One
evening while sipping a cup of tea and lazing around, we both were pondering as
to how we shall spend this year’s annual vacation. The usual thing came in our minds;
we normally go to some resort, stay for a day or two, roam around the place and
then drive back to our native home. There we visit some famous temples like
Kateel , Subramanian , Dharmastala , Udupi Shri Krishna Mutt and Bapanaddu in
Mulki, eat Gadbad ice-creams and many other varieties, take a stroll in Malpe beach,
visit the Kappu light house and visit our ancestral house and pay obeisance to
our deities and Snake god. Gorging on my
favourite fish Surmai and Paplet curry and Korry Rutti (Chicken gravy with rice
preparation like Papad) is also on the top of the agenda.
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| Pamban Bridge |
We
wanted to do all the above, but apart from that, we wanted to spend our three
week’s doing something more, something crazy and yet meaningful. We wanted to
have excitement and fun and spend some quality time. As we both enjoy travelling,
me for the sheer love of exploring different cities, people and experiencing
different cuisines and roads. For Saumya, it is just the love for driving. We
decided to go on a road trip. While watching the movie, ‘Chennai Express’, we
saw the Pamban bridge scene and fell in love with it. We got the idea, the push
needed to drive down South and the bridge helped us bridge our thoughts and we
made up our mind of driving down to Rameshwaram. Visiting Kanyakumari also
became part of the agenda.
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| Our Heroine - Chevrolet Beat |
Sounds
exciting, scary, dangerous, interesting and adventurous! Yes, we both were
going through all the emotions I have mentioned above. The idea was insane, the
planning had to be meticulous and the journey to be super fun. A lady driver
with years of experience marked behind driving from Mumbai to Santekatte, Near
Udupi, Karnataka State, an over cautious passenger and a lethargic driver (that’s
me) and our small city car, a Chevrolet Beat 1.2L Petrol with almost 3 ½ years
of experience behind her with the odometer displaying 35743 Kms, the three of us
geared up for a new chapter in the book of our life.
Our
plan was very simple, drive down from our native home in Santekatte, Karnataka
to Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. But in depth planning using maps and google made us
understand that it was not so simple to cover the entire distance in a couple
of days. The only option was to break the journey in to multi city visit across
the route to Kanyakumari and Rameshwaram. After going through the maps (we purchased
maps of Kerala and Karnataka), our plan changed drastically. We calculated the
distance, time to reach based on google map, our own ability to cover the
distance with only Saumya at the helm of the driver’s seat. Though I had full
confidence in her, but there was no point in being over-confident about the
entire road trip stuff.
All
the preparation was completed as far as the packing was concerned. We rechecked
the functioning of our car from all the technical and maintenance aspects. The
only thing missing was the car stereo system. We had lost it. But it was not a
major hindrance as far as our elaborated plan was concerned. A couple of days
before the D-Day, I had this hunch and thought of again going through the maps.
While going through the itinerary and the map, my eyes fell on the distance
between Santekatte and Munroe Island. For starter, it gave me jitters. The
distance was 600 odd Kms and the travel time mentioned was almost 14 hours. My
calculation started working on the experience we normally have during our drive
from our home in Mumbai to Santekatte. It takes almost 16 hours including the much
needed washroom and food breaks, with the roads in proper shape. Here, in the
present situation, we were new to the roads, the place. I informed Saumya about
the new roadblock and decided to break that journey further into two. After
rechecking the map, we decided to halt at Kappad Beach, Kozhikode, Kerala
before commencing our journey to Munroe Island and instead of leaving on the 15thof May 2016, we decided to leave a day early. Thankfully, we were able to get a
room.
My
only trip down south was to Chennai a decade back, that too on an official
trip. This was an opportunity for both of us to explore south, no pressure whatsoever.
We had all the time in the world to enjoy the trip, the way we wanted.
