Tamil Nadu is great place for temples. We thought to cover few of them. Initially, we named our trip as “Rameshwaram trip”, but soon, we have removed Rameshwaram from our trip as we want to cover Rameshwaram in coming months.
Our plan was abstract. In this 4D/5N trip, we have fixed Madurai and Kanyakumari as fixed places. remaining were “on-the-go” plans.
Day-0 [Hyderabad to Bengaluru][28th Dec 2018 – Friday] :-
We were three friends [Vamshi, Rohith and myself]. We have booked the train tickets[17652 / KCG CGL EXP -Rs.410 per head]. Vamshi is coming to Kacheguda station directly from home. Myself and Rohith booked a cab from our room to station. The train starts at 4.30PM from station. Our cab was late and at 4.15PM we got stuck in traffic. I was in doubt..whether we can reach the station or not. But, fortunately, with some other route, we have reached the station on time and could catch the train. Train started on time [4.30PM].
Now, we are discussing about our destination for Day-1. Chennai or Changalpattu? Whether to roam in Chennai or Changalpattu or Kanchipuram?
We met the cartoon artist of famous newspaper “The Hindu” – Surendra. We took suggestions from him too. Vamshi was calling to his friends, Rohith was calling to his friends. I was just seeing all expressions..
Finally, we have decided to get down at Chennai Egmore station and travel to Kanchipuram by bus.
Rohith and Vamshi called their friends to come to Chennai Egmore.
Day – 1 [29th Dec 2018 – Saturday] [Chennai-Kanchipuram-Chengalpattu]:-
We got down from Egmore railway station and just outside, we was Chennai Metro station and got surprise.. it just so nearby. Mr. Surendra helped us in Metro station as we are new to it. to add to the surprise, The chennai metro is underground.. We took tickets[Rs.40/person] till CMBT bus stop. Wow, this metro is awesome… It travels from Underground to Top of the road… when we reach the CMBT.
When we came out of CMBT metro station, I found A2B and suggested to have breakfast here. We ordered Pongal, Vada, Tea… meanwhile, Rohith and Vamshi friends also came to A2B. All of us had breakfast.
[Our trip first photo in Metro]
Rohith friend was Rama Krishna, and Vamshi friend was Mani. Rama Krishna is native of Chennai. so he was guide for us for whole Day-1. Rama helped us in the whole day narrating different stories here. We took water bottles and got into bus from CMBT to Kanchipuram[Rs.70/person].
We hired one auto for whole kanchipuram trip[Total-Rs.700]. We took bath in one small guest house room as suggested by Auto-wala quickly. We first reached Ekambareswarar temple . We had darshan quickly and went to see mango tree which 2500 years old.
[First group photo near temple]
After first temple, we went to our next temple
Kanchi Kamakshi Amman temple
All temples in Tamil Nadu will close at 12.00 or before 12.30PM. and will repoen at 4.30PM. We have reached Meenakshi temple after 12.30 this day. Luckily, the temple is open due to some poojas going on this day. Soon, we completed darshan and we left for lunch.
We had meals.. with tamil nadu dishes.. Sambhar, Poriyal etc. We had idiyappam too.
then, we did shopping. Kanchipuram is famous for it’s Pattu sarees. All of us bought sarees for our mother’s.
Then, we visited two more temples.
Varadharaja Perumal temple[DivyaDesam] :- Here, the temple is famously called Vishnu Kanchi. Here, we have touched “Golden Lizard” inside the temple.
Ulagalantha Perumal Temple[DivyaDesam] :- Here, we could Vamana Avtar and Bali chakravarthy.
As we are running out of time, we went to Kanchipuram bus stop in auto.. to take bus to Changalpattu. Rama and Mani, went to CMBT to their homes.
We three of them took parcel for dinner in Changalpattu and got into train to Nagercoil. [16723/Anantapuri Express-Rs.1030 per person-3rd AC]. We completed dinner and slept.
Day – 2 [30th Dec 2018 – Sunday][Chengalpattu-Nagercoil-Kanyakumari-Nagercoil]:-
We got down in Nagercoil railway station in the morning. Immediately, we got a bus to Kanyakumari [Rs.22/person – around 20Km-25Km].
We couldn’t get any room here to take as it is season time. and thought to go Vivekanand memorial, but there too very big queue is present. So, we have enjoyed the scenary from coast point only.
We next visited Arulmigu Bhagavathy Amman Temple. After darshan, we completed lunch and took 2-3 hours rest at the coast and watching the sea and taking photos.
Then we visited the Our Lady of Ransom church .
After Church, we visited “Swami Vivekanda memorial” where all life history of Vivkananda with pictures is written.
Next, we visited Gandhi Memorial, where life story of Mahatma Gandhi, we can see.
