Flowers scattered on the waters in Poovar Islands - a nature's paradise
I
had visited Ranikhet during my regular winter sojourn in November, 2022 and my wife
had also gone out with her friends, but as my daughter was having her semester
examinations, she could not visit anywhere during the winters and had to stay
put at home.So after her exams were over,
she insisted that we visit Kerala.So I
made arrangements and thought of going there on 29th December, 2022
and spend about ten days there.However,
my daughter was not willing to leave her mother alone to usher in the New Year
and hence we proceeded to Kerala on 2nd of January, 2023 late in the
night and returned back on the 8th of January, 2023.Being a very short period, we only visited
some of the well-known destinations in Kerala.To begin with, the flight that I had booked for the 2nd of
January, 2023 got re-scheduled from afternoon to late night and we reached
Trivandrum (earlier name of Thiruvananthapuram) late at night and checked into
a decent hotel in vicinity of the railway station.We got up well in time the next day, despite
lack of proper sleep and checked out of the hotel in the morning itself, as we
were to embark on tour to places around Trivandrum.
A map of Thiruvananthapuram - sourced for internet
Thiruvananthapuram
is the capital of the State of Kerala.
The city was earlier referred to as Trivandrum until 1991 and thereafter,
the government here decided to reinstate the city’s original name of Thiruvananthapuram. Tourism has contributed mainly towards the economy of the city and the
district that goes by the same name. The entire tourism package such as hill
stations, back waters, beaches, lagoons, and wildlife sanctuaries being present
in the district and its vicinity, allows multiple tourist agencies of flourish
here. Foreign tourists also flock to Thiruvananthapuram, for medical tourism,
as there are more than fifty recognized Ayurveda centers in and around the
city. This is primarily due to Ayurveda’s immense popularity in the West.
Medical tourism is further promoted by world-class modern medicine hospitals
that are present in the city. Recuperation facilities are also available at five-star
beach resorts and hill stations nearby. World-famous Kovalam beach is also
situated in this district. The famed temple
of Sree Padmanabhaswamy that is lost
in antiquity, is also situated in this city. It is not possible to determine its
age from any reliable historical documents or other sources as to when and by
whom the original idol of Sree Padmanabhaswamy was sculpted and consecrated.
The Temple finds references in Epics and Puranas also. It is said in Srimad Bhagavatha
that Balarama i.e. elder brother of Lord Krishna visited this Temple, bathed in
Padmatheertham and made several offerings. Nammalwar, a famed 9th century poet and one
among the 12 (twelve) Vaishnavite saints of the Alvar tradition, has composed ten
hymns in praise of Lord Padmanabha, so the antiquity of this temple and its
reverence has been well known through ages.
Harvesting coconuts in Neyyaar River by locals
The
taxi that had been pre-booked by me for the entire five days trip, picked us up
from the hotel premises in Trivandrum and the first destination that we headed
for was a place called Poovar Island, which is a tourist destination in Neyyattinkara lying about 34 Kms.
away from Thiruvananthapuram by road. Standing at the southernmost
tip of Kerala, it lies within the proximity of a natural harbor, Vizhinjam. Poovar
homes an estuary connecting itself with the sea when the tides rise higher than
their average level. Thus, this
destination provides an experience of backwater as well as an estuary. Poovar remains encircled by backwaters and
opens to form a sea. This island homes to a beautiful beach called Poovar beach
with golden sands which marks a point where the sea, river, lake, and beach can
be seen at the same time.