The
day was 14th of May 2016, when we started our adventure trip. The
odometer was indicating 35743 Kms and the time clocked 08:35am when we started
from Santekatte. With Ganesha on the dashboard, food articles and cold drinks
in the back seat and a determination to make this trip a success in our heart
we set out coolly and calmly. The sliver of apprehension build over these past
couple of days was put to rest when we hit the main road. The final destination
on that same road on earlier occasion was only till Mangalore. This was the
first time we were driving beyond Mangalore. After driving for couple of hours
we crossed the Kerala border and were driving through Kasaragod district. The
roads of Kerala are single, but one of the most organized roads we have ever
come across. All the milestones, the turns and the names of the place stared
right in your face while driving. There was no need for us to ask any person
for the directions. Our sleeping partner , the GPS with a lovely voice used to
wake up once in a while when the network showed some bars which helped her
raise her voice and help us with the directions way past we had left the place
miles behind.
The
only hitch we thought was about the place to relieve ourselves. We devised a
plan to counter this new threat while on the move. We used to halt at petrol
pumps, fill the petrol tank and relieve our tank. This was continued across our
journey in all the three states. It was the sensible thing to do as the petrol
pump wash rooms were clean, our primary responsibility towards our car of
filling petrol for its consumption was also taken care of (I am being mean and
selfish out here as a typical human, putting the blame on others) and also
supporting the government’s initiative of Swatch Bharat. One thing we noticed
in Kerala was that majority of the men wore a mundu (Lungi). How about starting
a Mundu Business? This fleeting thought entered our minds. Never mind! We were warned about the election during our
travel time on road in the two south states, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. We still
went ahead and glad we did. We encountered rallies of political parties with
the loudspeaker playing their election manifestos and bike rallies and small
vehicles playing music with the posters of the candidate giving you a smile
with a namaskara. During the drive , we also had our own share of debates and arguments over the way Saumya was driving or not seeing the speed breakers. I already have that experience even in Mumbai roads but someone I felt it was always better to be on cautious grounds when we are in new place and roads.
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Vasco-Da-Gama Monument
|
Next
morning, we started for Munroe Island, Kollam around 09:30am. When we came across
the monument, we both were appalled to see its state. It was in shambles. Nothing
can be done or I guess will be done unless and until the locals take a stand,
the archaeologist help in preserving it. With that thought we moved forward.
Our lunch hour was spent in Mithila Restaurant in Kochi. We then moved ahead to
Munroe Island, Kollam. We reached Munroe Island at 06:25pm. The odometer was
showing 36374 Kms. It was one of the longest drives of the entire journey.
The home stay we had booked in Munroe Island was
one of the best decisions we had taken. It was evident from the service, the
home-made food and the canoe rides which we undertook twice were worth every
penny. The two canoe rides which we undertook; one during the early morning
hours and the other one during the evening time was simply outstanding. It was
a different experience for both of us as it drizzled during the morning hours
when we went boating in that 40 year old canoe.
During the canoe ride, our host
Mr. Bimalan gave us information on the local flora and fauna which was very
informative. The stay was very comfortable for us as our hosts were
exceptionally courteous. It was also
because we went with an open mind and knowing the facts that we were going to
stay in someone’s home and the family members would be taking care of our stay.
Drinking tea by the small water inlet was a refreshing experience altogether.
We also saw how coir ropes were made with the help of a simple machine or tool.
We gorged on good Kerala cuisine consisting of Meen Curry, Rice, Puttu, Black
gram gravy, dosa, fried fish, papadam’s and red skin bananas.
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| Enjoying Tea and Cake |
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| Enjoying Backwaters, Munroe Island |
The two days
spent in Munroe Island will always remain in our heart. During one of our
dinner table conversation with the host, we were told to visit the
Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram which we will come across our route
to Kanyakumari. Also, we were asked to visit the Padmanabhapuram Palace falling
in Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu. As these two places were on the route to
Kanyakumari, we thought of visiting the famous temple and the palace. We bade
our host good bye and commenced our journey further.
It was 07:00am when we started from Munroe Island. We had taken the Kundera
route (220 Highway) based on the map and our GPS ma’am. Early morning it was
drizzling in Munroe Island and as we joined the highway, it started pouring in
some places.
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| Street Outside Temple |
By the time we reached Padmanabhaswamy Temple, it was 09:30am and
the odometer clocked 36458 Kms. Changing myself into the traditional white silk
lungi and bare bodied (dress code) and Saumya wrapping a cloth around her waist as she was wearing a Punjabi dress
(Either Saree or half Saree is allowed for Ladies), we entered the temple. The
security personnel were also wearing the traditional dress code inside the
temple. The only difference was that they were wearing their badge and were
communicating over walky-talky and frisking the devotees before entering the
temple. The deity Lord Vishnu (Padmanabha) reclines on the serpent Anantha in
the main sanctorum. One of the biggest temples in the south, we both got
immersed in its beautiful architecture and a mystical feeling overcame us.
