Since we were travelling in both Tamil Nadu and Kerala, I would like to list all the famous Temples that we covered. Also, I want to mention the names of the hotels that we stayed in. In Tirunelveli, Sri Janakiram Hotels on Madurai road. We stayed there on Dec 6th, 2007. Very comfortable. In Nagercoil, we stayed at Hotel Chitra, we reached here on 7th night around 8 p.m. This one was ok.
Let me begin with Dec 6th. This time, we got a Christian driver, 23 year old, quite a pleasant personality. We were ready for our trip by 5:30 a.m. But the driver did not show up until 7 a.m. There were four Temples on our list to visit first. This is where Rao worked with the maps and impressed the driver a lot. Anyway, the following Temples were visited.
Parthasarathy
Mahadevan and Parvati
Subrahmanyam
Vishnu
The next main attraction was the Kutralam (Kurtalam or Courtallam) water falls in Kollam district.
Courtallam is a well-known bathing place and bathing in these waterfalls is considered good for both mind and body as these waters are said to possess medicinal properties. The water passes through many herbal plants of the forest before hitting the ground. Rao and Nirmala bathed in the falls. I waited at a distance holding their bags of dry clothes. Men and women had separate but adjacent locations of the falls. Normally, people get oil massages and then go under the falls. Small shops attracted my attention. I purchased some mineral oils, spices, herbs etc. I noticed a small Temple and wanted to go inside once my two companions were ready. But when they got into dry clothes, they wanted to have a cup of coffee. The driver was not interested in entering the temples anyway. I did not want to drink coffee. So, I said that I would wait for them near the same shop. It took them longer than I thought and they said since it was getting late, that we should make a move. After driving a bit, I mentioned the Temple and they both said that they already finshed visiting that Temple on the way from the coffee shop. My ego was hurt again!! I never wanted to travel with these two again!!! (That is how I feel when I am angry. Without them, there is no yatra. We are otherwise, such great company)
The scenic drive was beyond words in that area. I did not see any wild animals or Elephants. Just saw the signs.
We bought a lot of Halwa in the Janakiram Hotels. The hotel manager got it neatly packed for us in 1/2 kg and 1 kg pkgs. We were told that it was very famous. Later on, we distributed it to all our relatives and friends generously. With lot of ghee and sugar, it was quite heavy (both calorie and weight wise).
From here, we headed towards Kanyakumari. I will cover it my next post.
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