The next day morning, we were ready by 8 AM after having breakfast. The tourist bus arrived, and it was an ill maintained tempo traveller. He rounded the city to pick up various tourists and finally started the tour. In the middle, he was stopped by RTO guys for 45 mins for not having proper documents. This irritated everyone in the bus. Finally, after adjusting with RTO folks, we started the tour. The first destination was VGP Golden beach. On the way, he showed the St. Anthony's church where films like Andha Kanoon and Aakhri Rasta were shot. The beach was all along on the left side.
It was very sunny when we arrived at the VGP Golden beach, which is situated on the ECR road, about 15 kms from the city. This place is very famous for the film shootings done here. Fortunately, there was a shooting going on we could see Tamil actors Vikram and Trisha on the sets. I wondered how many takes for the same shot were being performed by them - once running, once on bike, once with girls behind running.. ooph!
There were different amusement rides also and shooting settings. We 3 went on a roller coaster ride and it was an amazing experience. Though the ride was a short one, our expressions in the photos taken said a lot. Only hard copy of the photos were given to us which costed Rs. 50 per photo. The construction near beach has been shot in various films. For the first time in my life, I stepped into the Bay of Bengal.
After spending about an hour there, we left for our next destination - crocodile bank. On the way, the guide showed us the place where there used to be dolphin shows, but its stopped now due to water problems. At the crocodile bank, there were more than 5000 crocodiles resting at this place, one above the other shamelessly. Never had seen so many crocodiles at one spot. No crocodile moved an inch from their place and behaved as if they were dummies. There was also another special type of species of crocodiles - the Gharial which was very huge.
After crocodile bank, we proceeded for lunch. He took us to Adyar Anand Bhavan near Mahabalipuram. The hotel was packed to core & with great difficulty, we took our meals and proceeded towards Mahabalipuram.
Mahabalipuram, or Mammalapuram, as its being called now is a small town which was once the capital of Pallava rulers. This houses the famous shore temple, Arjuna's penace and Pancha Rathas. We were excited to see these places, but the guide took us to some park where there was a huge rock and some caves nearby. As we got down, we came to know that it was the Krishna butter ball rock which is a huge boulder near the Ganesha Ratha. It rests precariously on a narrow rock base. Legend has it that several Pallava Kings attempted to move it, but all the kings and their elephants could not shift the boulder even by an inch.
There were other monuments to hop over. Forgot its name though.
On either sides of the rock were the caves of Pandavas. We went to the farthest cave and from there the sea could be seen.
We climbed down and went back to the bus hoping that he would next take us to the shore temple. But he drove away from Mahabalipuram towards Kanchi without letting anyone know that shore temple would not be covered. On asking why he didn't take us to shore temple, he told that the road to the beach was blocked as it was the last day for Ganapati immersion in that area. IDIOT!!
:( Anyways, for having a look at some of the places which we missed and more info on Mahabalipuram, click here.
On the way to Kanchi, the guide showed us a temple on a hill called Pakshi Theertham which was very famous once upon a time. Legend has it that two eagles round the temple daily and eat food offered by the priest to get rid of their sins. The presiding diety over there is Lord Shiva.
We next came to Kancheepuram where he first took us to some saree shop for shopping since the guide told that the temple was closed. Only Vishnu Kanchi was there in the itinerary, but my father-in-law, along with a few co-passengers forced the guide to take us to Kanchi Kamakshi temple, since lot of time had been wasted during the day and also Shore temple was not covered. He had to agree.
The road to Vishnu Kanchi was very wide with old houses on either side. Ladies were drawing rangolis in front of their houses. Later we got to know that God's procession was coming that way. The main temple's gateway cannot be seen from the outside. Such was the architecture of this temple. At the entrance, there was a mandapam with ornamental rings carved out of single stone at the Four Corners of the it in the form of a chain. This indicated that the Cholas built this temple. The main temple of Varadaraja Perumaal is located on a 2 storey building and I was amazed to see this kind for the first time. The presiding deity was too good to see in natural light. Besides the sanctum, there is a Golden Lizard on the roof top along with Gold plated Sun, Moon and a Silver plated lizard. Belief is that one who touches that gets rid of defects of lizards. For more info on Vishnu Kanchi, click here.
Having seen all these, we came back to the bus and then the guide took us to the main Kanchi Kamakshi temple. It took around half an hour to reach the temple. On the way, we saw the gateway of Shiv Kanchi, which is the second tallest gateway after Rameshwaram. At Kanchi Kamakshi temple, there was a huge rush & the guard didn't allow for a quick darshan. So we had to join the long queue. In about 20 mins, we had the darshan of Kamakshiamman.
Kamakshi Amman temple is one of the three most holily shrines dedicated to Shakthi. The other two are in Madurai and Varanasi. As the literature goes - "Kanchi Kamakshi, Madurai Meenakshi, Kashi Vishalakshi". This temple was built in the 14th century by the Cholas. The temple has a golden "gopuram" at the centre. For more info on Kanchi Kamakshi temple, click here.
By this time, it was already 7:30 PM and we had to hurry back to Chennai. On the way we saw the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial and Hyundai's manufacturing plant near Sriperumbudur.
Finally, we were back at Chennai Central by around 9 PM. We had our dinner at the same Vasant Bhavan and went back to the lodge and crashed on bed. Again the next day, we had to get up early to return to Bangalore covering Vellore on the way.
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