Yesterday we departed Trichy and headed further south and west to Madurai, one of the oldest cities in India, a metropolis that traded with ancient Rome and was a great capital long before Chennai even existed. The big draw here is the Meenakshi Amman Temple, the Thirumalai Naick(er) Palace and also for us the very interesting Gandhi Memorial Museum.
Gandhi Memorial Museum
Thirumalai Naicker Palace
Meenakshi Amman Temple
Our next stop, December 3rd, was the city of Trichy, more or less the geographical centre of Tamil Nadu where we visited Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple which is quite possibly India’s biggest temple with 49 separate Vishnu shrines. It is sometimes referred to as Srirangam as it is located on Srirangam Island located between the banks of the Kollidam and Kavari Rivers.
We departed Mahabalipuram on the 2nd and made our way to Puducherry with a stop in Auroville. Puducherry is a union territory of India and is formed out of four enclaves of former French India. Auroville, “The City of Dawn” is an international community dedicated to peace, sustainability and “divine consciousness”. We’re not sure if this is a cult but we had a great cheese sandwich in Pondi from cheese made from an Auroville farm and it was really good so we know they at least make good cheese.. The European middle-aged hippies riding their motorcycles in the area made for good speculation but we were really put off by the fact that we saw many riding their motorbikes, young kids holding on precariously as passengers, sometimes three to a bike and not wearing helmets. You wouldn’t do this at home, you would be charged for child endangerment but somehow all logic and common sense is lost when driving in India and, in a traffic situation that you cannot compare to home. We don’t know what they are thinking other than they aren’t. We feel sorry for the ignorant mother who will suffer for the rest of her life because of her stupidity. Maybe “divine conciousness” renders you stupid.
Puducherry Pics
We departed Chennai on the 1st and arrived in Mahabalipuram before noon so we immediately checked into our hotel and then headed out to see the many UNESCO World Heritage Sites that lie within a small area of town. The temples and caves were built by the Pallava dynasty in the 7th and 8th centuries but the most amazing and awe-inspiring thing about all of these temples and caves is they are carved and chiselled out of solid granite rock faces and boulders (except the shore temple which was built with blocks of granite). It is absolutely mind blowing how this could have been done, never mind with such precision and beauty. It was truly incredible to see this. Note: I did visit Mahabalipuram 27 years ago but didn’t absorb the beauty at the time.
Below is the route we intend to follow over the next 12 days. We have a car and driver booked and we’ll head out first thing tomorrow morning. This portion will primarily be a historical Hindu temple tour before we end up in Goa. We set aside 12 days which should be plenty as we want to spend a month in Goa and then really focus on Northern India where we have yet to travel. We travelled the south several years ago and I travelled through the south 27 years ago so our focus this trip is on the north. We start our journey in Chennai and have a driver until we arrive in Hampi. We’ll figure out how to get to Goa from there. It won’t be difficult but we need to book accommodation in Goa ASAP. Being a Portuguese Catholic enclave Goa will be very busy over Christmas and New Years so our fingers are crossed we can get something good for a long stay. Stay tuned for updates. First stop, Mahabalipuram.
We arrived in Chennai last night (just barely) as our Male-Colombo flight was delayed 1 hour and we only had 1 hour to connect for our flight to Chennai but luck was on our side and the connecting flight waited for us and amazingly our luggage made the connection as well. Today marks 7 months of travel and to date we haven’t missed a flight or had any luggage lost. All things considered we’ve been pretty lucky so far. We’ll spend three nights here and are essentially using the time to organize the next month of our trip covering the South East, South Central and South West. Our plan is to hopefully end up in Goa around mid-late December where we hope to rent a bungalow or house for a month before heading north. We definitely don’t want to rush but we also want to chill and relax in Goa over Christmas and New Years.