The famed golden sand beach in Poovar
The region beyond the bridge is in Tamil Nadu - a view of the backwaters
An Egret waiting for its prey on a rock formation
Poovar at best can be explained as an unspoiled,
unexplored and eco-friendly tour spot of Kerala, this beach presents a scenic
view of the backwaters of Kerala. Once you reach here and board the boat, you
start experiencing the exotic species of flora and fauna that are endemic to
this zone. This beach also marks the opening of Neyyar River and its meet point
with the vast Arabian Sea. There are scheduled boating trips for daily
tours or one can engage a boat personally and are available at pre-determined
rates, but as always and all across India, the scope of bargaining remains, so
I booked a boat (although we were only two i.e. me & my daughter) for
Rs.2500/- for an one hours plus trip, which was being offered initially to me
for Rs.3500/-. The shiny golden sand of
the Poovar beach is ever inviting the tourists to take a stroll with their
footwear off all day around for a relaxing day. As the beach zone is not
so vast, one finds a very few residents nestling here and even the number of
shops etc. are also fewer, as it get periodically inundated with sea water
during high tides. Remoteness of Poovar is what makes it a pleasant place
filled with solitude and solace and large number of resorts can be seen on the
coast line away from the beach along the coast line.
The famed Kovalam beach of Kerala
A Five star hotel (Taj group) on sea beach of Kovalam
After having visited Poovar, we retraced our way back towards Trivandrum and on the way we visited the famed Kovalam beach, although I was not much impressed with it viz a viz its fame, beaches in Goa are far better and have a better ambience. However, Kovalam beach has been a favorite haunt of tourists since the 1930s. A massive rocky formation on the beach head has created an expanse of sandy bay with calm waters that is ideal for sea bathing. The beach offers many leisurely activities like sunbathing, swimming, herbal body toning massages, special cultural programs and catamaran cruising are some of them. Life on the beach begins late in the day and carries on well into the night. The beach complex includes a string of budget cottages, Ayurvedic health care resorts, convention facilities, shopping zones, swimming pools, Yoga and Ayurvedic massage centers. Accommodation facilities for tourists at Kovalam range from five star hotels to budget hotels and the choice of food available at restaurants and cafeterias range from Continental varieties to South Indian delicacies. Nearest railway station: Thiruvananthapuram Central, about 16 km away. As it was almost mid-day by the time I reached here, I did not find it much interesting and after loitering around for about half an hour, we headed towards our next destination.
A panoramic view of the Varkala beach
After having travelled back to Thiruvananthapuram
city, we than headed further towards Varkala,
which is about 51 km north of in Thiruvananthapuram district and 37 km south of
Kollam, south Kerala.Varkala, a calm
and quiet hamlet, lies on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram district. It has several tourist attractions that
include a beautiful beach, a 2000-year-old Vishnu Temple and the Ashramam –
Sivagiri Mutt a little distance from the beach.The Papanasam Beach (also called as Varkala Beach) is about ten
kilometers away from Varkala Township.The nearest railway station is in Varkala itself and is situated about 3
km away from the beach area.Since it
was to be the last destination for the day, we headed straight to the
hotel/home-stay that we had booked, although the website claimed it to be a
resort.We were wee bit disappointed, as
there was no facility for any food or beverages etc. available (Mango Resort
was the name of the joint) there.We had
to retrace our steps back to the helipad area to get some food, which was a
Kerala thali joint and the food was quite alien to our palate, so we just
filled in our tummy with whatever we could and headed back to the hotel to take
rest.
As the sunlight glimmers and reflects from the sea waters in Varkala
As the sea waves crash onto the beach head in Varkala
The eateries et al perched on the cliff side of Varkala beach
As the sun sets across the horizon - the fishermen return home
As the sun sets - it imparts a glowing golden glow to the sea water in Varkala
The only good thing about the hotel
was that it was situated only about 200 meters away from the Varkala beach, so
in the evening we both strolled down to the beach through some narrow rural
gullies.The Varkala beach is one of the
best beaches that I have visited and is as good as any other famed beachs of
Goa.It has a plethora of eating joints
strewed across the cliff head and the beach is situated in a cove below the
cliffs.One has to climb down around
50-75 feet from the cliff head to the beach below.We enjoyed a mesmerizing sunset at the beach,
followed by a sumptuous dinner at one of the joints perched on the cliff head
and being famished, without having had a proper meal during lunch, we enjoyed
every bit of the food served and the ambience and thereafter, trudged back to
our hotel and had a sound night’s sleep.So ended our Thiruvananthapuram sojourn.
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