Trivandrum - Varkala - Ponmudi - Poovar - Kovalam

Trip members: Karthik and family

Trip date: 27,28,29,30 April and 1 May 2017.

Trip Plan : Chennai - Trivandrum - Varkala - Kulathupuzha - Ponmudi - Poovar - Kovalam - Trivandrum Chennai

Started for a relaxed trip to Trivandrum for 5 days with a plan that can be completed in 3 -3.5 days if rushed. The intent was not to just see, but, stay relaxed and cherish each of the beautiful places.

Day-1

We reached Trivandrum by noon in Anathapuri express. We took an auto for Rs.30 to Hotel Prathiba Heritage, which we had booked. The rooms were decently spacious and clean. The receptionist was very helpful in guiding us for restaurants, site seeing distances, timing and auto fares. The hotel does not have a lift and restaurant. The bathrooms were quite clean too. The hotel is approachable to popular temples and zoo/museums just 5 mins drive by car or auto-rickshaws.

We had lunch at Hotel Krishna, a small restaurant, Rs.60 for a simple worthy lunch. First we planned to go to Trivandrum zoo. The zoo is around 2 kms from the Trivandrum central railway station. The entrance fees are quite less Rs.20 per person and Rs.50 for the camera. The zoo is in a campus which hosts several other entertaining factors like museum, art exhibition and children park. The zoo is one of the best in India with respect to location and the shades. The zoo hosts good collection of fauna - tiger, white tiger, lion, leopard, great collection of birds, rhino, hippo, green anaconda and much more. The great aspect is that the whole place is under shades in centre of the capital city. The tiger, white tiger snd lion were quite eye catching.

We spent around 2 hours in the zoo and enjoyed the whole time. We travelled all through Trivandrum of Day 1 by auto in every location, each costing around Rs.30 to Rs. 50.

We returned back to room by 4 pm and took an hour of rest. By 5 pm, we planned to visit three temples - Attukal Bagavathy temple, Pazhavangadi Ganapathy temple and the world famous Padmanabaswamy temple. We decided to complete the first 2 quickly so we spend enough time in the Padmanabaswamy temple.

Attukal Bagavathy temple is around 2 kms from the central station and we reached there by auto in 10 minutes. The temple is very serene and is known to be crowded in Tuesdays and Fridays. This temple holds a record of having 2.5 million ladies in a single biggest gathering in history. The Goddess is well decorated and the temple premises is quite clean. We completed dharshan in 15 minutes and took an auto to Pazhavangady Ganapathy temple. 

Pazhavangady Ganapathy temple is located close to the Padmanabaswamy temple. Pazhavangady Ganapathy temple is a small and very popular temple. The tradition is to break coconuts in this temple. It is heard that there are people who break hundreds and thousands of coconuts as per their wishes and prayers. It takes few minutes on a normal day to complete the darshan. Gents should go with bare top body - remove shirts, t-shirts, banians and women are not allowed with bags.

Next, we visited the Padmanabaswamy temple. The temple has quite a number of restrictions to enter. No mobiles, no any sort of electronic or electric devices like even mobile chargers or cables. No eatables, no anything apart from money! Women are allowed in sarees or asked to wear dhotis on top of their dresses. Female kids have to wear pavadai or frocks. Gents - no top dresses are even allowed to carry inside. Only dhotis! All can be safely deposited in the cloak room at a very low cost. As we entered the main gopuram, we saw the free dharshan crowd to be considerably high. We opted for Rs.180 dharshan, for which a pair are allowed on one ticket. I bought two tickets and we entered the main sanctum in 15 minutes. The main sanctum was very crowded and quite dark. The crowd was not managed properly and the dharshan was not quite pleasant; rather it was very tiring and challenging for the elders. Somehow, we managed to out of the main sanctum and had dharshans of other Sanctums of Lord Krishna, Lord Rama and Lord Ganapathy. We completed the whole place in 1:30 hours and were out. There are small souvenir shops outside and one can dwell on them.

We had dinner at Hotel Padmanabaswamy near the temple, it was just ok for dosas, chappathis and parottas.

Day-2

The plan was to goto Varkala and spend the whole day in Varkala. We started around 8 AM and had breakfast at the same hotel where we had lunch previous day - Hotel Krishna Bhavan. Idlis and dosas were ok. We rented out a cab for 3 days for 7200 at our disposal. We went to Shangumugham beach first. The beach is just behind Airport. The beach is quite vast and well managed. There are walkaways near the beach and lot of shops around. The sand was so fine that it did not even stick on our feet. We spent aroun 20-25 minutes at the beach.

We started to Varkala then. First, we went to Papanasam beach. Once we reached, we realised that the Varkala and Papanasam beach are a same stretch but called differently for some length. This beach looks like is used for performing final rites of loved ones. Hence the name. Varakala basically is  a cliff and a beach. The cliff is called North and South Cliff. The Papanasam beach in the south cliff part. We spent around 15 minutes at the beach since it was noon. The beach is quite vast white sand beach. The Papanasam beach had flowers and some related things all around the beach.

