I got an opportunity to club this year’s (2006)adventure trip and our colleague Vetrivel Murugan’s Marriage trip. Myself and my friend Sukumar(Suku) had ample time to plan this trip as we had prior knowledge of his marriage. The place of the marriage is Rajapalayam (70 Kms from Madurai situated in between Madurai-Tenkasi(NH208)). The famous Saaral Kutralam is 70 Kms from Rajapalayam. We drafted a tour programme centering kurtalam. The marriage is on 26-08-2006(Sunday) at Rajapalayam.
Myself and Suku(Only two) decided to go by his Maruti Omni. To avoid night driving we decided to start the previous day’s(Saturday)morning itself. Other colleagues ((A.Duraimurugan, A.Balakrishnan, P.V.Narayanan(PVN), K.V.B.Gururaja, S.Karthik, R.Ganapathy, M.Velmurugan(Vel)–ISD),N.Narayanan-EVP’s off,S.Chandrasekar - Assy & Naren(Oracle Hyderabad)) decide to take the train route and return to Chennai immediately after the marriage. But Mr.PVN and Mr.Vel extended their stay to one more day to visit Kutralam along with me and suku.
25-08-2006 Saturday
We (myself and Suku) started our trip from Manapakkam-L&T campus around 7.00 A.M. to Rajapalayam(Via Trichy and Madurai)
(Mudual Naal – Sollikka Perisa Onnumea illea drivingleyea nearum poayuduthu.
8.30 A.M. Tiffin at Hotel Highway Inn (before Madurantakam)
(Nalla Hotel)
1.30 P.M. Meals at Trichy Karpagam Hotel (Nearer to TVS Tollgate at the right side of the Road before Kajamalai Junction). Very good Meals and good service.
Trichy to Madurai (Via Viralimalai)
5.00 P.M. Reached Madurai (440 Kms)
To avoid traffic and to save time we had taken bypass route to reach Thirumangalam. Bypass road is not good. It is better to go through the city.
Rajapalayam is on the way to Sengottah (NH208) after Srivilliputhur.
Lots of bridge reconstruction works are going on. Slow drive. Literally I got more tired in this stretch than Chennai-Madurai.
That night we had very good dinner at Pon Muthuramalingam kalyana Mandapam where the marriage is scheduled.Train Boarded friends also reached Rajapalayam around midnight.
27-08-2006 Sunday
07-00 A.M. – 10-30 A.M
Myself,Suku & Chandrasekar Visisted nearest temples.
The list includes Sankarankoil Sivan Temple,Srivilliputhur Andal temple , Srivilliputhur Madavilagam Sivan Temple & Thiruvannamalai Temple (Called as Then Thirupathi).
After kalayana Sappadu(Lunch) we four (myself,suku,pvn & vel) proceded to Kurtalam by Maruti Omni others returned to Chennai after spending time in madurai by visiting local temples.
Though NH208 is very narrow with more bends and curves but it is without potholes and easily motorable till tamilnadu border. It is a pleasure to drive this stretch because of the greenery on both sides of the road. Tree dotted, this road, adds tonic to minds. Before 5 kms from kutralam you branch it to kutralam town. Don’t take the other tenkasi -kurtalam circuitous route.
We reached courtalam around 4.00 P.M. in the evening. Because our rooms are booked thro’ Tamilnadu Tourism Development Coporation (TTDC ONLINE BOOKING facility (WWW. TTDCONLINE.COM)), it is easier to check in without much difficulty. TTDC is running two complexes in Kutralam. Kutralam - Unit I is on the Tenkasi Kutralam main road. The other (kutralam - Unit II) is little away in a residential area. We are allotted rooms in II. Both units are equally good and well maintained. After relaxation we proceeded to aintharuvi(Five) Falls. Enroute there is a TTDC Boat club. We enjoyed boating. Then We reached Five Falls. After seeing the force of the water, beauty of the five falls and lighting arrangements there, we decided to take bath. Then we returned to Room to take towels and extra dresses. There is a toll to enter that area but it is valid to till midnight. So again we drove to five falls and enjoyed taking bath in the fierce falls. Though it is very cold at the beginning, it became tolerable and enjoyable after initial moments. After that ,the day ended with light dinner at TTDC Hotel and sleep.
