Day 3 - Kanyakumari

We had a short sleep and woke up at 5 AM and were ready to leave by 6. The sunrise point was hardly 500 mts from our hotel and we reached there by around 6:20 AM. From the point, we could see the silhouettes of Vivekananda Rock Memorial and Thirvalluvar statue at a distance. At the time of sunrise, a sound came and a flag was hoisted at the memorial at 6:40 AM.

After watching the sunrise, he took us to Baywatch wax museum, which is India's first wax museum. The entry ticket was Rs. 50 per head and for camera was Rs. 10. There were wax statues of Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachan, Mohan Lal, Rajnikant, Pope John Paul, Michael Jackson, Jayalalitha, Karunakaran, Manmohan Singh and others. Some were really good, some were awful.

We were back near the sunset point and the guide gathered us all together and told the routes to the tourist places. All were within 300 mts. He let us free to go around the places, have lunch and come back to hotel by 1 PM. All the groups dispersed and we first went to a hotel nearby and had breakfast. First we decided to go to Vivekananda Rock memorial and so came to buy the ferry ticket. But there was a huge queue for the ticket and we had to wait for nearly 45 mins in the line. The ticket costed only Rs. 20 per head for ferry to cover both memorial and statue. Finally when our turn arrived, we were given life guards for safety in the ferry. There were only 3 ferries operating, so the long waiting time. Each ferry could take 80-90 people only.

We disembarked on the Rock Memorial and it too had an entry fee of Rs. 10 per head. The area was so calm and peaceful. First we went to the Sri Pada Mandapam, which has the footsteps of Goddess Parvati in the form of rock. This is situated right opposite the memorial.

In between the Sri Pada Mandapam and memorial, a direction identifier was built.

We then came to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, which was very calm inside. A statue of Swami Vivekananda stood upfront on the rock on which he did meditation for 3 days.

Outside the memorial, we could clearly see the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. 
 

We then stood back in the queue for catching a ferry to Thiruvalluvar statue and waited for around 20 mins. On arrival at the statue, we climbed around 3 floors to get to the base of the statue. This statue of the Tamil saint poet is 133 ft long and is one of the biggest statues in Asia. The city of Kanyakumari also could be seen at a distance.

 

Again we waited for a ferry to bring us back to the shores and finally we were at the mainland by around 11:45 AM. We had to rush to the temple as we were told it would close by 12 PM. On the streets, there were numerous stores of beach items and we ordered a guy to etch names of our homes on 2 shells and that we would collect it after visiting the temple.

The Kumari Amman or the Kanyakumari Temple, located on the shore, is a Shakti Peetha dedicated to a manifestation of Parvati, the virgin goddess who did penance to obtain Lord Shiva's hand in marriage. According to Hindu legend, Kanya Devi, an avatar of Parvati, was to marry Siva, but as he failed to show up on his wedding day, the rice and other grains meant for the wedding feast remained uncooked and remain unused thereafter. As the legend goes, the uncooked grains turned into stones as time went by. Some believe that the small stones which look like rice on the shore today, are indeed grains of the wedding that was never solemnized. Kanya Devi is now considered a virgin goddess who blesses pilgrims and tourists who flock the town. We had a very close Darshan of the Goddess. The doors of the temple is small and one has to bend while entering.

By the side of the temple, a small lane goes which leads to the sunset point and Gandhi Mandapam. We first went to the Gandhi Memorial which has been built on the spot where the urn containing the Mahatma's ashes was kept for public viewing before immersion. Resembling central Indian Hindu temples in form, the memorial was designed in such a way that on Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, the first rays of the sun fall on the exact place where his ashes were kept.

We then took a stroll at the back where there was the Triveni Sangama, which is the confluence of Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. This the southernmost tip of Indian continent.

There is also a temple of Adi Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetha on its shores.

We didn't have time to go to the Tsunami Park, so hurried towards the shop where we placed orders for shells, bought some small shells for playing, and went to the same hotel we had been for lunch. After having lunch, we walked up in the scorching sun to the hotel and by that time it was already 1:30 PM. The driver told that everyone were waiting only for us! We didn't care as we also had waited for everyone the day before.

We hurriedly packed our stuffs and left back for Madurai at 2 PM. On the way, just as we left Kanyakumari, we saw the western ghats and a farm of windmills.

We reached Madurai at around 6:30 PM and waited for long to collect our return tickets to Bangalore at some office in private bus stand. Having waited for more than 1.5 hours, we finally got our boarding pass in a semi-sleeper bus. By this time, our group had been split and some got seats for 8:15 PM bus and others got in 9:30 one. We opted for 9:30 PM as we wanted to have dinner before leaving. At a nearby restaurant, we had our food and finally took off to Bangalore at around 9:45 PM. We both had a good sleep in the bus, thanks to all the strain over the last 3 days!

We finally reached Bangalore at 6:45 AM and came home by bus. Upon shifting things from our luggage to wardrobe, we found that my camera had been stolen somewhere :( We thing mostly somebody has taken it from our lodge at Madurai when we were not in our room, as everywhere else we had locked our baggages. We contacted STC Tourism guys and the lodge guys, but in vain. Fully disappointed at the end!

Overall, this trip was stressful and OK, but main thing is that we covered all the places. Hadn't the camera not be stolen, it would have been a good trip.

