January 8, 2016

2015 Ke Beach Beach Mein

January 08, 2016 Posted by Vijay , No comments
I had planned the trip to Thiruvananthapuram and Kanyakumari (Dec. 27- Dec. 30), almost 4 months back. More so to get good enough discounts because New Year eve can be very expensive. Since the time I  tied the knot (Some might call it 'dreaded'. My reference here is open to interpretation for all about my own personal take ...) more than 5 years back, the number of blog posts have plummeted. This will be an earnest effort from my part to change that pattern. Fingers and toes crossed.

The plan was to board the Nagercoil express train from Salem (my better half's native), to Nagercoil and then visit places around including Kanyakumari (20 odd kms from Nagercoil) by bus. Two days in Nagercoil and then on to Thiruvananthapuram. I normally mix and match my trips to cover one day in a good resort and the other day or two in a normal hotel. This keeps the trip on the economical side (or so I believe :)). Getting big discounts from sites like Yatra (45%), Makemytrip (50%) or Goibibo is a big bonus too. This time it was Sahana castle in Nagercoil and Over the hill resort in Poovar.

I was asked multiple times what I would do for two days in Nagercoil. I only had a plan for one day to go to Kanyakumari. So I had to find a plan for the other day. I have always believed, a trip is about enjoyment and fun without the stress and pressure of having to cover all the historic places. My belief is, in the hurry to cover all the places, one just mounts unnecessary tension on oneself and sacrifices the whole purpose of the trip. So I am always very happy to choose off beat locations which are sparsely crowded.


Fortunately for us, once we reached Nagercoil through the gusty winds in Kaattadi malai and the numerous windmills that dotted the scenic hills, we found Muttom to be a close enough spot for us to visit from the hotel. We took rest at the hotel and left for Muttom in the town bus. We were in luck, as we could visit the Muttom light house (timings are 3PM - 5PM), which is the first ever light house in Tamil Nadu, and setup way back in 1882. And then onto the Muttom beach which was more crowded than usual because of the Christmas time and new year time of the year. All said and done, it was quite memorable and a hidden gem near Nagercoil. In fact work is going on in Muttom to promote it as a tourism spot in the very near future.

The next day we were off to Kanyakumari, which was unfortunately a bad experience. What with gusty winds leading to cancellation of boating for the entire day, and then to make it even worse, my daughter disappeared for a while in the crowd in Kanyakumari. We came back immediately, visited Suchindram and headed back to Nagercoil. We halted at my relative's place in Thiruvananthapuram overnight, and went to Over the hill resort in Poovar the next day.

We hired a backwater cruise organized by the resort which worked out much cheaper, and got to the beach. The cruise was very refreshing and reminded me of our trip to Pichavaram a year back or so. The beach itself was again not very crowded, which was much to our liking. Poovar is a fantastic place to chill out, and highly recommended. I definitely recommend a trip to Muttom and Poovar to anyone visiting Thiruvananthapuram and/or Kanyakumari.

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