neutronbalance: Thiru Anantha Puram

Trivandrum has evolved from the word Thiru-Anantha-puram, which quite literally explains the posture that Lord Vishu lies on his serpent bed. By far, this has been my longest stay in my hometown. Having always visited Trivandrum during vacation, I used to frequent the spots favoured by tourists.

This year, we decided to visit the around the city and the capture the places in a difference way.Have put together this collection:

Santhigiri Ashram

The Santhigiri Ashram is around 16 kms from our house on the MC Road.A picturesque and serene place, it is a must visit for people wanting to have a peaceful day. The highlight of the Ashram is the Lotus shaped sanctum sanctorum which contains the moral remains of the Ashram's founder.

This is Varkala - Papanasam/Sivagiri. Considered as equivalent of Kasi, it has an amazing beach and a temple few metres from the shore.This shot above is of a stream that was running a few feet from the actual beach. The setting sun threw a good reflection and made a good shot :) Varkala is one of the most preferred tourist spots in Kerala. A 100km round trip on a sunday evening made this a trip to remember.

The Evergreen Shankumukham: For a change, this shot of Shankumkham is from the beach towards the road. Everytime we feel bored, we head to this beach. As kids we used to visit this beach primarily to ride cycle in the city's only Traffic park. If I remember right, a hour long rental of cycle used to cost Rs.2. You could say that this is the place that taught us to ride properly.. oh and the awesome cutlets we used to get!! Swapna should know this :) :) :)

How can one leave out KOVALAM!! Awesome place, ain't it? So here we go.. a collection of photos. We visited the Vizhinjam Lighthouse too this time when Vijay and Swapna came down this year.

Meenmutti and Ponmudi concludes the list of places we could travel to. Ponmudi is a hill station 57 km from our house. It is a hillstation with nothing on top other than the peak! No houses, no commercial establishments, nothing! Just Pristine greenery on all four sides. For the weary travellers there is on Kerala Tourism Development Corporation's cottages available for stay. Heard they are very pricey and hence even the foreign tourists prefer to take a taxi ride from trivandrum and returnt the same night. This was my first ever drive to a hill station and thankfully, had only 22 hairpin bends. 22!! with a full load on board and Avanthika with us too, I was a bit tensed. Thankfully, the scenery and the traffic-less road made it a drive to remember.

Meenmutti waterfall is 18 km downhill from Ponmudi. Once of the most well maintained public spaces I have ever seen. THere is even a deposit to be paid for all the plastic bottles we take inside the location. On return, if we have all the bottles intact, the deposit is returned, else there is a fine for littering too! In a nutshell, this is an awesome awesome place to visit! Abhilash, I think we ought to start our road trip from ponmudi. lets plan.

Enroute Meenmutti, on our car, Christened The Road Runner :