Trivandrum Trip Part I - Valiathura

It is long time since I spent time this long in Trivandrum. It is such a wonderful place as it brings in lot of my good memories during childhood. I re-visited many places in Trivandrum during last month to revitalize my memory and take some good photographs. This post is part of a series of articles I would be writing about Trivandrum.

Trivandrum or Thiruvananthapuram (as it is called in Malayalam - തിരുവനന്തപുരം) is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland spreading over a total of 2,192sq.km. This capital of the state of Kerala is a beautiful seaside city built on seven hills. Trivandrum is an ancient city with tradition dating back to 1000 BC. The city became the capital of Raja (King) of Travancore in 1750. The city gets its name from the word, Thiru-anantha-puram, meaning the city of Anantha or the abode of the sacred Serpent Anantha on which Lord Vishnu, the preserver of the Hindu trinity, reclines. More on the city can be found on wikipedia link on Trivandrum.

When you are writing about Trivandrum, you have to start with Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple in the heart of the city. The temple is the reason for the city's name. I will write about the temple in a subsequent post. This post is about my trip to Valiathura. Valiathura is a beach side in Trivandrum adjacent to the famous Shangumugham beach.

On a Sunday morning I started out with my Brother on his bike. There was two reasons for the outing. To buy fish and to take some pictures. We went to the Valiathura beach which is around 15 min drive from my place at Karamana. On reaching Valiathura, we went straight to the Valiathura Pier to take some photos. This is a very old harbor no more under active use. The locals use the pier for fishing and the pier itself is in a precarious condition due to not maintaining.

Valiathura Pier

You can see the old harbor office nearby and also a warehouse used to store goods when the harbor was active. We were told that the warehouse is partly used and is in a very bad conditions. A passersby mistook us for press reporters and mentioned that there are anti-social elements using this place as their hideout.

Old Harbor Office Building at Valiathura


Notice Board on the Harbor Building depicting charges to use the Pier


Abandoned Warehouse at Valiathura

We then went to the pier. It was opened in 1956 by the P.S. Rau the then adviser to the King of Travancore (called Rajpramukh after independence). The pier goes deep into the sea and it provides magnificent view of the Indian ocean from within the sea.

Pier in damaged condition

When we walked on the pier we could see the destruction of the structure due to age. Many of the side walls were broken and some side steps were totally destructed with a slabs broken.


You can see old railway tracks on the pier used to transport goods coming through ships. We found many localites doing fishing here. The view from above the pier was excellent and I could take some good pictures.

Boat in the sea taken from the Pier


Fishermen on motor boat


Valiathura Beach as viewed from the Pier

After taking some pictures we got down from the pier and went underneath it. The view from below the pier is excellent with multiple columns of the pier visible in concentric squares.

View from under the Pier

If you go to Shangumugham or Valiathura in the morning, you will be able to see the fishermen catching fishes from the sea. There were a group of fishermen pulling their catch to shore. They go in boats to deep sea and put the large nets in the sea. The net is then pulled to the shore by groups of fishermen. There will be very long rope tied on both sides of the net and two groups of people pull them from the shore.

Group of men pulling the fish net

If you are interested, you can also join the fishermen to pull the net. We both also got into the job and helped them pull the net. You will be able to experience the effort taken to catch the fish. Some times if they are not lucky, after so much effort there will be very less fish in the net. Or sometime only very small fishes will be there.

Fishes inside the net

The net which we pulled to the shore had the same fate. There were only very small fishes in the net and the fishermen were very disappointed to see their effort yielding minimal result.


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Releated News: http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/03/stories/2008070361260300.htm