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..

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!

The temples of Madurai and a few other stops

The previous post in this series is here..

We had reached our nice hotel in Madurai the previous night from Rameshwaram after a few extra stops by car. FIL had requested that the same driver take us around Madurai the entire day. We got 6 hours of sleep and had to get ready at 5AM. It was going to be a busy day. 

We started by visiting the Madurai Meenakshi temple. I have an interesting blogging history with this temple. You can check out my very first ever post where it starts off as an angry man venting.. have become a lot calmer now, at least on the blog!

This is my visit to this temple after 2005! It was a much better experience. Had sworn never to go near this temple again.. but guess there is always some fate or destiny..

We entered the temple at 6AM and were out in 45 minutes. Then it was time to visit two more temples. First one was Koodal Azhagar temple. There was a wedding party there and we had to rush past the crowd from the wedding to finish seeing the temple and getting darshan.

Then we were to go to Thirupparankundram Murugan temple. Given we were ahead of schedule, we talked to our driver and decided to go Pazhamudhir solai. We went up to the Noopura gangai (MIL decided to stay back given the climb to the top of the hill was steep) and me, San and FIL made a trip to the top and came back. Then we got to see Pazhamudhir solai. The priest was friendly and he was telling us about his cousins in Mumbai and US. 

We made a stop at the Kal azhagar temple which I believe is part of the 108 divya desams. It was a beautiful temple. By now we were cutting it close. 

some of the stuff is in ruins.. but looks like folks are working on preserving these few hundred year old temples. The temples older than these seem to be doing fine!

Once we came out, we drove to the other side of Madurai to Thirupparankundram. We drove past this beautiful church on the way.

The Murugan temple closes at 1PM and we made it to see the deity and deepa aaradhanai at 12:55. It was touch and go. We were also very hungry after that visit. 

We had a quick bite to eat at one of the local Vegetarian hotels. The ladies in their infinite wisdom decided that they will shop for Saris. They had seen the Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal (palace) and were not impressed. I had never seen it. So my FIL said he will take me there after we drop the ladies at a Sari store. While they shopped we walked through this massive building and its hallways and took pictures. There is usually a light show in the evening which is the rave, but we were going to miss that anyways.

We drove past the city center and saw the amman temple tank during the day.. our driver was nice enough to park, so I could go get some pics.

We also stopped to get some Madurai famous Jigarthanda.. a sweet drink that has 3850% of your daily required fat and 80000% of the daily required sugar levels. 

After that we decided to change plans.. more on that later..