Travelling

We planned for a weekend outing to Bhimashankar. Bhimashankar is one of the 12 jyotirlings in India. The shivling here is made in silver and visitors are allowed to enter inside and can touch the shivling. We hired a cab and started from Pune at around 9.30am. The distance from Pune to Bhimashankar is around 130kms and it took us ~3-3.5 hours to reach the temple which included a breakfast break of about half an hour with kids. As we were travelling in a Xylo, these big cars move a lot during cuts and curves on the road and that induces a nauseatic feeling. I had my 8-month old kid with me and she vomited twice due to this. We reached the temple and it took us around 2 hours to reach inside and do the darshan. Darshan happened nicely, but as it was 3pm, it was time for Aarti and they had to close the premises for cleaning, the temple staff were in a bit hurry. We also visited ram temple which is also in the same campus. While walking back, we had corn chaat from one of the vendors. We t...

We reached Trivandrum around noon. Pappukutty beach resort was booked for us. This one was the least clean hotel of all the ones during our trip. The advantage of the resort is it is located on the beach (Kovalam beach) with all sorts of shops and restaurants around it. Because the resort is on the beach, it is a bit far from the road. If you've heavy luggage, you'll need to call the receptions they'll send a cart to carry the luggage till the hotel room. We were given a room on the ground floor , but it had dampness on the walls leading to smell in the room. We checked about it with the reception staff and they got us shifted to the adjacent room. There was swimming pool right outside the room which could be used by the guests. My husband and daughter enjoyed in the pool, while I enjoyed a freshly prepared omelette in their in-house restaurant. As it was afternoon, and the sun was too hot to go to the beach. So, I went for a fantastic fish spa for my feet and hands. It was...

We checked-in to hotel Temple Citi in Kanyakumari. This was the most fabulous room amongst all of them that we have checked-in during the entire trip. A spacious 2-double bed room with wardrobe, TV, sofa, AC. The room was very neat and clean and so was the attached washroom. This hotel is very near to the boating point. Their restaurant is located on the 3rd floor. The breakfast buffet spread was average, but the restaurant was too warm and humid, making it uncomfortable for the guests to enjoy their breakfast. Finally, we had to get a few breakfast items down to our room and have them there. The old man who carried our luggage during check out was nice enough to thoroughly check the room and make sure we hadn't left any of our belongings there.

Apart from the well known chain of hotel Saravana bhavan world wide, there are a lot of restaurants by the same name all over south India, predominantly in Tamil Nadu. We found one such restaurant very near to Rameswaram temple and thought of giving it a try. The restaurant was quite full when we reached there. We got a table in 2-5 minutes and settled down. We ordered South indian dishes and everything was yummy. The service was a little slow, may be due to too many customers, but overall everything was tasty and upto the mark.