28-08-2006 Monday
We started early in the morning. We proceeded to Palaruvi. It is around 20 kms from kutralam. Which is on the kerala tamilnadu border. And it is only 2 kms from the Tamilnadu border. The route is sengotah-kollam famous ghat section. The roads are good till tamilnadu border. After that roads are very very bad. The falls is in the middle of the forest and manned by forest dept., You have to get entry passes at the entrance gate to enter into the forest. The in entry gate is on the main Road. And it is easily locatable. If you are not having vehicle it is not possible to visit this place. Because to reach falls you have to travel a distance of 5 kms. But falls is really good. And it is worth visiting. By seeing the snowwhite colored falls you can very well justify the name (Pallarvi). Because of the rough terrain it is less crowded. And if it is early morning still less crowded. On that day we four only at that place excluding forest service personnel. We done bathing till we felt enough. The falls is descending from a height of 300 ft and pitching straight into the ground without any obstacle. As no eatables available here take some snacks with you to avoid tiredness. The forest cover in this area clearly indicates yearly rainfall in this area. If you go with proper preparation it is good for a day’s picnic.
As PVN & Vel returning to Chennai by that evening we left that place with no other choice. Otherwise we would have spend some more there. Then we went to Thenmala Dam. The place is beautiful and it is in the middle of the dense forest. They are having ecotour boating to view the wild animals in close circles. But they require minimum 20 people for a boatride. As we are only four we havn’t taken that. After visiting the dam we returned from there.
On the way to sengotah we stopped at the famous train overbridge to take photos. We have taken photos of the bridge with train crossing over it. We returned to kutralam for lunch. We visited the main falls, kurtalanathar temple and Sirtraruvi. Then we dropped PVN & Vel at Tenkasi railway station for their onward journey to Chennai. After dinner we again visited main falls and temple then went for sleep.
Kutralam is the city of waterfalls. You can see water falls everywhere in the city. They are mainfalls, pazhathottaruvi, Aintharuvi(Five Falls), Chenbagadevi aruvi, Sirtraruvi and Thenaruvi. Sirtraruvi is on the way to Aintharvi and it is not worth visiting but if you want to go to Chenbagadevi aruvi you have to walk thro’ dense forest for about 3 kms from here. But it is worth going to Chenbagadevi Aruvi. Here the Water is crystal clear and with more herbal content. It is a pleasure to bath here. As this is not having motorable road, there is no other way to reach this place, except to walk the distance. Thenaruvi is another 2 kms from there. We came to know that also a verygood aruvi. We skipped that because of the distance and forest route. We came to know that one has to literally crawl some distance to reach that place. You can visit the mainfalls but don’t take bath there. Aintharuvi is good for bathing. You require forest permission to go to pazhathottaruvi. Now it is open only for VIP’s.
After vacating the room at TTDC myself and suku continued our journey to Old kurtalam aruvi, which is on the way to ambasamudram (ambai). You have to branch off from Kutralam Ambasamudram road after 5 kms to go to Old kutralam falls which is 3 kms from the main road inside forest. The falls is very nice and it is advisible to take bath here. After spending some time in exploring the area we moved from there to ambasamudram. One has to catch the Tenkasi Ambasamudram Main Road to reach Papanasam. But it is easy and enroute lot of sign boards are there for easy location. Our plan was to visit Papanasam, Agastihar Falls and night stay at Mundanturai Tiger Reserve Sanctuary Forest Guest House. Enroute to Ambai, after kadayam, a road is branching to Papanasam. It is a short route to papanasam without touching ambai. We had a general introduction letter from Forest Ranger Officer, Mr.Nehruji, Chengulput division, brother-in-law of one of our colleague, Mr.V.Lakshmi Narasimhan. Forest officials generally obliged to his letter. They helped us a lot in providing facilities as required by us in previous tours. We showed this letter to papanasam forest dept. office and enquired about staying at mundanthurai but to our dismay this time his letter not worked. At that time, there were no forest rangers in that office . All had gone for a meeting at nellai(Trinnelveli). So next in command, Asst. forest ranger, politely refused. He directed us to approach the ambai deputy director office, forest divison. We reluctantly turned back to ambai to the deputy director office. There we got blunt negative reply from the staff. We decided to stop approaching the forest officers in plains. We decided to move further and try our luck in the uphill sanctuary forest office itself. At the end of the Papanasam town, forest check post is situated, where upgoing vechicle numbers are registered. Agasthiar falls, Mundanthurai Sanctuary and karayar dam (Banatheetham) are on the Agasthiyarmalai hill or pothigai malai. The road is very bad till agasthiar falls. And it is branching off from the Karayar main road to Agashtiar Falls . Not much seenery around agasthiar falls. Falls is not worth visiting. And the surroundings are very dirty. Mundanthurai Wildlife Sanctuary forest Ranger office is situated on the main road between Agashtiar falls and Karayar dam.
