Tipped Over

Take 1 - Since schooldays we used to go to kerala by ‘Kanyakumari express’. The place ‘Kanyakumari since then had been in my imagination as one place that I should visit. The idea of it being at the southernmost tip of India and the place where sea is the confluence of Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean have always been a very romantic concept for me.


Take 2 - Last year while planning for December vacations at the last minute I thought why not go to kanyakumari itself. Finally a dream was going to come true. I explored on options to visit while being there, read various travelogues, and caught hold of all the beautiful pictures of the water expanse and was all ready to go for the trip. I had even booked our room at the Kerala State Tourism Board Hotel through a relative.


Take 3 - We landed at the Trivandrum by plane and then after a day’s stay at a relative’s place moved on by bus to Kanyakumari. The first thing that I experienced when I landed there was someone screaming through the loudspeaker. After searching for the source for a long time found that it was a lady traffic policewoman controlling traffic in this very innovative (irritating) way. The best part of it is people are on their heels rather wheels as soon as they hear her calling out the specific reg number of each of these vehicles.

Anyways proceeded to the hotel room which I must say was definitely a good one. It had a view of the river from the balcony so with my spirits restored with the view I was ready to start the sightseeing. So we got to know from the reception that we can go to see the Vivekananda Rock as it closes in the evening. On the way to the place where we can get boats noticed that Kanyakumari was flooded with people primarily because of school holidays and sabarimala season. Anyways after reaching as luck would go that day all boats were banned from getting into the sea due to bad weather. Great!! So started with the only other thing which was easily available - shopping for souveneirs. Luckily for us while we were shopping the dock suddenly opened and as we were close to the ticket counter ran in and got the boat tickets. It was a 10 min ride to Vivekananda Rock and this place I must say is one of the well maintained places in Kanyakumari. This place is said to be the place where Vivekananda sat in Deep meditation. After this back to shore and then hotel. Evening was the time we went to Kanyakumari temple. I have visited temples that are crowded but this was quite a sight especially with the kind of money that they were trying to make at each nook and corner, screaming to buy prasadam and other stuff. The only solace was the goddess herself who with her peaceful looks were enough to bring back peace upon you. By evening I was already bored of Kanyakumari as the only thing I could see everywhere were only people , locals selling their wares and filth next to every place mentioned on travelogues and sites as ‘must see’ . I could feel all the romance of the place from my imagination drying out. After this went to the sunset point and realized in the morning at sunrise that I could get a clearer view from the hotel balcony itself.

The next day was no different. Visited Gandhi Mandapam which has got photographs of his life. The next place was truly amazing(its not) the little bit of clean area that was called beach. There was only place to take one photograph that’s it. And that was the icing on the cake. I had enough of the place. My dream destination of years had become my worst travel experience.


Please Note: This blog is not to hurt sentiments of people who have liked the place.

My experience could also have been because I went there with too much of expectation.


Take 4 - Next in the list of my dream destination is Jaipur and I’am trying to keep my expectations under control.