Temples near Kasaragod

Sri Gopala Krishna Temple at Kumble

Kanipura Sri Gopala Krishna Temple at Kumble (Kumbla) is that of Lord Krishna as kid. This temple is one of the ancient temples in Kerala and being said that the idol was given by Lord Krishna himself and Yasodha was worshipping this idol. Since the day was a bandh, we were the only devotees in the temple and spent time peacefully for 10-15 minutes.

Ananthapura Lake temple

Next, we visited the Ananthapura Lake temple. Ananthapura temple is around 7 kms from Kumbla and is said to be the Moolasthanam of the Ananthapadmanabhaswamy temple at Trivandrum. This temple is located in the middle of a lake. The lake hosts a crocodile called Babia, serving as the guardian for the temple. It is said that the crocodile eats only the food that is served to the Lord. This crocodile is said to be vegetarian and never harmed anyone till date. We could not see the crocodile but took a snap of the photograph that was put up. We spent around 20 minutes in this temple and around.

8 kms from the Ananthapura Lake temple is Madhur Shree Madhanantheshwara SiddhiVinayaka Temple. When we went, the temple was undergoing massive restoration work. We could not see the main deity; however, the temple is quite big and getting a re-build.

Trivandrum Temples and Kulathupuzha

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 on Tuesdays and Fridays. This temple holds a record of having 2.5 million ladies in the single biggest gathering in history. The Goddess is well decorated and the temple premises are quite clean. We completed darshan 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.

Padmanabaswamy temple

We next 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 cloakroom at a very low cost. As we entered the main gopuram, we saw the free darshan crowd to be considerably high. We opted for Rs.180 darshan, for which a pair is 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 darshan 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 darshans 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.

Our trip took a direction towards Kulathupuzha after visiting Varkala beach.

We took the route of Varkala - Kallamballam - Kilimanoor - Kulathupuzha. Kulathupuzha is one of the important temples of Lord Ayyappan. This is located around 56 km from Varkala beach. This temple is where the Lord is incarnated in child form. This small and popular temple is on the banks of the 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 darshan on a normal day. We reached the temple by 10:45 and had excellent darshan. 

Trio trip - Tenkasi - Thenmala - Tirunelveli

Trip members: Karthik and family

Trip date: 9 - 11 Dec 2016

Trip Plan : Chennai - Tenkasi - Courtallam - Sankarankoil - Thenmala - Tirunelveli - Chennai

Day-1

We arrived in Tenkasi around 8:45 am. We had booked our cab for 3 days and also the resort in Courtallam for 2 nights. We had breakfast at the famous Vinayaka mess for varieties of Dosa and did check-in at Esakki resorts. Esakki resorts is around 2 kms before Old Courtallam waterfalls. Its a quite comfort stay amidst the mountains and we heard no noise at all, The sleep quality was quite good and the rooms were very clean. The rooms had water heaters, televisions and a small refrigerator. They do not have a running restaurant but need orders to be given 2-3 hours ahead. We never tried food there during the 2 day stay.

We started the trip going to Old Courtallam. It had water enough for 10-15 people to bath in - the day being Friday, we were the only ones to take bath - it was like a private waterfalls. Wow feeling was there as we had never seen this place with no people. Nature and Solitude - great feeling, isn't it! We spent close to 1 hour in the falls and started to Main Falls.

Main falls had very less water, given the drought this year. There was appreciable crowd of Sabarimala and some tourists in the location. We had hot vadais and tea at the main falls and prepared fore the bath. The crowd and less water did not prevent us from getting wet again. As water was very less, we were able to see the rock cut sculptures on the wall of main falls - lingas and goddesses.

We visit the Courtrallanathar Temple after the bath around 12 noon. The temple was open and we had an excellent dharshan. We visited all the sanctums of the temple. The temple is quite old and one can feel the energy as you do your prayers at the temple. Kuzhalvoimozhi Amman is the Goddess in the temple. This temple is Chithirachabai - one of Pancha Sabais of Lord Shiva.

We then had lunch at a hotel - Shree Meenakshi Restaurant - meals for Rs.60 each. The food was hot and simple - quite an average meals. This is just opposite when we reach the Tenkasi road from Main falls parking area. There are very good restaurants and small mess in Tenkasi - which we planned for other foods.

After taking some rest, we went to Sankarankoil. We started around 3 PM from the rooms and reached the temple around 5 PM. We took the route of - Courtallam - Tenkasi - Serndamangalam. The distance was around 55 kms. The temple was not so crowded. About the temple - God : Arulmigu Sankaranaaraayana Swamy and Arulmigu Sankara Linga Swamy and Goddess : Gomathi Amman. The temple is famous for Holy Sand "Puttrumann". It took around more than one hour for us to complete the dharshan of all the sanctums of the temple - the temple is quite old and big and needs patience and time to go around and be satisfied.