Mundanthurai Tiger Sanctuary is situated in the southern end of Western Ghats. It is bound by forests in west, north and south and by villages in the east. Agasthiarmalai is around 1700 mtrs above sea level . which falls within the core zone of the Reserve and it is the 3rd highest peak in South India.
To our surprise, We got good response for the letter at Mundanthurai Forest Office. Though the ranger was not available, others instantly responded to this letter. They informed the forest ranger over phone. The Forest ranger was kind enough to allow us to stay in the forest guest house that night. All these were done over phone by the supporting staff.
We were given a nice house to stay. We entered the guest house forgetting to lock the doors of our van. Suddenly when he heard some noises from outside, We hurriedly came out of the house and found about half a dozen monkeys inside the van. It was our luck the monkeys escaped with some eatables without touching or damaging other costly things like camera and suitcase.
After taking some rest, we went to Karayar Dam. It is a nice place. You have to cross the Karayar river by boat to reach banatheertham falls. We decided to go to banatheertham by next day. After spending some time wandering in the dam area we returned to our forest guest house.
Mr Shanmugam, Forest Guard, is a nice man. He suggested visiting the Servalar Dam. Along with him we visited the dam in the evening. The road to dam is surrounded by thick forest. And the dam is not open to general public. He told us the rare possibility of sighting wild animals alongside of the dam road. To our dismay we could sight only deers. The dam sight is picturesque. ¾ of the dam is filled with water. We enjoyed the chill climate and dust free atmosphere. We returned to the forest guest house after spending some time on the dam.
That night we had a verygood lunch at the forest guest house. That night we had a sound sleep because of the mosquito coil. Generally my advice is to always take some mosquito coils whenever you go on tour to forest areas. Because in forest areas you can find lot of mosquitoes and other insects.
30-08-2006 Wednesday
We woke up early in the morning and hurried to karayar boat jetty to reach banatheertham. We were forced to wait at the boat jetty for want of required numbers for the boatride. The required number is minimum of 15. After some half an hour wait we were joined by a group of 12 boys from Sattur. The boat journey to falls was about 20 minutes. When the boat crosses some distance and turning to a radius, you can see the full view of the falls in between two hills. You have to climb small rocks to reach the falls. When the dam is in full capacity you can’t go near the falls and take bath. You can only view the falls from a distance. During rains, the water stream brings uprooted trees and branches with it and throw them into the reservoir. The bath at this place is highly recommended because of the clean water. We had taken enjoyable bath here. After finishing our lunch at the guest house we proceeded to downhills. We really enjoyed our one day stay at this forest guest house. The quality of the food was good and homely. The forest dept., staff here were very cordial and friendly.
Our next plan is to go to Manjolai Tea Estate (Upper Kodayar Dam) and stay at the Kudiravetty Forest Guest House that night. Because it is not a regular tourist place one has to get the ambasamudram’s range forest officers permission. We find it very difficult to get that permission though we have one of the forest ranger’s(Nehruji’s) introduction letter. We requested the ambai forest range officer his permission to visit and staty at manjolai. Our repeated requests went into the air. He bluntly denied permission. It is the first failure in our last 10 trips. Then we deciede to visit the manimutar falls and proceed further to kanyakumari instead of wasting time here. You have to turn right after ambasamudram on the Tiruchendur road to reach manimuthar. Manimutar falls is another small falls in the western ghats. Because we already visited bigger falls like kurtalam and banathreetham. We felt no interest in that falls. Otherwise it is a good place and it is on the main road to manjolai (Upper Kodaiyar).
We returned to ambai for lunch. After lunch we proceeded to kanyakumari. To kanyakumari take the Tiruchendur road from ambasamudram. This road goes thro’ Cheranmahadevi and panakudi and turning right to kanyakumari after panakudi. All along this road you can see the beauty of the western ghats. Though the road is passing thro’ plains, you can find the western ghats within 2 kms distance from the road. The claimate is always cool and it is pleasure to drive along this road.
