An evening in Tanjore

The last post in this series is here..

We were done with Trichy and were on our way to Tanjore via Kallanai.. Hindsight being 20/20 we could have skipped that as it was a detour. Still we went on the bridge across the empty Cauvery river and back and kept going.

We reached Tanjore and the Big temple was going to open at 4PM. Our train from Tanjore to Guruvayoor was at 6:30 or so. 

We spent a good hour in the Tanjore museum. The ladies were taking a nap in the car while I did the rounds with FIL. There were five sections to this complex. We spent most of the time in the museum with the bronze and stone statues. 

there were some interesting things about the Tamil letters and their evolution.

Then my trusted Bata chappal just ripped in two. Walked the last 20 minutes with that. Then we made it to the Big temple 15 minutes before it opened and were walking around and taking pictures.

The amazing giant Nandi (bull) at the big temple!

stray dogs asking for belly rubs (and they do get rubs from visitors!)

a slideshow of some of the temple pics..

As soon as we got to see Brigadeeswarar, we made it back to the car. There was a flying stop at a local Bata store to get a replica of the exact chappal and we still had 30 minutes. Had the yummiest Rava dosa in a restaurant just across the station area and we spent the last 1/2 hour at the train station, drinking tea, enjoying the sunset. 

This temple complex is mind boggling.

Built using elephants for labor and has stood a 1000 years. Now elephants are hardly there!

A video clip from this leg of the trip..

Our Guruvayoor area visits on the next post!

Kula deivam et. al.

The previous post in this series is here..

We had yet another day where sleep was limited to 6 hours. The hotel in Trichy was not as good as the one in Madurai, but given we were going to just sleep, get up, shower and start it was good enough. 

The new driver showed up on time but the car had no working AC. So it was going to be an issue on a hot day. We could not wait. So we asked him to start towards Ranganathar and figure it out from there. 

Just like the previous day we went into the temple at 6AM and were out in a little over an hour. We made our way then to Thiruvanaikovil. We managed to do a super quick darshan.

By then we got a car with working AC. There was an appointment at our Kula deivam temple, Gunaseelam with the priest. We made it in time for me to take a dip in the river behind the temple and go see perumal. 

This was the third highlight of the whole trip after meeting my dad on his 85th birthday and taking bath in the wells of Rameshwaram.

They were nice enough to take care of the annadhaanam on our behalf as we had to leave right away. The pongal prasadam was great on an empty stomach. 

We were to be dropped off at Tanjore Railway station that evening in same car after a visit to the Big Temple in Tanjore. Given we had time, we visited three more temples.

We saw the Thirupanjali temple (which has a special shrine for Yama, the god of death), Thiruvellarai (a very old temple) and Uttamar Kovil (also known as bikshaandaar kovil). 

We finished all these temple visits and had lunch at Ashwins a local favorite.

We also bought some snacks for the road/Train ride later that night at Ashwins. If you are in the Trichy area, don't miss Ashwins food and snacks!

A short video clip ..

Then we made our way to Tanjore. The ladies dozed off. FIL was working in the car. I was busy finishing off some of the snacks.  The three hours in Tanjore did not disappoint.

That on another post..

Nature trip in Arizona Part 5: Horseshoe Bend, Sedona and back

The previous post in this series is here..

Day 3 was for the return journey to Phoenix. Given San's back and our attempt at being nice to my SIL we decided to drive to Phoenix but stay overnight near the airport and take the first filght back in on Memorial day morning to the bay area. 

First stop on way back was the horseshoe bend. It is a mile walk from the parking lot. San walked slow and steady. It was 8 AM and already hot. We should have visited this place during golden hour. The direct sun and shadows did not make for great pictures. The place was way too crowded. I tried to sit on the ledge and San starts screaming as usual. So doing yoga poses on the edge was ruled out!

 

A short video clip of horseshoe bend..

After the walk back from Horseshoe bend I was asked to "hit the gas"... and that I did. There was some volcanic crater on the way back towards Sedona. Just before going to the exit, we decided to keep driving .. lunch was calling. 

We took a good 20 minutes to find parking in Sedona. Then we had a nice Italian lunch at Sedona Pizza and Pasta. Excellent food and excellent service on a busy day!

Walked around a few stores along the busy street, the ladies did some "shopping" and we were on our way back towards Phoenix. 

We had an early but amazing dinner at a place 5 minutes from the airport and close to our hotel. Indian Delhi Palace food was mouth watering!

After stuffing ourselves we went to sleep early. We had to wake up at 3:30 to make it to the car return and catch the first flight out. The car rental place is not close to the airport. There is a train ride from there to the airport!

We made it back to the bay area and San was still in decent shape and declared her back was no worse than when we started. That to me was a success. The SIL seemed to have had a good time as well. 

This was a new place for all of us and it was a good trip overall given we took an extra nights rest.

We have so many places to visit that I doubt we will hit Page again anytime soon. If you have not been to Antelope canyon, definitely see it in this lifetime.. plan and visit!

Glad that this trip was captured in this blog finally, over the next long weekend!