Around 6:30 we started back and reached Tenkasi by 7:30. We stopped by at Kasi Viswanathar temple - the most famous destination of Tenkasi. Lord Shiva is in the form of Viswanathar and Amman is Ulagamman. This temple is more than 500 years old and an very important temple in the South of Tamilnadu. It took around 20-25 minutes to have a pleasant dharshan in the temple and we were out of the temple by 8 PM.

We then decided to have food in local joint - Murali's cafe. Hot piping idlies with excellent sambhar and chutneys - no count of idlies can be kept as you gulp down the throat. The NICE dosa was equally good too! Definitely - a must taste place in Tenkasi - just outside the temple.

Day-2

After a good night's sleep at Esakki resorts, we started the day around 7:30 to Thenmala. The most awaited place in my bucket list for some time and was getting stroked off this day !

We had breakfast at Hotel AVM restaurant - Pooris, idlies, vadai and dosas. They were just ok - no complaints. We then started to Thenmala. Our first destination was Ariyankavu. We paid Rs.200 to the driver for the Kerala permit - took 5 minutes to get it.

Aryankavu is one of the important Sastha - Lord Ayappa temples. The temple is on the Ghat road - 28 kms from Courtallam. The Dharmasatha temple is reachable as we climb down around 50 steps from the Ghat main road. Male should remove their shirts to enter the Sanctum and female of age 10 to 50 are restricted to go inside. It took around 20-30 minutes for the dharshan and going around the temple. There are lots of shops along the way for domestic shopping.

From Aryankavu, Thenmala dam is around 15 kms - takes around 30 minutes. An either side you have excellent views of the running streams in shallow valleys and gigantic railway bridges. Quite a photogenic site during rainy days and not on sunny days, as was the day. They charge Rs.10 per adult and Rs.5 for children; Rs.10 for the car for entrance. Tourists are allowed to walk almost a km by feet to enter into the dam area - one has to climb around 150 steps to reach the top of the dam. It would be quite demanding for elder people, however can do it with patience. The view from the dam is quite scenic. Small hillocks all around and water in the reservoir. Quite a site! It did not demand a wow as many sites and reviews command for! It was ok.

We looked next towards the Thenmala Ecotourism park. The Adventure zone has lot of activities for the adults - like rope walk, River crossing, Rock climbing, mountain biking and likes. Since we had a mix of all ages, we preferred to slip this and move on to Children's park. This is a small park for kids to play and one can spend around 20 minutes here. Most of them are located within a km from the dam entrance. Adventure zone is 500m before the dam itself and rest of them 500m after the dam on the road to Kollam.

The butterfly park (safari) is at 3 PM only and it was only around 11 AM by the time we visited. We then decided to get back to Tenkasi. Overall, Thenmala on a sunny day was not so interesting and you need to have the right mix of gang to go to Adventure zone.

Lunch - we had at Raj Mess in Tenkasi - the lunch was simple and homely, yet tasty. The lunch was definitely one to remember and better ones in the town. After some rest, we had plan to visit Thirumalai Kovil.

Thirumalai Kovil is around 14 kms from Courtallam via Senkottai-Panpoli. We reached the temple around 5 PM. The main deity is Lord Muruga. There are around 600 steep steps to climb up to the  temple. There are well laid roads as well to reach the top by car. The hilltop offers a great view point of the green cover of Senkottai and around. Definitely, one can spend more than 1 hour to enjoy the view - sunset view is more exciting to see from the hill. A place for photographers to kill time!

Around 7 PM, we returned to Courtallam and did some shopping in the small shops all around - which normally are put up during the season of June-July and again during Sabarimalai season. It is a good time killer. We also had yummy hot parottas and dosas at a small shop near the main falls. Almost all shops would be vegetarian only during the Sabarimalai season.

Day-3

The plan was to see Manimutharu dam, Agasthiar falls and Nellaiappar temple before we catch train at Nellai junction. We started the day by 8 AM. We had our breakfast at Hotel Akshaya Bhavan in Courtallam. The tiffin was quite good here as well - pongal, pooris and dosas. The highlight of all these places is that they offer good sambhars and chutneys for all tiffin items.

Manimutharu dam is roughly around 50 kms from Courtallam - enroute - Pottalpudur - Alwarkurichi - Ambasamudram - Kallidaikurichi. One has to go through the railway crossing immediately after Kallidaikurichi railway station - 7 kms from there is Manimutharu dam. The road for this stretch is quite bad. The dam was very dry because of the scarcity of rains this year. We went on to Manimutharu falls - the tickets are Rs.15 for car, Rs.15 per adult and Rs.25 for still camera. This is sanctuary area and you can expect only bad roads here. The drive of around 5 kms is all on the banks of the reservoir - it would have been amazingly scenic if it had water.

There was enough water gushing on one corner of the falls - for 30 people to get wet. We spent around 1 hour enjoying the super cool water. A definitely cannot miss place in South Tamilnadu - for the natural beauty around and water. After drying our clothes and satisfied with the long shower, we started to Agasthiar falls.