We reached kanyakumari around 6.00 P.M. But we couldn’t see the sunsetting into sea because sunsetting can be seen only after the month of October. TTDC Hotel is on the beach road. It is having the good seaview than other Private hotels. We decided to stay at TTDC.
But the attached restaurant is not functioning. After taking some rest we had a lazy walk on the beach.
31-08-2006 Thursday
Padmanabhpurarm Palace : We woke up early in the morning. We proceeded to Padmanabha puram palace. To go to palace you have take right turn at tuCKalai on Trivandrum road. This majestic old palace is about 60 kms from Thiruvanathapuram and 35 kms from Kanyakumari. The palace is built in the Travancore architectural style. This is famous for its 17th and 18th century murals, carved mahogany ceiling, colored mica windows, secret underground passages, inner courtyards, durbar hall, museum, four poster medicinal bed, Belgian mirror, pictures of Lord Krishna, granite dance halls and special black shiny floors which are made from a unique combination of egg white, jaggery, lime, burnt coconut, charcoal and river sand. It is the largest wooden palace in India. Originally, the area comprising the fort, the palace and its surroundings covered a total of 86 acres. Today the palace area administered by the Kerala Department of Archaeology is about 6.5 acres. Such mastery od craftsmanship will be a recurring theme as you meander through the 127 rooms of the palace - most are large and airy, used for dwelling and administration, while the smaller ones are toilets and utility areas. Almost all the rooms feature intricate carvings in teak and the wood of the jackfruit tree, and narrow verandahs are common around most rooms.Adjacent to the palace is an archaeology museum that should not be missed. The museum is a treasure trove of sculptures, carvings mural paintings, manuscripts, stone inscriptions, armoury and coins, dating from the 8th to the 18th Century. Fairly well organised, the period, which were characterised by a simplicity reflected in a penchant for curvature in form.
A steep of wooden stairs leads to a trap door that opens into the first floor, which houses the mantrasala, or council chamber, where the king held his cabinet meetings.On the Southern side of the palace is the ootupura, 78m long double - storied building that houses two large dining halls, each of which can seat 1000 persons at a time. Past the bathing ghat are the four-storied king's quarters, called the upparika malika, built by Marthanda Varma in 1744 CE. The centrepiece of attraction in the King's bedroom is the huge four-poster bed made of 67 pieces of wood from medicinal trees. The bed, which has a symbol of serpents entwined around a cross over a pot of nectar is believed to have been gifted to the king by the Dutch East India Company during the time of Captain Adrian Van Goens, who complied the Hortus Indicus Malabaricus in the 16th century. The third floor of the King's quarters houses the puja room, perhaps the most captivating part of the palace, filled as it is with 8th Century murals in dull, earth colours, bathed in the yellow glow from the oil-wick lamps. Adorning the ladies' quarters, called veppumoottu kottaram, are two large belgian mirrors that stretch almost from floor to ceiling, while on the walls are watercolours of Lord Krishna, the dark-skinned lover boy of 6,000 gopikas. The watercolours have since been shiffted to another room, but it requires a feat of imagination to conjure up visions of princesses gazing forlornly at the impossibly perfect images of the master of love, even as dancers performed at the navarathri mandapam below, all glimpsed through slats in the viewing corridor meant exclusively for the ladies of the Kingdom. It is closed on Mondays.
Mathur Thotti Palam(Hanging Bridge) : Take kulaseharam route to reach Mathur Hanging Bridge. It is the tallest as well as the longest trough bridge in Asia, having a height of 115 feet and a length of one kilometre. This is situated in Mathur, hamlet of Aruvikkarai revenue village in Thiruvattar Panchayat Union. It is across the river Parazhiyar. The canal on the bridge carries water for irrigation from one side of a hill to the other side of a hill. The trough has a height of seven feet with a width of seven feet six inches. The canal is being shouldered by 28 huge pillars. By the efforts of late Thiru. K. Kamaraj, the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in 1966, this canal was constructed as a drought relief measure and for the development of agriculture in Vilavancode and Kalkulam Taluks
Thirparappu Water falls : Another Important attraction nearer to this is this waterfalls. Kodayar makes its descend at Tirparappu and the water fall at this place is about 13km. from Pechiparai dam. The river bed is rocky and about 300 feet in length. The water falls from a height of nearly 50 feet. On either side of the river, on the left bank of the river in between the water falls and the weir, there is a temple dedicated to Siva enclosed by strong fortification. You can have a pleasant boating here.