Gandhi Memorial –
Inside Gandhi memorial, the View points are so awesome that..we can feel whole kanyakumari at one time[ you can see in below pic, which is shot from Gandhi’s memorial]
Thiruvalluvar :-
Sun set view –
Then, we saw sun set from View point. we stayed for 1 hour and left to Nagercoil. We reached around 7PM. and our train[56701 – Madurai Passenger-Rs.115 per person-Sleeper] is at 10.35PM. We had lot of time, and we began searching for our dinner. we walked for around 1-1.5KM with our lot of luggage and found one small but decent hotel. We completed our dinner for Rs.70 for all three persons with below dishes.
Appams, Wada and Chapathi with sambar and chutney. Next, we returned walking and slept in the platform of railway station…as still we have lot of time… to our surprise… train is delayed by another 90mins.. as it is passenger train. Train came around near 12 or 12.15AM. We got into train and concluded that it is passenger train and definitely will reach late in the morning to Madurai. We have to reach Madurai by 6.45AM. But again, to our surprise.. we have reach at around 6.14AM. that is big shock to all of us.
Day – 3 [31st Dec 2018 – Monday][Nagercoil-Madurai]:-
We have got down from train and took one room. This is the first and last time we took room in our whole trip. We took bath and went to Madurai Meenakshi temple.
Madurai Meenakshi temple –
Wow… This temple is so amazon with it’s architecture. you can observe lot of sculptures. We took Rs.50/person fast darshan ticket and had darshan quickly in an hour.
then quickly, we went to Koodal Azhagar temple which is walkable. But the temple is closed as it is already 12.00PM. then, we completed lunch and had Jigarthanda which is Madurai special.
This is a sweet dish… kind of Payasam.. may be made of rice ingredients. then, we took Auto to Pazhamudircholai temple(which is around 32Km from Madurai).
Pazhamudircholai temple – Here, we had to take govt. bus to reach hill top. We had darshan of Murugan Lord. Soon, we have to walk around 1km again yet another stretch to take bath from water which is continously coming from rocks there. We returned from hill-top in same govt. bus and went to temple nearby there.
Alagar_Koyil temple[Divya Desam] –
Again, The temple is so large..which large sculputres.. I got shocked from lot of carvings. Simply amazing. We completed darshan here and then took bus to Periyar bus stand to reach another Murugan temple.
Thirupparamkunram Murugan temple –
This is second Murugan temple in Madurai city. We completed darshan immediately and then moved to Madurai, where we couldn’t go in the morning.
Koodal_Azhagar_temple[Divya Desam] –
After completing darshan of this temple, again we went to Madurai Meenakshi temple for 2nd time in same day at around 9pm.. where temple is about to be closed. But, as we are inside the temple, we can get darshan of amman. at 10PM, we came out of temple and started searching for dinner. At this point, our fun started, even though we are tired sooo much..we thought to eat “Guntha Ponganalu”. We went to 5-6 hotels..but we could’t find anywhere. Some people gave wierd expressions..as they are not able to understand “Guntha Ponganalu”. We showed them photos too. Atlast, after 30mins.. one person showed us the way..where we can get. Finally, we got the person..where two-three persons with small stoved on road side.. they are cooking instantly. we took parcel and went to room and had our food satisfactorily. Finally. we have learned that.. We should call “Paniyaaram” in tamil for “Guntha Ponganalu”.
Our train is at 12.30AM in midnight. and it is 31st night. Where, everyone is busy in celebrating the new year..we are struggling to come to ground from second floor in lift of our hotel. The hotel is so old and lift is not working smoothly..and we got inside lift and 12.59..we wished ourselfves “Happy new year” inside the lift.
We got into train to Changalpattu [ again, yes. There was no plan for 4th day. We booked tatkal on 31st Dec itself and decided to go Mahabalipuram].
[12651 – Sampark Kranti – 3AC – 1154 /person – Madurai to Changalpa
Day – 4 [1st Jan 2019 – Tuesday][Madurai-Changalpattu-Mahabalipuram-Chennai Central]:-
We reached Changalpattu in the morning and had breakfast in same hotel where we got parcel 1 day back. got into bus towards Mahabalipuram[Rs.25/person]
Next we have visited following temple –
Sthalasayana temple[DivyaDesam] – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sthalasayana_Perumal_Temple,_Tirusirupuliyur
Then we have visited monuments in Mahabalipuram.
Shore temple – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shore_Temple
Mahabalipuram beach – https://www.tripadvisor.in/Attraction_Review-g1162480-d12377399-Reviews-Mahabalipuram_Beach-Mahabalipuram_Kanchipuram_District_Tamil_Nadu.html
Pancha Rathas – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancha_Rathas
Krishna’s butter ball – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna%27s_Butterball
Descent of Ganges – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_of_the_Ganges_(Mahabalipuram)
Finally. we have ended our trip with Mahabalipuram beach and here is our last photo of the trip
Then, at 3pm, we took bus to chennai central and got into train to Hyderabad.[12759-Charminar express-Rs.425/person].
We reached safely home and trip ended with lot of memories for whole life.
Tamil Nadu trip Tamil Nadu is great place for temples. We thought to cover few of them. Initially, we named our trip as "Rameshwaram trip", but soon, we have removed Rameshwaram from our trip as we want to cover Rameshwaram in coming months.