It
was my long time wish to visit to the tip of India, Kaniyakumari, Tamil
Nadu. I got the chance when I visited my
in-laws at Nagercoil. Kaniyakumari is about
20 kms from Nagercoil. We got a bus in
Nagercoil to Kaniyakumari which took about 2 hours to reach Kaniyakumari. It is where Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and Bay
of Bengal converge. (Read Part-1 & Part-2)
After
we got down from the bus the first place we wanted to visit is Swami Vivekanda
Rock which is situated in the sea, about a half kilometer from the shore. We had to follow a queue to buy the tickets
for the trip to the rock. Even after
buying the tickets we had to follow another queue for the ferries. There are
two ferries which make many trips to take tourists from the shore to the rock
and back. The capacity of each ferry as
I expect is about 100 passengers per trip.
That
was the first time I travelled by a ferry and I never sailed on the sea before. It was like a Titanic experience for me. The other attraction was Tiruvalluvar Statue
which was built in the year 2000. It was
made to remember the famous poet in tamil, Tiruvalluvar who wrote couplets called
‘Thirukural’ containing 1330 such kurals (couplets)
in 133 different categories which contented in three sections, namely, Aram (Morality), Porul (Wealthiness), Inbam (Pleasure). This has been translated in many languages in
the world including English, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Hindi, etc.
The
statue is 133 feet height reflecting the 133 categories weighing about 7000
tons. We had no chance to visit the
statue as it was undergoing renovation and cleaning. So, we missed the opportunity to have a near
look at the statue. But we could enjoy having
a glimpse of the statue from certain distance.
When
the ferry arrived for the next trip we got a chance to get into that. It took a few minutes to reach the Swami
Vivekananda Rock. Just after we got down
at the rock, the first thing we did was photographed ourselves with the ferry
in the background.
We
had to remove our foot wears at the place that is meant for. By the time we reached the rock it was
already afternoon and the rock started heating up the foot. There was a white line path all around the
rock which helped us to get away from the heat.
Swami
Vivekananda Memorial hall was built in the year 1970 on the bigger rock is
situated about 200 feet away from the Tiruvalluvar Statue which stands on the
other rock in the sea. There is also a meditation
hall for visitors to meditate. No
photographs were allowed inside the halls.
It is believed that he swam in the sea to the rock to meditate. The place is a must visit one.
Virtual Tour of the Rock: Click here
Information:
Ferry
fee: Rs.34/- for Adults, Rs.17/- for students
Entrance
Fee: Rs.20/-
Visiting
Hours: 8.00 am to 4.00 pm
