The Tirunelveli Diaries - Tuticorin

 When I was first told we had our matches in Tirunelveli I wondered how one gets there. Apart from the halwa I had no idea about where it was etc. But when I looked at it on the map I realised it had its advantages- it was close to Kanya Kumari - a place which i had promised both my Mom and my Mother-in-law i'd take but didn't, and also Rameshwaram.

Tuticorin airport - ship model

To get to Tirunelveli we were booked on a flight to Tuticorin (every security guy at the airport asked - which state is this place in). Tuticorin is now called Thoothukodi and is a busy hub of fishing and peals and salt and exports thanks to a port that it has. It has a long history with French and Portuguese and perhaps English occupation and is a quaint little town. Its called the Pearl city because of real pearl fishing (unlike Hyderabad which was mainly a pearl trading place). Being a port city (VO Chidambaram port) it also developed into an industrial city being of considerable importance on the Coromandel coast. A medical college, a fisheries college, an extension of the Anna University, a thermal power station.

Salt pans - salt on the right

Jyo and I went on the tour and we started on day that had heavy rains and we were not sure if we could make it to the airport in time. A flight to Bangalore, a few hours layover which we spent munching on egg sandwiches and then off to Tuticorin. It was a really small airport and we got out, collected our bags, hired a cab and headed off on a 45 minute drive to Tuticorin town where the team was staying at SRM Hotel.

Lovely huge church

Chapel

It was a nice little hotel, pretty close to the sea (we could see it from the windows), good food. Jyo and I got out of the hotel and strolled about it (he is maniacal about his 10000 steps a day). We passed a bank street with all the major banks which was to be expected considering it was a port town, saw some lovely old churches, old buildings, found a beach (Muthu Nagar beach) and a lovely juice bar. The place is famous for its parotta and curries, macaroons.   

Beach - really nice (and small)

Siron Juice bar - lovely juices (date milk shake)

Postal Business Bank

Headed back to the room after a quick detour to the TASMAC shops which are classic places to be in. 

SRM Hotel

Fishing boat and some coracles - motifs of Tuticorin

Interestingly there are 24 islands between Tuticorin and Rameswaram which is the first marine biosphere reserve in India with 36000 species of flora and fauna!

A nice evening with Chatterjee and Jyo, some dinner and we settled down to a good match - against an Ishan Sharma led Jharkhand at Tirunelveli (another 45 minutes away).