Wanderlust Tales : Road trip to Guruvayur, Kerala

Posted by storiesbyankita November 23, 2018

Wanderlust Tales : Road trip to Guruvayur, Kerala

Road trips have been and will always be my biggest source of stress buster - the busy year that it has been, finding time for this vacation was the most ardent task. 🙇

Gone are the days when everybody would be available at ease - pulling together at least 3 people from the family and planning a trip together seemed like an achievement. 😳
To top it, other hurdles involved, getting out of the house during Diwali which was even tougher - with Mom screeching at one end "How do we leave the house on the eve of Diwali, who would put on the diyas and wait for Laxmiji?" 😝

So from the initial plan of driving to Allepey straight - we deviated to cover the Sri Krishna Temple in Guruvayur on the occasion of Diwali. 😊

Managing time, the busy schedules, building an itinerary, reserving hotels, checking the roads, finding the places to visit in your trip - is what makes road trips fun. Exploring the unexplored in your domain...

This view from my road trip is etched in my heart for good. 😍

GLIMPSE INTO THE HISTORY:
Guruvayur,is the holy abode of Lord Krishna,and is a famous ancient pilgrimage site for many down in the South. It is recognized heavily in land of God's country.

It owns a sobriquet of the Dwarka of the South. The famous Sree Krishna temple is believed to be work shipped by Lord Brahma himself.

Located in Thrissur district, Guruvayur is a small town can be explored more or less in a day.

PLACES TO SEE:
Guruvayur is a small city, we only had two places to explore here:

Guruvayur city
Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple
Chavakkad Beach

GURUVAYUR DIARIES:

In and around Guruvayur:

TO DO:

Try to start off in the early hours of the morning for the long drive.
Stop by breakfast earlier - the number of eateries further on in the drive reduce.
Make sure to re-use your old toll booth challan, to ensure if it can be reused.
There are multiple petrol bunks - yet it is advisable to have your tanks full.

ROUTE:
The route that we chose was Hosur -> Krishnagiri -> Salem -> Erode -> Pallakad -> Thrissur.

The roads were more or less via the NH - but there were few portions where we had to drive through the rough patchy roads of Kerala. Once we neared Coimbatore - most of the drive was within the city premises, which meant we had to face a lot of traffic as well.
The drive was a smooth one zooping over the national highways, but we paid way too much tolls for accessing these roads - it almost went up to 1300 Rs. +.

The total drive hours were approximately 8 hours 48 mins for 483 kms - we reached by 13:00-ish.

Google I tell you, with your location history on - it gives you the exact routes that you have taken to reach a particular place - sometimes it an luxury and sometimes it is scary. Think of it, till what extent one is being tracked.😦

We started from Bangalore, as early as 3:30-ish in the morning. Right after I landed in Bangalore from Pune, we hit the roads.

And I would say it was a good decision since the traffic was nada and roads were clear - we could enjoy the cool breeze, empty Bangalore roads and drive through.

Make sure to show your toll slip at each of the incoming toll booths.

I had comfortably settled myself in the backseat of the car - it was my rajya back there. I had food stocked up, water bottles, cushions for the backrest, blinds set aside for when the sun would be up. As my parents were busy gossiping, I comfortably spread across in my mini palace and took a quick nap in lapse of the chalti nature and fresh air. 😂

Drive from Bangalore to any place is absolutely scenic. With mightly mountains travelling along with you and the the plentiful of the palm and coconut trees to keep you company - your eyes would never get tired of the beauty it beholds.

This was a unique sort of temple - which had this temple heads running all the way till the actual temple located on the top.

Paying toll all through. Gosh....😕

My mom always ready to tender the perfect change - the perfectionist that she is. 😜

FOOD STOP:
As we had already tried the food joints in Shoolagiri, we thought to try something new this time. You could opt even the food joints at Shoolagiri - it has A2B Anand Bhavan.
This was our first stop for food - but owing to Diwali most of the shops, eateries on the way were shut down. Although you can freshen up here as well.
We headed further in the quest to find something to fill our growling tummies.

These gummy bears had come all the way from Singapore. The chewy jelly bears were fun time pass till we found a restaurant open. I was munching my way through it. 😋

And finally Junior Kupanna came to our rescue - and we had a quick breakfast here.

Road tripping in Southern India and filter coffee is the best thing that can happen to you. 💕

Be wary - this restaurant has a separate vegetarian and a non vegetarian section. If you happen to step into the non vegetarian section - make sure to make it very clear you are looking for vegetarian food only.
Because the sambhar that you see here was previously a chicken curry - I have no clue how would one eat idli with chicken curry!! Damn...😔

THE DRIVE:

After our first break we drove straight for 200 kms - with a view like this all through the way and my road trip playlist to keep me company. 💜

A mix of sky blue, white and green everywhere - the lapse of nature.💚💙

Feeling sun kissed and totally settled in my zone. 😤

This was a beautiful church that we came across as we approached Thrissur. The Lourdes Cathedral - it is one of the largest churches in Kerala. It has a European Indo facade with pink spires. Way back in 1986, Pope John Paul II made a historic visit. The rich architecture of the church made us pull over and click few pictures.
During the time there was some heavy renovation work going on here.

This was a sight to behold. The green paddy lands - it is admirable how Kerala has pulled itself from one of the worst floods that had happened to the state just few months back.