Where did you travel for spending New Year's Eve?

Spending New Year's Eve in a place far from hustle bustle of the city with family and friends is my idea of New Year's Eve. I consider myself fortunate enough to work in a company which has annual winter shut down from Christmas to the 1st day of new year. I don't have to take leaves and I can plan without thinking about how to ask my boss for it.

My beloved Alto en route to Ooty

Watching sunrise in Kanyakumari

Kanyakumari is known for its spectacular view of sunrise and sunset. There are many places for the tourists to view this magic. Kanyakumari tourism dept has built up a number of sunrise and sunset view points. This way the crowd gets divided among these points and one can watch the phenomenon in peace. The hotel which I was staying in, Hotel Singaar International, had its own viewpoint. Luckily, we had our rooms on the same floor. I made sure I put up multiple alarms to wake up at least 15 minutes before sunrise, choose my spot and prepare my tripod.

First light of the day. 20 minutes before the sun came out of the horizon

A day at Vivekananda Memorial Rock, Kanyakumari

The time had come for us to start packing and leave for our trip to Kanyakumari and Rameswaram. I had created the itinerary based on several blogs and travel portals. A visit to Vivekananda memorial rock was on top of every list. Legend says that while Swami Vivekananda was in Kanyakumari, he saw this monolith rock and wanted to go there. He asked a fisherman to take him on his boat to the rock. The fisherman refused as the water was shark infested. Swami had decided to reach the rock anyhow. He dived into the waters and swam towards the rock. He meditated there for 3 days before departing for Chicago for a conference.