A Trip to Hyderabad - Madurai - Kanyakumari - Rameswaram - Thanjavur - Hyderabad

Hello Guys...

This is going to be my writing on first of its kind. I am trying to put my plan to cities mentioned in title of this blog.

I am trying to put all details like how we have gone there and how we are able to plan this better. I have planned all these tickets and hotel stays from USA.

So

below is itinerary...

Day 1 :
Flight to Madurai from Hyderabad and covering Meenakshi temple (http://www.maduraimeenakshi.org/).

I have booked Indigo flight that takes me to Madurai via Chennai.

Start time in Hyd : 6:35 am reaches 12:55 PM Madurai. Fights are 6E 188 and 6E 859.

Reached Madurai as planned. Fresh up and cab to Railway station, use cloak room to put baggage and visited temple. After temple visit take some reset and Train to Kanyakumari around 23:30 from Madurai.

Train #22621 MDU to CAPE (irctc.co.in) (You will get availability if you book 2 months ahead).


Day 2 :
Reached Kanyakumari around 5:30 am in the morning Booked hotel as Swamy Vivekananda Ashram (http://yatra.vrmvk.org/), got reasonable accommodation at 400 INR per double bed room. This has got decent reviews on tripadvisor too.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g608476-d2273500-Reviews-Vivekananda_Kendra-Kanyakumari_Kanyakumari_District_Tamil_Nadu.html

Sight seeing :
Kanyakumari temple https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devi_Kanya_Kumari
Vivekananda Rock Memorial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivekananda_Rock_Memorial
There is boat ride to go to Vivekananda Rock, they charge around 100 INR per person.

Take some rest till 9:00 PM and then

Start from CAPE to RMM
Train #22622 Starts at 22:00, off to Rameswaram.

Day 3:
Reached Rameswaram around 5:30, booked hotel at

Swami Ramanatha Tourist Home. This is budget hotel with minimal expectations. These guys will provide transport from Railway station to Hotel too.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g303894-d4867625-Reviews-Swami_Ramanatha_Tourist_Home-Rameswaram_Ramanathapuram_District_Tamil_Nadu.html

After refreshments, visited temple along with all theerthas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramanathaswamy_Temple

After temple visit, visited local attractions by hiring a vehicle, they charge 100 INR per person to cover some temples near by and Dhanushkoti.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhanushkodi

Evening train (#16102) to Thanjavur starts at 5:00 PM from Rameswaram.

Reached around 11:30 to Thanjavur checked in to Hotel Tamilnadu.
This runs by Tamilnadu Government, Dept of Tourism. Decent accommodation.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g424926-d1231164-Reviews-Hotel_Tamilnadu-Thanjavur_Thanjavur_District_Tamil_Nadu.html


Day 4:
Refreshments
Visit to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brihadeeswarar_Temple. and bus to SriRangam Temple https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranganathaswamy_Temple,_Srirangam which is an hour journey from Thanjavur, there are plenty of public transport.

Spent very less time in Srirangam temple and train from Tiruchirapalli to Madurai.

Train (#16129) TPJ to MDU.

Reaches Madurai around 4:00 PM.
Another visit to Madurai temple.

Stay at Hotel Tamilnadu Madurai
https://www.travelguru.com/hotels/hotels-in-madurai/hotel-tamilnadu-(a-ttdc-hotel)

Take rest.

Day 5 :
Refreshments

Flight to HYD
1:25 PM starts from Madurai and reaches HYD around 5:10 PM with 1.5 hour layover in Chennai.

6E 698 (IXM to MAA)
6E 302 (MAA to HYD).

Trip concludes back in Hyderabad.


Important Notes :
1. I have tried to put the information about hotels, trains and flights which might be helpful for booking.
2. Better to book train tickets at least 2 months ahead to get confirmed sleeper class.
3. Food expenses and tastes might vary.
4. None of the hotels mentioned above are with 5* rating, all are budget hotels, and no complaints from us on those and for a stay of one day/night, we are OK with those.

Good luck and Happy Travelling...make the most of it.....



Thank You

React or Respond

India Remittances....which is best?

I was searching for best remittance tools to send money to India and came across few providers, and I just wanted to provide the information what I have from my research.

Any typical IT guy from India mostly have account with ICICI or HDFC so mostly we try to search for remittance tools from them or we will ask colleagues and they may suggest you what they are using and we just started using that, but after a year we realize that how much we lost by just following those blindly and not searching for any new provider.

But due to competitive economic situation there are hell lot of providers and with good xchange rates.
I will classify the providers to two types.

1. Based out of India : Advantage is there won't be any tax or educational cess on the amount remitted.
less fees and only thing is you are not generating any business to Indian finance system but you as individual getting benefited.
2. Based in India : Mostly connected to any one of Indian national banks. there will be few taxes and educational cess..bla..bla... But you are generating business to Indian fiance system, and you will be TRUE Indian...:)..:)



and 1st Category are

Xoom >>> Xoom

Great locked in exchange rate and super fast transfer and will get deposited in 24 hours. and good referral amount as bonus to you are your friend.

Transfast >>> Transfast

Super locked in exchange rate and same as xoom and will get deposited in 24 hours. fat better exchange rate compare to xoom.



some of them in 2nd category are are:

ICICI >>> Money 2 India

features :
1. You have to be more patient and wait for 5 business days to get deposited, and may be better exchange rate when you choose "Fixed rupee transfer", but still 5 business days. Exchange rate on 5th business day will be applied to your transaction. So you have to be more cautious and look for uptrend...and good luck...for 5th day.

HDFC >>> QuickRemit

If you look at exchange rate here, a little better than ICICI and still 5 days.  Exchange rate on 5th business day will be applied to your transaction.  So you have to be more cautious and look for uptrend...and good luck...for 5th day.

IndusInd Bank >>> Indus Fast remit

Good locked in exchange rate. As exchange rate is locked, really doesn't matter even if it 5th day unless you don't have any emergency.

Times of Money >>> Remit2India 

Little better exchange rates managed by Times of money group.

Federal bank >>> Fed India Remit

SBI >>> Online Remit to SBI

Kotak >>> Click2Remit


One important thing to read about the trend is follow xe.com, this is best tool I generally follow to observe the trend. But of course no one can predict future, but will learn from our mistake/history..:)....

and all the best...

I know there are lot of providers, but the above are provided as per my knowledge.

Thank you for coming here...