We reached InDa hotel by noon and were welcomed by options of welcome drinks; we had banana lassi and salt lassi. The rooms are individually separated and are like huts. The interiors are very simple and clean. Food is available in their restaurant - InDa cafe; pastas and Buddha bowl - a bowl of salad and brown rice. The place is on the north cliff side; 5 minutes walk from the stairs that takes us down the cliff into the beach.

After lunch, we took some nap in the hot weather. Around  15:45, we decided to take time in the beach. The way on the cliff has lot of restaurants and shops; mostly seafood and continental; Indian veg food is a rarity. Their are steep steps in three places that takes us from cliff to the beach. The steps are quite difficult for elders and physically challenged. We played in the beach for an hour in the water and came back to the room to take bath and changeover.

By 5:30, we went by the beach for the sunset. We walked all through the cliff area and reached the clear sunset view at the helipad area. There are number of seating put up for enjoying the grand views of the ocean and sunset. The sunset was quite enjoyable and with the summer haze, the sun disappeared soon. 

We walked all across the cliff to do some window shopping, a km in length. Overall, there was only one pure vegetarian restaurant open - Ottupura near the Helipad. We had chapathis, jeera rice and dhall to complete our great and tiring day at Varkala.

Day-3

The morning was obviously at the beach by 6 AM. The west coast beach was calm and quiet. The waves were not there and so was the crowd, apart from some tourists and morning walkers. We spent around 45 minutes in the beach and were ready for the European breakfast - banana pancakes and mushroom-cheese pancakes. After slightly munching on the quick breakfast, our trip took direction towards Kulathupuzha. 

We took the route of Varkala - Kallamballam - Kilimanoor - Kulathupuzha. Kulathupuzha is one of the important temples of Lord Ayyappan. This is located around 56 kms from Varkala beach. This temple is where the Lord is incarnated in child form. This small and popular temple is on the banks of river Kulathupuzha and across a narrow bridge. Gents have to remove upper garments to enter the main sanctum and no restrictions for ladies. It takes around 15 minutes to have a satisfactory dharshan on a normal day. We reached the temple by 10:45 and had excellent dharshan. 

The plan was to go to Ponmudi and stay overnight there. The route is the NH of Thenmala-Trivandrum and take diversion to Ponmudi at Palode. We had lunch here at hotel Maharani. The lunch was excellent - a typical Keralite lunch with red rice, sambhar, pachadi, puliseri, pappaya poriyal. The raw pappaya poriyal was excellent and tasted like cabbage. A remembered lunch!

We went through Vithura and got to the Ponmudi road. The Ponmudi road is quite scenic and has 22 hairpin bends. The forest area is very scenic and thick. The last 28 kms are through forest area and it takes around 90 minutes to cover this with short breaks for sight seeing. The roads are good. We reached Ponmudi by 2 PM. We had pre-booked our lodging in the only available stay at Ponmudi - KTDC Golden Peak; by Kerala tourism department. The facility is excellent offering great views of the hills around. The rooms are spacious, clean and well maintained. The pathways are laid well for people to go around the lawns and gardens.

After a brief rest, we went to the Ponmudi hill points by 4 PM. The place is more than amazing and truly stands to the state, known as God's own country. There is a watch tower, a view point, which are designated, however, one can freely roam around anywhere in the place. The watch tower is on top of a hillock, but the watch tower not usable. Elders would find it difficult to hike this, which takes around 15-20 minutes. 

We also roamed around for some time and enjoyed great weather - sunny, cloudy, foggy and the rains. We spent around 1:45 hours here and enjoyed every moment there. The random switch of climate between fog and sunny and then rain was one of its kind to enjoy.

We had coffee, ice creams and snacks at the cafeteria available nearby and came back to the room. The evening was more amazing as the weather became cold and the sky turned almost red and purple. The evening was set for a grand treat for photographers and nature lovers.

We had good dinner at the KTDC restaurant Orchid. The service was good and so was the food. Ponmudi was no short of surprises and relaxation.

Day 4

The morning explained by the place is called Ponmudi. The sunrise just lit up this peak alone in golden colour and rest of them were still in shades. Ponmudi - means golden peak; the place stood to its name when the sunrise happened. The glittery sky was excellent and none can realise the time, as it runs by.

After the buffet breakfast of idlies, upma, bread, jam and butter, we started from Ponmudi. Our plan was to visit Poovar Vizhijam and Kovalam. We reached Kovalam by noon and checked into Hotel Unwind resorts. The Kovalam beach is split into two parts through a cluster of rocks. The second part has huge number of resorts and restaurants lined up. The beach stretches till the Vizhinjam lighthouse and the starts the Vizhinjam beach. Unwind resort is just on the beach and one has to walk to any of these resorts in this wing from the parking area of Kovalam beach. The rooms are very clean, spacious and adequate place to keep luggage comfortably. The place also has space to dry clothes on the terrace. The manager and staff were helpful too. There is a seafood restaurant (Malabar cafe) in the front and Lonely plan, a pure vegetarian restaurant in the rear.

