The two places you shouldn't miss are 'Varkala Beach' and 'Vizhinjam'
Varkala Beach:
Varkala beach, which is one of the fascinating tourist spots in small village known as Varkala which is located in the Trivandrum district. Actually it is 42 kilometres away from the Trivandrum city. It is one of the beautiful places to spend our holidays. This is one of the best places in Kerala for watching sunset. The panoramic landscape, seascapes and the brown sands of the beach makes every spectators mind cool.
It is believed that if we go there and taken a holy dip in the holy waters of the beach, the body and the soul of the pilgrims will get purified. Because of this belief, the beach is also known as 'Papanashini' which means destroyer of sins. The beach is always well crowded with pilgrims in almost all the holidays. Since the beach is bordered by hills, we can see high steep cliffs with red brown stones surrounding the beach and there is also another belief that the mineral water gushing from the hills has medicinal properties.
The two other important attraction points of this place are the 2000 year old Janardana Swamy Temple and the Nature Centre. The Nature Centre offers Ayurvedic treatments like Yoga and meditation courses especially for the visitors. A lot of people came to the beach with family, and they enjoy swimming, playing volley ball, water spots such as Parasailing, Scuba diving, wind surfing etc which will be a great fun.
The transportation to the Varkala beach is not so difficult. We can reach there by road, rail or by air. Buses are easily accessible from all the parts of Kerala and the neighbouring states too. A railway station itself is owned by Varkala, so getting out there by train is also not a problem. The nearest airport from Varkala is the Thiruvananthapuram international airport which is 52 kms away from Varkala.
Vizhinjam:
Vizhinjam, which is believed to have been an ancient port, is located in Trivandrum district to the south of Kovalam. This is situated almost 17kms from the Trivandrum city. Vizhinjam, which is now a fishing harbour, is a very attracting tourist place. The place was once a commercial centre for the Portuguese and Dutch. At that time the Europeans have had commercial establishments there. Near to the sea shore, Portuguese have built a church which is named as Old Vizhinjam Church and is still functional. Vizhinjam is now known for the Ayurvedic treatments since it has some world famous beach resorts in around the place.
The major picnic spot at Vizinjam is the Vizhinjam Rock Cut Cave. Earlier, it was left unnoticed for long time but now it is a famous historic spot. In the cave temple at Vizhinjam, we can see the rock cut sculptures of the 18th century. This is just amazing and I think every person will like to watch it again and again. There is a one celled shrine loose sculpture of Vinandhara Dakshnimurthi which is enclosed by the granite cave. Huge rocks are drilled to make the ruins of the rock temple and this must be the main attractive spot of the tourists. A Marine aquarium is also developed here which contains a wide collection of sea animals. This aquarium is one of the famous aquariums which house the world's rarest and most exotic species of invertebrates and fishes.
The place has its natural depth and because of its proximity to International Shipping channel, now Vizhinjam is being developed into an International Deep Water Container Transshipment Terminal. We can reach Vizhinjam by road, rail or air. There is regular bus service from Trivandrum. The place is about 12kms away from Thiruvananthapuram International Airport and about 16kms Thiruvananthapuram central railway station.
Martin Wynn