After coming out of the temple, I changed myself again into jeans and t-shirt
in the car and we started for Padmanabhapuram Palace at 10:20am.
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| Clock Tower of Palace |
After a couple of hours of driving, we observed the registration numbers of the vehicle changing to TN-XX-YY-ZZZZ. We understood that we have now entered Tamil Nadu. The sign boards could be seen in Tamil. It was 12:50pm when we reached Padmanabhapuram Palace in the Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu State.
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| Ancient find |
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Volunteer Aunty in
the Palace Museum
|
After buying the tickets to enter the palace, Once Inside, I got lost in the history of the palace. There were volunteers who were describing the deep history and architecture of the palace. The palace is huge and magnificent in every aspect. There were huge corridors, office of the palace staff, some royal furniture, crib, kitchen articles kept on display. I would like to add over here that we found an old aunty who was very excited to give us details about the kitchen museum. She had such a grace that I clicked her snap. When she saw her snap in my camera, she was very much excited and with innocence her eyes, she said it has indeed come out very well. We bade her good bye and started for Kanyakumari at 03:07pm with the odometer now clocking 36524 Kms.
On
our way to Kanyakumari, we came across one of the best roads we had encountered
during our trip. We reached our hotel around 04:17pm and our odometer was
showing 36564 Kms. While parking our car in the hotel, our eyes fell on the
Swami Vivekananda Memorial and the Statue of the Tamil Poet Thiruvalluvar.
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Swami Vivekananda Memorial
and Statue of Thiruvalluvar |
Both
were standing magnificently in the middle of the sea. We could see hordes of
visitors lined up on the memorial to have a glimpse of the famous structure.
The history of the memorial is quite fascinating and makes an interesting
reading. We booked a car and went to the sunset point to have a dekho at the
famous Sunset point. But unfortunately for us, the weather was dark and gloomy
due to the onset of the monsoon season in that region and hence the sun got
covered behind a veil of dark clouds. Nevertheless, we had good spicy south Indian
bhel at the point and came back to our hotel room. The Swami Vivekananda
Memorial was lit at night and what a sight it made. You have to see it to
believe it. Next morning, we took the ferry to reach the memorial. Looking at
the hordes of tourist made me feel good but then looking at the mess we were
creating as a tourist made me feel sick. After walking through the memorial, we
visited the library and souvenir shop inside the premises and purchased some
books on Swami Vivekananda. We both clicked some snaps and made our way back to
the ferry. We visited the Kanyakumari temple and the Triveni Sangam where the
Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal converge. We left
Kanyakumari around 12:20pm for our next destination, Rameshwaram.
After paying the tax, we were on the road to Rameshwaram and after a couple of Kms, we entered the Pamban Bridge.It was ‘WOW’. What a magnificent structure it is! Though there is no permission to halt vehicles on the bridge,we alighted from our car after seeing many tourists like us clicking snaps or just standing on the bridge gazing at the sea below.We clicked some snaps and after promising ourselves to come next day again to have an early morning view of the sea, we left the place.
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Rameshwaram Temple
|
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| Saatchi Hanuman Temple |
We reached our hotel at
05:25pm and the odometer clicked 36886 Kms. The hotel was bang opposite the
Indian Ocean. In the evening, we went for a stroll on the road running parallel
to the Ocean. A small puppy was following us. Saumya is crazy about dogs and
she tried to play. The puppy was very small and was scared. It ran back and hid
itself behind some bush. We let it go and strolled for some time with the sound
of the waves hitting the rocks, the only sound we heard. The night was calm and
peaceful.We had hired a car to take us around the place. We visited many
places of historic and mythological importance related to Ramayana. It’s a
paradise for devotees of Shri Ramji, Hanumanji and Ramayana as an epic.
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| Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam's House |
The
place which gave us Goosebumps was the house of our beloved, “Shri A.P.J Abdul
Kalam”. While reading the various thoughts, the great man has penned down it
really made me emotional. The kind of persona he carried wherever he went was
amazing and quite evident from the photographs kept on display out there. Our
Journey was successful on a bigger scale.