We took the route of Kallidakurichi - Ambasamudram for Papansam (Agasthiar falls) as the road would be much better than the internal ones. This highway route is around 28 kms Also, we want to have lunch as it was almost noon when we left Manimutharu falls. We stopped at Hotel Gowrishankar - Ambasamudram. The meals was very good - simple.

We reached Agasthiar falls around 1:30 PM. The place was quite crowded as it was Sunday and during Sabarimalai season, it is expected to be crowded. Water was falling enough for a small crowd and one had to wait to take turns to get into water. We spent around 45 minutes in water and then started to Nellai.

Around 3:45, we reached Nellaiappar temple. The day was a Pradhosham and it was quite crowded. Normally, the temple does not have crowd. We had a quick dharshan before the crowd settles down for the special poojas and we also saw the special abhishekam for some time. Lord Shiva is worshipped as Nellaiappar and Goddess Parvathi as Kanthimathi Amman. It is one of the oldest temples in Tamilnadu and the prakarams as so symmetric that stands as a symbol of excellent architecture. This temple is Thamirachabai - one of the Pancha Sabhais of Lord Shiva. The temple also hosts musical pillars in the main deity mandapam. We spent little more than 1 hour in the temple.

Bought dinner at Hotel Janakiram and started back to Chennai by Nellai express - entered into the Cyclone area of Vardah !

Trip to Sabaimalai and Guruvayoor

Trip members: Karthik, Sankar, Murugan and others
Trip date: 17,18,19, 20 Mar 2016
Trip Plan : Chennai - Chengannur - Pamba - Sabarimalai - Chengannur- Trissur - Guruvayoor - Trissur - Chennai

A regular trip of Sabarimalai for anyone and nothing different in this blog. Just blogging as a reference in my travelogue.

Day-1

We were 6 people and had planned the spiritual trip in ample time. The plan was to visit Sabarimalai and Guruvayoor. We had train tickets booked across Chennai-Chengannur, Chengannur-Trissur and Trissur-Chennai segments.

We reached Chengannur by 5 AM in the morning and took a pre-booked cab to Pamba. Pamba is 88 kms from Chengannur railway station. We stopped for breakfast on the way in a small shop around 6:45 and had hot idlies and kal dosas with sambhar and chutney. The food was very yummy and satisfactory. We reached Pamba by 8:00. Compared to regular Nov-Dec-Jan season, the crowd is not even 1%. We could see the river as such and take bath at wish.

Pamba river

Shed at Pamba river...

By 8:30, we started the walk on the Kazuthai pathai and reached Sannithaanam by 10:00. There were hardly few hundreds of people and to great satisfaction we climbed the 18-Steps touching each step and telling Saranam.

Pathinettam Padi - no people !!!

Basma Kulam

Sannidhanam place

Agni Kundam

Unfortunately, Nei Abhisekam was closed by 09:30 itself owing to someone contributing Diamond Kreedom. Guided by our Gurusamy, we reached out to Melshanthi to share our ghee for next day Nei Abhishekam and get some Nei Prasadham from him. It worked out. We did have 4-5 rounds of dharshan of Lord Ayappa and decided to do more in the evening before getting down. The sun was scorching and we decided to rest in rooms. We also had lunch in an Annadhanam by the group that donated the Diamond Kreedom. Excellent food.

We took some rest and heard that Sannidhanam would be open by 5 PM. Around 3 PM, three of us went to Basmakulam and took bath and refreshed ourselves well. By 4:45 PM we went to have Dharshan 3 times, one included Karpoora Dharshanam - very fortunate; Gurusamy, having visited for 22 years, said, this is first time he saw Karpoora Dharshanam. We started back to walk to Pamba and reached around 19:30.

We had dinner at the same place where we had breakfast. The dosas were very good and dropped in Chengannur railway station by 11 PM. Our train was at 00:40 and reached Trissur by 5 AM.

Day-2

We took bus from Trissur railway station to Guruvayoor and reached by 6:45. We stayed at Akshaya Warriar Samajam - around 400m from temple. In 15 minutes we refreshed and got ready to go to temple. We got to know that it takes 2-3 hours to have dharshan at Guruvayoor. We had breakfast at Hotel Ramakrishna Lunch Home. Tiffen items were average. Coffee was good.

We reached the queue by 7:45 and had a great dharshan of Lord Guruvayoorappan by 10:00. We had Paal Payasam in the temple, sold at Rs.60 per 500 ml (plastic containers sold for Rs.10 by devasthanam in Prasadham counter). Other popular prasadams are Butter and Naatu Sakarai-Banana.

We came out and did some local shopping on the temple road. We had lunch at Hotel Saravana Bhavan - quite costly in A.C, but the food was okay - unlimited S.I.meals for Rs.175. We started back from Guruvayoor at 2:30 PM and reached Trissur around 3:45 in scorching sun. We gulped in lots of water and juices all through the trip.

We had packed dinner for Hotel Dwaraka. The food was excellent - Chappati, Kuruma and Kadalai curry - we ran out of food and wanted more! For the very tiredness, all we needed was great food - and we had it! Got back to Chennai next day morning by 6 AM. Very satisfactory trip !