Tanjavoor to Guruvayoor

The previous post in this series is here..

We boarded the train at Tanjavoor close to a 7PM and it was to reach Thrissur in Kerala at 4AM. The train was 40 minutes late. FIL had booked a hotel room right next to the train station just so we could go, take a shower, change to dhotis and get going. We did get okay rest in the train given people kept changing at every station and kept waking us up. 

We reached the hotel at 5 AM, had some dip tea, and all four of us got ready in record time and were at the Sree Vadakkumnathan Temple before sunrise. The sun was just coming up when we came out of the temple. 

Then we went to the Thiruvambady Krishna temple which was just 5 or 10 minutes away.

After this we had a long car ride to Guruvayoor. We stopped for a quick bite to eat.. idly sambar and vadai at a local place (this is not related to HSB.. but the food is better!)

There was a ticket for an appointment with Guruvayoorappan at 9AM. However there was an utsavam and we found out that we should not have been sold those tickets. The temple staff said sorry and told us we will get the money back! Money or not, we wanted to see the deity before leaving. So we stood in line for 2 hours almost and got to go only so far to see the deity from 20 feet away for a few seconds before being pushed out. 

It was an interesting experience. Kerala temple crowds are really agressive. Especially the old ladies! 

The lines to keep your cell phone and footwear s a mile long! We still had fun at this temple. There was a person singing who we mistook for Yesudas first before walking to the area (you can see in video clip).. the stores on either side were cute and the ladies bought Onam sarees! 

Then we went to a shiva vishnu temple in Mamiyoor which was the last stop. It is a beautiful temple!

There was a plan to visit Chottanikkarai baghavathy amman temple which was an hours drive from there, but given we saw baghavathi in Guruvayoor, we decided to skip.

My MIL's close friend stayed in Cochin on the way to the airport. So we went to visit Kamala aunty and her husband for an evening chai visit and then head to the airport.

We saw elephants on this day. At the temples and on the roads. A land with elephants is a happy land!

a land with bananas galore is definitely a happy land..

We stopped by a place for lunch. It was awesome!

It was great to talk to them and spend a few hours. As I write this, Uncle is no more. He passed away recently. An extremely nice person. We were all glad we got to spend time with him. 

A video highlight of the Kerala leg of the trip

Then we were off to Cochin airport and flew to Mumbai. 

We had almost two days in Mumbai before our return trip to the US. That last post later..