I would like to write about our
driver for the day, Suresh. He was like a mini-celebrity of the area. He knew
everyone and it was because of him that we were able to visit and enjoy so many
places in less time. A big fan of Rajnikanth and Ajit, a hard working guy, he
made our drive inside Rameshwaram very comfortable.
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| Meenakshi Temple |
The next destination on our itinerary was Madurai, famous for the Meenakshi Temple. We left our hotel in Rameshwaram around 3:35pm and reached our Hotel in Madurai
around 07:20pm with the odometer showing 37062 kms.
The hotel in Madurai was one of the finest we have stayed in these past couple of days. The service was good. The room was tastefully done. Early morning we visited
the Meenakshi Temple and took blessing from the goddess. It is a magnificent
temple with intricate carvings, a powerful deity and mystical in every way. We went
shopping and purchased some Madurai silks garments. There was mad rush in the shop where we were doing our purchasing. After having some snacks, we
commenced our journey for Mysuru around 12:13pm.
After driving for some distance
we both were feeling very hungry and thought of halting at some wayside
restaurant and have lunch. On the way, we missed some restaurants which were
either on the other side of the road or far away from the main highway. On the
road to Mysuru from Karur, luckily we found this mess next to a bakery where we
thought of digging our teeth in some pastries and other bakery food items. I
somehow was not convinced about staying alive on those bakery items and hence
thought of checking out in the mess. Luckily for us, some food was still
available. It was one of the best meals I had in the entire journey apart from
the homestay food in Munroe Island. It was a typical Tamilian food served on
Banana leaf. We thanked god and started our journey with a satisfied belly and
a wide smile on our face. We also purchased some bakery food items and cold
drinks for future consumption. By the way, the name of the mess is ‘Kongo Mess’,
Covai Road, K.Paramathi town on the road to Mysuru from Karur. While driving, we
remembered Mr. Bansal, F&B coordinator of the hotel we stayed in
Rameshwaram informing us about the 27 hair pin bends we will be encountering
after Bannar towards Chamrajnagar on the Dhimbam ghat. We did not think about it then. But now, we
were scared but never spoke about it. We paid our obeisance to the goddess
Bannari Devi in the Bannari region of Tamil Nadu though the pooja was still
going on with the curtains closed. As it was a forest region and we both had
the 27 hair pin bends in our mind, we thought it was better to start
immediately. We entered the ghats and the first few minutes were cool. But when
we saw the board mentioning the start of the 27 hair pin bends, we were on our
guards. The first bend approached and both were on pressure. It was too curvy
and steep. Trucks were coming from the opposite direction. Saumya had some
experience about driving on the ghats but this was the mother-father of all the
ghat’s she has drove so far. While driving through the 1st hair pin
bend, we started praying to god that everything should go smooth. This was the
situation till we completed the 27th bend. We both were tensed about
this part of the journey and we really thanked god for making us drive through
it smoothly, touchwood. There was an expression of victory and satisfaction on
Saumya’s face once we were out of the ‘danger’ zone.
I
would like to add that whenever we pass through some forest region I always
wish to see a snake passing through on the road. While driving through Bannar
to Chamrajnagar, I was lucky as I witnessed a snake pass through the road
swiftly at a distance of couple of metres from our car. It was really a surreal
site but I was really really happy to see it slither through the bush
fulfilling my dream.
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| Mysuru Palace |
It
became dark when we reached Chamrajnagar. This was one of the worst phases of
the journey. The roads were dug on both the side; it was like we were driving
our car in a wavy pool of mud. There were multiple diversions, no proper street
lights, motorist were left to defend themselves on those god forsaken road.
Somehow the 20 odd Kms took most of the time of our journey and to make matter
worse, it started raining. Those 20 odd Kms were really a nightmare for us.
Somehow, our miss dependable, our car brought us safely till the hotel door. We
reached Mysuru hotel around 08:55pm with the odometer clocking 37488 Kms.
