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..

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..

Aaavudayaar and Pudukottai

The previous post in this series is here..

When FIL and me were wrapping up the visit to Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal it was almost 2:30PM. It was hot and we were waiting for the driver to come get us. Was asking him about the return trip and he said we were to go by Vaigai express to Trichy. Given the recent train experience to Rameshwaram from Chennai and the associated dead times at the train station, I asked "what if instead of going to Trichy by train from Madurai, what if our driver drove us to Trichy with a few more stops on the way? I have always wanted to visit Aavudayar temple and see Pudukkottai (my father's birthplace) and MIL wanted to visit Bhuvaneshwari amman temple there."

FIL made some frantic last minute arrangements while we went to pick up the ladies and we told them the updated schedule. There was some mixed feelings.. but overall it was welcomed as the ladies got to visit a very old rare temple and a relatively new one.

Aaavudayaar temple is a must see. There is no idol for the deities. Just a pedestal where they pour hot steaming rice near it and offer the steam to the god. The idea is that real god is in many forms and also formless. God is everywhere and in everything is the idea. The temple itself is beautiful.

When you enter the temple you will see an Indian gecko lizzard (udumbu- something that is famous for its grip on any surface) and a monkey.. there is a story behind this and you can wiki it!

This is a really old temple. Sadly no restrooms near it and not many stores either to grab something to eat.

We drank some tea at a roadside stall and started our drive to Pudukkottai.

Pudukkottai was not what I imagined it to be. It has become a big Christian town. Massive state of the art churches everywhere. New names for the stores. A very big change over the years. We managed to go the newly updated Bhuvaneshwari temple. The temple itself is beautiful but the priests and their attitude was a turn off. In any case it was our last stop for the day and we had a two plus hour drive to Trichy.

Made a quick stop to eat. Then I had to rush and get a new Dhoti as all mine were wet from a mixup in the bag from Rameshwaram (yes, we still had wet clothes in the bag). It was finally 9:30 when we reached our hotel in Trichy.

It would have taken us the same time to reach this hotel had we traveled by train. So it was all good!

We said goodbye to our driver. A new person was going to pick us up first thing in the morning for the next days trip.. will get to that post soon!