Daughter was so thrilled when we reached Kanyakumari atlast. I have told her stories about the Ferry ride and the seasheels and other stuff you could see there being sold. As our hotel room was booked only from 10.00am and as we had reached Kanyakumari by 9.15am, Mr. Shankar suggested that we go straight away to Baghawathi Amman temple.
Ellame commercial aagivittathu(all have become commercialized). What to do. When we went inside the temple we were asked to reach the entrace by doing an appradakshinam which we felt quite odd. But what to do we have to follow what the police personnel say. We came and stood in the queue. When we reached the entrance, we were asked to switch off our mobile phone and hand over the camera to them. Howmuch ever you promise that you will not take any snaps, they wont let you take your camera with you. You have to keep it in the tray they show and get the token. Only when they give the token they tell you that when you collect the camera you need to give Rs. 5.00. grrrrrrr.
Even after you enter the temple there is a long queue before you enter the sanctum. It goes round and round and when you reach the sanctum, almost 30 to 45 mins would have passed. Inspite of this they dont allow you to pray in front of the lordess for more than a minute. They keep telling move, move and move. But we managed to have a good darshan as the family before us made Archanai (for the fear of bringing back everything carefully we didnt do any Archanai) We were also taken as the part of their family by the gatekeeper. So he dint usher us much.
The exit door was very low, just 4 ft in ht so you have to bend low to exit from the sanctum. By sanctum I meant not the Karbagriham, but the nearest place before it. We came out of the temple, collected our camera and Mr. Shankar suggested we have brunch before going to the hotel. So we went to a nearby hotel (sorry I forgot the hotel name). Inspite of me warned so many times by our IL friend Uma Sridharan, we dared to step into hotels in Kanyakumari. But luckily the hotel we went was quite ok in appearance. So we thought the food will also be good. We all ordered only Idly. Dont wonder why I say only Idly, because we were afraid to experiment with other dishes.
I was telling my husband that what ever you do you cannot spoil the Idly. I was proved wrong by the cooks of the hotel. The idly was big and it was like a stone.
(Beware those who plan to visit Kanyakumari, take bread, butter, fruits and even vegetables like carrot and Vellerikai with you. Dont think that it is an extra weight. Instead of spoiling your appetitie and stomach, this is much much more better).
Then we checked in to the hotel. The friend who helped us, have asked another of his friend to book a room and that friend had booked a room in the newly constructed hotel, and only on stepping in we found out that there is no lift and we had to climby four floors to reach our room. Our room is in the fourth floor. (As you wont get rooms anywhere without prior booking in Kanyakumari, we didnot cancel the room and we thought, just for the night, so it is ok.) As the fourth floor was quite close to the terrace, we accepted it (need not climib more stairs the next morning to view the sunrise).
After checking in and placing the luggage in our rooms, (thanks to the hotel staff, they carried all the luggage and saved us), we just took some necessary items, water bottle, wet tissues towels and some biscuits in a backbag and climbed down to go for the ferry ride. The queue was quite large and we waited and waited and waited in the queue for almost 2 hours. Even after getting the tickets for the ride the waiting continued for another half an hour.
I really wonder why only two ferries are in operation. When there is this much of crowd coming in they could operate more ferries atleast in the season time.
When we reached the dock to climb into the ferry, those people who were patiently standing in the queue got impatient and jumped lines and also jumped into the ferry. Men and women were asked to stand in different lines in the dock. So husband took son with him and me and daughter stood in the women's line. Though we were standing 10th or 12th in the line, we didnot get a seat to sit and were forced to stand. But that gave us a chance to enjoy the ride and the sea breeze.
Ellame commercial aagivittathu(all have become commercialized). What to do. When we went inside the temple we were asked to reach the entrace by doing an appradakshinam which we felt quite odd. But what to do we have to follow what the police personnel say. We came and stood in the queue. When we reached the entrance, we were asked to switch off our mobile phone and hand over the camera to them. Howmuch ever you promise that you will not take any snaps, they wont let you take your camera with you. You have to keep it in the tray they show and get the token. Only when they give the token they tell you that when you collect the camera you need to give Rs. 5.00. grrrrrrr.
Even after you enter the temple there is a long queue before you enter the sanctum. It goes round and round and when you reach the sanctum, almost 30 to 45 mins would have passed. Inspite of this they dont allow you to pray in front of the lordess for more than a minute. They keep telling move, move and move. But we managed to have a good darshan as the family before us made Archanai (for the fear of bringing back everything carefully we didnt do any Archanai) We were also taken as the part of their family by the gatekeeper. So he dint usher us much.
The exit door was very low, just 4 ft in ht so you have to bend low to exit from the sanctum. By sanctum I meant not the Karbagriham, but the nearest place before it. We came out of the temple, collected our camera and Mr. Shankar suggested we have brunch before going to the hotel. So we went to a nearby hotel (sorry I forgot the hotel name). Inspite of me warned so many times by our IL friend Uma Sridharan, we dared to step into hotels in Kanyakumari. But luckily the hotel we went was quite ok in appearance. So we thought the food will also be good. We all ordered only Idly. Dont wonder why I say only Idly, because we were afraid to experiment with other dishes.
I was telling my husband that what ever you do you cannot spoil the Idly. I was proved wrong by the cooks of the hotel. The idly was big and it was like a stone.
(Beware those who plan to visit Kanyakumari, take bread, butter, fruits and even vegetables like carrot and Vellerikai with you. Dont think that it is an extra weight. Instead of spoiling your appetitie and stomach, this is much much more better).
Then we checked in to the hotel. The friend who helped us, have asked another of his friend to book a room and that friend had booked a room in the newly constructed hotel, and only on stepping in we found out that there is no lift and we had to climby four floors to reach our room. Our room is in the fourth floor. (As you wont get rooms anywhere without prior booking in Kanyakumari, we didnot cancel the room and we thought, just for the night, so it is ok.) As the fourth floor was quite close to the terrace, we accepted it (need not climib more stairs the next morning to view the sunrise).
After checking in and placing the luggage in our rooms, (thanks to the hotel staff, they carried all the luggage and saved us), we just took some necessary items, water bottle, wet tissues towels and some biscuits in a backbag and climbed down to go for the ferry ride. The queue was quite large and we waited and waited and waited in the queue for almost 2 hours. Even after getting the tickets for the ride the waiting continued for another half an hour.
I really wonder why only two ferries are in operation. When there is this much of crowd coming in they could operate more ferries atleast in the season time.
When we reached the dock to climb into the ferry, those people who were patiently standing in the queue got impatient and jumped lines and also jumped into the ferry. Men and women were asked to stand in different lines in the dock. So husband took son with him and me and daughter stood in the women's line. Though we were standing 10th or 12th in the line, we didnot get a seat to sit and were forced to stand. But that gave us a chance to enjoy the ride and the sea breeze.
Comments