, which could not be avoided. On reaching the place we had to buy Rs.30 ticket each as entry fee. After removing footwear at the counter we climbed few steps to up the rock. The breeze was blowing us away here. First we saw the shrine were the footprint of Kumariamman is show cased. Since she had tapas in one leg, we can see the print of her one foot print. Thereafter we moved Vivekananda mandap which can be reached after climbing some 20 steps. This is a meditation area where we see the statue of Swamy Vivekananda and how this rock is named after him as this was rock he set foot immediately after returning from his trip abroad. which made him and his home country popular elsewhere.
Returning boat ride from here became difficult as both Rs.50 and Rs.200 stood in few metre long queue to go back. The whole trip to Kanyakumari became tedious as we spent most of the time standing in queue and could not have lunch too, had coconut water to stay alive. So with this we wrapped our Kanyakumari trip and headed back to Sankarankoil. There is so much more to explore in Kanyakumari, may be next time.
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