Pechiparai Dam : This is across the river Kodayar. The weather is very pleasant and attracts a large number of tourists. The reservoir is surrounded by dense forests which are famous for their valuable trees and rich would life such as tiger, elephants, deer etc.A hill tribe, ‘Kanikars’, dwell in the dense forests around the lake.
Then we returned to kanyakumari. In the evening we just wandered around beach to enjoy the cool climate.
01-09-2006 Friday
We started early for the Vivekanada Rock Memorial & Tiruvalluvar Statue Boating. If you don’t start early then you have to stand in the long queue for boating services. We enjoyed the boating in the rough sea. We Proceeded our journey thro’ Trivandram, Nedumankadu, Palode, Kulathupuzha, Ariyankauvu, Thenmala, Shengottah to Kurtalam. We decided to stay at kurtalam TTDC that night. We booked our rooms thro’ Kanyakumari TTDC. The mountainous route from Trivandram to Kurtalam is really enjoyable. The greenery around the roadside is very much eyecatching. At Trivandrum we missed the road to Nedumangadu by taking a wrong turn. Because we enquired some wrong person he directed us in a wrong route. Aimlessly we drove in and around Trivandram to find out the right road to Nedumangadu. Throughout our journey, in Tamilnadu, we find good Road directions and other Road safety signs. That is missing in Kerala. We were forced to identify the right route only by enquiring the passsersby . On the way we went to Ponmudi. Ponmudi is a small hill resort. The ghat road to ponmudi is very narrow and with about some 23 hairpin bends. Negotiating up/down vechicles in the opposite direction is very difficult. By reading the kerala route map, we assumed that ponmudi is on the way to Palode from Trivandram. But it was somewhere after Chullimanoor the route is branching to palode and ponmudi. We wrongly taken the ponmudi route. After reaching ponmudi hillstation we realized to go to palode again we had to come down to downhill. But it is a good place. Though the road to ponmudi is not good for driving, the roadside seenery till ponmudi, and the surrounding places in and around ponmudi, makes it worth visiting. We reached kurtalam around 8 P.M. We booked for our next day’s stay at Madurai TTDC here itself.
02-09-2006 Saturday
We started very early by 6.00 in the morning. Our plan was to buy some milk gouas(pal goua) at srivilliputtur, proceed to madurai, local sight seeing and night stay at madurai. We purchased gouas and snacks at Venkateswara Sweet stall,No.2 Sannadhi Street, Srivilliputhur, a sweet stall nearer to Andal Koil entrance. There is one good roadside Hotel “Kathiravan” at the Andal Koil Bus stop. You have to wait in queue to get served. Though the hotel is small and housed in a small house. The food Stuffs are very tasty. If you happened to cross Srivilliputhur don’t forget to visit this homely hotel. Good variety and tasty food. We reached Madurai around 11.00 a.m. There is one good hotel opposite to TTDC madurai. We had taken our lunch there. Around 4 ‘o clock in the evening we had a leisure walk thro’ bazaar to Meenakshi Amman Temple. We got very good discount at TTDC. TTDC is having a novel scheme to encourage the regular customers.
TTDC Scheme
Three consecutive days stay in a single TTDC Hotel or three Consecutive stay at different TTDC hotels in a offseason period is eligible for 10% discount on the total bill. Because we stayed continuously at TTDC Hotel from Kanyakumari to madurai. We got that discount. It is heartening to see that a govt. institution like TTDC is doing such a promotional activity. Mr.Ravinderan, Manager-TTDC, Kanyakumari told about this scheme. He is very good person. After knowing that I, my friends and my family are regular customers of TTDC he shown lot of enthusiasm in explaining various schemes of TTDC to me. If they want to develop TTDC they should encourage people like Ravindran to do much more interaction with customers to bring more business to TTDC. Now TTDC(TAMILNADU TOURISM DEVELOPMENT OF CORPORATION) is a different organization. It appears smart in a totally user friendly environment. The rates are compettive with its facilities. I request you to use TTDC facilities whenever on tour in tamilnadu. For further details and for online booking visit this official website http://www.ttdconline.com.
03-09-2006 Sunday
We started early from Madurai to Chennai. Nothing special except leisure driving. We reached Chennai around 4 p.m. in the evening. Another good tour ended.
