Amazing trip by bus - From Bangalore to Trivandrum via Thenkasi

Kallada Irrigation Project - Kallada River 

I have these crazy ideas about seeing new places and taking lesser traveled paths.

I was very excited when I heard from my colleagues that Bangalore to Trivandrum/Kollam can be done via Thenkasi & Punalur.

This news was enough and I started searching for trains and buses.

Voila ! I found a bus from Bangalore to Thenkasi & luckily seats were available for the journey on 24 March 2016.  I waited for this day & tried reaching Shanthi nagar Bus Stand at least 1 hour before as I could not contain my excitement!

I spotted the bus by 1630 hrs. The bus operator was SETC (Govt Of Tamilnadu) – the bus was not new! However the seats were okay and I quickly adapted to the situation. (There are no Volvo/Scania buses operating on this sector.) 
The bus was punctual and started on time. We had a tea break and dinner break at various places like Erode/Dindigul.  We reached Thenkasi next day at 0630 hrs.  We need to appreciate that in SETC buses - the driver and the conducter take turns in doing their duties. The driver sold the tickets till evening and then he took the steering wheel from the conductor by late evening hours.

Thenkasi to Punalur – I had tea and then immediately hopped on to a Kottarakara Bus. This route was very exciting as the bus meandered through ghat section. We passed though Western Ghats and some spectacular scenery....

Aryankavu is the check post area and we crossed in to Kerala. 

13 arch bridge

Soon we were passing through Thenmala Eco tourism area, the famous 13 arch bridge and also Kallada Irrigation project.

13 arch bridge

About Thenmala : Thenmala is India's first planned eco-tourism destination, which is gaining popularity due to its unique vistas, bio-diversity and functioning. Situated about 72kms from Thiruvananthapuram, in the District of Kollam, the Thenmala Eco-Tourism shares its resources with the famous Shenduruney Wildlife Sanctuary at the foothills of the Western Ghats.


We reached Kottarakara by 0800 hrs and I hopped on to the first available Trivandrum bound bus .. now I was feeling a little hungry and sleepy.  The bus took slightly less than 3 hours to reach Trivandrum. I was happy to reach Trivandrum by 10:30 hrs and meet my family!