After check-in, we started to Poovar island. It is around 20 kms from Kovalam. The place is one of the most popular beach islands of India. The Poovar beach is approachable by boat, provided by many operators. They charge Rs.4000 for one hour trip and Rs.5000 for 90 minutes trip. The boat is dedicated for us. The operators first show up a photo album on what all are in the store to see and lure you in the beauty inside. The album shows whatever you can see and nothing less!! We took the longer trip which takes a round another island. 

We said we did not have lunch and the operator said that we can have lunch in one of the few floating restaurants near the beach. We started the trip around 12:50. The trip on a small covered motor boat is eventful. The boat driver stops by the mangroves and shows us various small islands, views and birds like, water crow, cranes, eagles, bald eagles, kingfishers and much more.

The mangroves are excellent to go in boat. The route is covered like an arch and in some placed the sun finds it difficult to peep in. The drive is definitely memorable. In 20 minutes, we were nearing the Poovar beach island; one side backwaters, in which we travel by boat and other side the fierce Arabian sea.

The driver first stopped us by the floating restaurants to order some food and advised us we can go to beach and come back and have food. We chose the Pure vegetarian restaurant Saravana Bhavan -  ordered veg biryani and chilli garlic rice with dhall fry and went to the beach.

We get dropped by the backwaters side and the whole island is like only 100 m by width at this point. In a minute we get closer to ferocious waves! Tourists are not allowed by the waves as they are very ferocious and quite deep immediately at the edge of the island. Having visited 3 such island beaches in last few months, Paradise beach in Pondicherry, Pulicat lake beach and Poovar, each has its own richness and abundance of beauty. This Poovar beach is called Golden sand beach for its yellowish colour reflecting like gold. We spent around 25 minutes here and returned to the boat. 

We reached back to the floating restaurant and has lunch. The food was excellent and tasty. Though it was little oily, it was prepared fresh and nice. 

Back on the boat, we went through the backwaters to see elephant rock, a rock which resembles a elephant immersed in water.

Then, a small rock mounted with a cross and Mary with Jesus.

On opting the lengthier tour, we were taken through narrow canal like backwaters between lots of mangroves and coconut trees. We also sighted the coco island, full of coconut trees, partially merged in backwaters.  We saw lots of eagles and water birds all along.

We reached back to the boat jetty by 3:30, took much longer than the package said, and no fuss by the operator. We thoroughly enjoyed the trip and though it might be costly at the ourset, it was an excellent memory to cherish with.

We next stopped at the Vizhinjam beach. The beach is a rocky beach and none can venture into it as it is fully fenced. The waves hitting the rocks and splashing all over was a great sight to watch. Tourists throwing plastics all over, mostly into unapproachable regions of beach was very nasty to see!

Vizhinjam light house, a must-to-do on our list was next. They charge Rs. 20 for adults and Rs.10 for kids and camera. The light house is not so tall but offers great sight of the Vizhijam and Kovalam beaches and ofcourse the mighty Arabian sea. There are narrow steps the climb up-to 6 levels and then a final very steep iron ladder to reach the top level. Reaching the top is a bit of challenge for elders. Once made, it is a grand view. Up to 6th level, a 4 member lift is also available. The views are magnanimous. We spent around 15 minutes at the top and came down.

We reached back the rooms and ready for the sunset view at Kovalam beach. The beach was heavily crowded on this Sunday evening. The sunset was only visible partially as it was clouded and lots of haze. We spent the entire evening till 10 pm in the beach across snacks and dinner.

We had dinner and next day breakfast at Restaurant Lonely plant. The food served was very fresh, yummy and of very good quality. One needs to order and wait with patience, may be, 15-20 minutes to enjoy food here.

Day 5

Sunrise and beach .... enjoyed the waves for couple of hours in the morning and had breakfast. We had our flight back to Chennai by 20:30. We requested for a late checkout by 14:30 and the manager of Unwind accepted for it. We also booked a cab to goto Veli beach post lunch and then to airport.

We had some light lunch after heavy breakfast in Lonely planet. In between, we visited the beach whenever we want and cherished the beauty to the maximum. Our cab arrived at 14:30 and reached Veli Tourist centre in 40 minutes. Entrance fees is Rs.5 per person. The Veli tourist centre has backwaters, bridge views and access to beautiful Veli beach. The premises also has lot of small vendor shops and KTDC restaurant. I had visited this place 16 years ago, but, then, it was very beautiful. Now, the backwaters were filled with plants and no boating in the backwaters. All across, the place has well laid walkways and garden on either side. The access to beach towards is across the backwater through a floating bridge. 

The Veli beach has sort of yellow and red colour mix of sands. The beach has lots of small vendors resulting lot of pollution. The waves were quite ferocious here as well and the beach guards were whistling to keep the tourists safe from water. This beach too was quite steep and the waves were gaining speed minute after minute. We enjoyed the beach for around 30 minutes and left with no real intention to depart apart from catching the flight.

Packed dinner of appams and veg stew from India Coffee house near Shangumugam beach, thanks to the driver, and we were to the airport.

Overall, a mixed flavour in the trip covering zoo, temples, beaches, light house and golden hill top! Kerala is definitely God's own country.... no short of sweet and everGREEN memories !!