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| Chamundeshwari Temple |
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| Sand Art |
We stayed in Mysuru for 2 nights and 3 days. We tried to squeeze in many visits like the visit to the Mysuru Zoo, Mysuru Palace, Sand Museum and the famous Chamundeshwari Temple on the Chamundi Hill. Some Mysuru silk garments shopping was inevitable and we exactly did that and purchased some. We stayed in two hotels in Mysuru and we had the two extreme sides of experience, one very good and the other terribly bad, In fact worst. The time came when we bade good bye to Mysuru and turned the movement of our journey back towards our native house in Karnataka.
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| Back to Mysuru from Chamundi Hills |
It was the 22nd of May and after completing our packing,
we started our journey back home. The time was 12:45pm when we started from
Mysuru and by the time we reached our home, it was 07:05pm with the odometer
showing 37841 Kms. What an enthralling journey it was. We just had a myopic
vision about the entire trip when we started. We just thought that we have to
travel from our native place to down south and enjoy the road trip. But when we
came back home, we were having very different notion about the entire
experience.
It
was really amazing to see amalgamation of different culture thriving everywhere
we went during these few days of our adventure. Be it food, clothes, language,
everything was different, yet everything had a common factor, we are not even a
sliver of this vast and deep place, called Earth. Everywhere we went, history
played a major role in all the places. Be it the temples, the museum, the
palace or the beach, each of them was decorated with rich heritage and history.
We felt really happy and proud to be part of such diversified ethnicity and
community.
Though
in our itinerary, we had just written about the cities we were going to halt.
But when we started with journey, there was more to it than what our brain
thought. We travelled through small hamlets, towns, cities, kaccha raasta,
national highways, single lane roads and multiple lane roads. We got an
opportunity to eat in a variety of eatables in roadside stalls, in regular
restaurants and in 5 star hotels. We met different people from different
backgrounds, culture and attitude (almost all of them helped us whom we
approached). Even though there were some issues in the interiors due to acute
shortage of water, we saw lines of colourful vessels kept on the road to fill
water when the water tanks come. Looking at that, I wondered, the people from
these interiors were more cultured and knew civic sense better than some of our
city bred humans. The trip was more of an introspection of us, our myopic
vision and our limitation in understanding our own people, our own place and
our own culture. We understood why we are a great nation with so many problems
on hand and multiple diversified views on almost all the major things like
religion and politics. It was like coming out of a cocoon and looking at the
universe around us from a different perspective.
We
were privileged to come across ferocious beach , calm backwaters , huge motor
boats , ships , ferries , small canoes , big temples , small temples , famous
temples , not so famous shrines , churches , masjids , varieties of flora and faunas
, cuisines , fruits , which we would not have encountered if we had not
undertaken this suspense filled journey. We saw some of the smoothest
transition across borders of the state, just a board stating that we were
entering a different state. The sms our mobile operators send stating the welcome
message along with roaming tariff was another digital way of knowing the
different states. Meeting so many strangers, yet they were not strangers to us
for that little moment they were with us was something very peculiar. Our
apprehensions were put to rest by just a genuine smile from these strangers who
made a lot of difference during our journey.
Our
Intention was to enjoy the three weeks of our annual holiday, but believe me,
we learned a lot, we enjoyed a lot, we missed our 3 ½ year old baby Ishani a lot
(there was no time when we did not discuss her), fortunately like I have
written our car stereo was not traceable and we ended up talking and discussing
on various topics which we probably would not have the opportunity to discuss
at home. It was a time of self-discovery for both of us.
Our itinerary and Overall Summary of
our Trip:
Santekatte,
Karnataka - Kappad Beach, Kozhikode, Kerala - Munroe Island, Kollam,
Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala (Visited Padmanabhaswamy Temple and Padmanabhapuram
Palace on our way to Kanyakumari, not part of the original plan) - Kanyakumari , Tamil Nadu - Rameshwaram,
Tamil Nadu - Madurai, Tamil Nadu
- Mysuru, Karnataka.
We
clocked 202 Hours 30 Minutes; i.e. 8 ½ days, crossed borders of 3 South Indian
States - Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, halted at 7 Cities , spend approx. 43 hours in the car and travelled
a total distance of 2098 Kms by driving on some of the best roads of India.
Our
intention was to touch the southern end of India but the trip touched our heart,
very deeply.
Thank You for taking time and reading.
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| Selfie Moment of the Two Travelling Bugs |
