I was planning for this trip since forever. Finally it’s here.

On a fine Saturday morning, we started the  trip in our bike . We first headed to Padmanabhapuram palace. We reached the palace by 9.30 am.

Padmanabhapuram palace was the official residence of the Maharaja's of the former State of Travancore.

The Palace Complex comprises of about 10 double storied traditional buildings. Almost all buildings in the palace  are interconnected.

The palace also contains 17th and 18th century murals. The royal splendor of the Padmanabhapuram Palace is quite overwhelming. The Palace Museum is located on the right of the courtyard before you enter the main gate of the complex. It exhibits furniture, wooden and granite statues, coins, weapons and utensils. The guides were not so helpful, but we walked inside the entire wooden palace and enjoyed its beauty.

We, then headed to Kanyakumari. Sun started being harsh on us. We geared up so that we are least affected by the heat. Throughout the journey to Kanyakumari, we could spot small shop selling mangoes in abundance(Rs.100 for 4kgs!!!)

We managed to reach the hotel by 12.30. It was sea facing and we could see the Vivekananda rocks from our balcony. We freshened up fast and headed for lunch. We had our north Indian meal from Punjabi dhaba. We planned to visit Vivekananda rocks& Thiruvalluar statue  as there was very little crowd.(we still waited for more than half an hour in the queue).

Vivekananda rock is more of a sacred monument dedicated to one of the most revered spiritual leaders -  Swami Vivekananda.

Thiruvallavur Statue, a gigantic 133 feet (41 m) tall statue of Tamil saint-poet Thiruvalluvar,is one of the biggest statues in Asia.

It was quite interesting.

In the evening, we rode to the sunset point and it was beautiful. at night, we spent time walking through the crowded streets with local shops. We managed to get a good bargain on cashew nuts (*wink*)

We were exhausted and just packed our dinner and headed  back to the hotel.

Our hotel receptionist was so kind that he rang the bell in the morning to wake us up for the sunrise. To my surprise, We could watch the sunrise from the hotel rooftop. That was my first experience watching sunrise.

This was a quick visit to the Shridi Sai temple on our way back.

After breakfast, by 11 am, we drove back to our place, being happy about a beautiful weekend.

It was quite a short trip, but was very interesting.