A word of caution to whoever plan to go by package thru STC Tourism - DON'T TRAVEL BY STC TOURISM. Although they charge cheaply, the facilities, timings and everything is hopeless. Better to opt for other tourists.

I'm researching on my new camera...

Day 2 - Rameshwaram

We were ready by 7:30 AM sharp after packing our stuffs according to the itinerary given by Syeed, but we forgot that IST rules everywhere. The mini tempo was an hour late as there were some problem with its clutches in the vehicle sent day before, and so a different vehicle was sent. In the meantime while waiting, we went to Madana Gopala temple which was right opposite our hotel. It’s also a very old temple, and calm - no rush. We could clearly see the deities. Its temple tower was also colorful.

When our vehicle finally arrived, it was around 8:40 AM. We were again the first to get into it, and later he picked up other tourists from different hotels. Among the ones who joined us for the whole trip were 3 uncles from Lucknow who had come to Bangalore for Air Show, one couple from Bangalore, a Muslim family of 5 from Tripura, and a family of 4. We all finally set for Rameshwaram at 9 AM. Midway, we had our breakfast at some roadside hotel at around 10 AM. It took us around 3.5 hours to reach Rameshwaram, which is about 170 kms from Madurai.

On the way, we saw the famous Pamban bridge which connects the main land with the island. It’s a beautiful scene with sea on both sides, a railway track by the underside, and the bridge stretches for a good 5 kms long. We stopped in the middle to capture a few snaps.

By the time we reached Rameshwaram town, it was already 12:30 PM. The guide told us that the temple would close by 1 PM and so he will take to the temple at 3 PM when it reopens. Till then we would see the nearby places.

First we saw Sita Kund.

Opposite to it is the Panch-Mukhi Hanuman temple. There is also the Samadhi of Tulsi Baba. The floating stones, used to build the SethuBandanamor, the bridge between India and Lanka can be found in this temple.

Next to it, we went to Lakshman Theerth. All these Theerths are considered to be holy water sources. All these places were within 100 mts distance.

Having seen these, the guide took us to some Marwadi restaurant for lunch. We had a home-like food and it tasted good as we were hungry and tired. After lunch, he took us to a shopping store claimed to be that of the brother of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. The shop was big and a majority of items were of sea shells and conches. We bought shells with 'Rameswaram' etched on it to mark it as a memory of our trip.

By then it was 2:45 PM and the guide took us near Agni Theertham. He introduced us to a local Panda (priest) and told us to follow his instructions. The Panda told that whoever is interested can have bath at Agni Theertham, and come to main temple. There were 22 'kunds' or Theertham's inside the main temple and he will pour water on persons for bathing there. He charged Rs. 3 per 'kund' and Rs. 25 for entry ticket, making it Rs. 90 per head. At first we hesitated, but eventually paid him off.

The beach at Agni Theertham was calm and pleasant. We didn't want to have bath, so just touched it and sprinkled on ourselves. The uncles and the couple were full interested in having bath & fun. Agni Theertham is just about 100 mts from the main eastern entrance of the temple.

The Panda then took us inside the main temple. At the entrance to the right, there was a Hanuman temple, with 5 ft above & 5 ft below the ground. It is said that whoever visits this temple has to go to this Hanuman temple first and then go to see Lord Ramanatha Swamy.

According to the legend, upon the advice of Rishis (sages), Lord Rama along with Sita and Lakshmana, installed and worshipped the Sivalinga here to expiate the sin of Brahmahatya (killing of a Brahmin)(Ravana) while returning to Ayodhya. Rama fixed an auspicious time for the installation and sent Hanuman to Mount Kailas to bring a lingam. As Hanuman could not return in time, Sita herself made a linga of sand. When Hanuman returned with a Linga from Mount Kailas the rituals had been over. To comfort the disappointed Anjaneya, Rama had Anjaneya’s Lingam (Visvalingam) also installed by the side of Ramalinga, and ordained that rituals be performed first to the Visvalingam. This Visvalingam is just around the Prakara of Hanuman temple.

We then moved towards the huge door. On the top, a picture idol of the Rameshwaram shrine was built.

Inside the temple, there are 22 Theertham's and he told that water in each Theertham tasted different. And it was! We had a sip of water from all the 22 Theertham's - some were plain, some sweet, some salty & some very salty. The names of the Theerthams are:

Mahalakshmi Theertham, Savitri Theertham, Gayatri Theertham, Saraswathi Theertham, Sethu Madhava Theertham, Gandha Madhana Theertham, Kavacha Theertham, Gavaya Theertham, Nala Theertham, Neela Theertham, Sanku Theertham, Sakkara Theertham, Brahma Hatya Vimochana Theertham, Surya Theertham, Chandra Theertham, Ganga Theertham, Yamuna Theertham, Gaya Theertham, Siva Theertham, Sadhyamirtha Theertham, Sarva Theertham and Kodi Theertham. The last Theertham directly comes from the 'Abhisheka' of Lord Ramanatha Swamy.

Finally we entered the main shrine and had the Darshan of the Linga. With this, I saw the 7th Jyotirlinga of my life and I was very happy. Still there are 5 more to be covered and I hope to see them all in my lifetime. I gave the Gangajal I bought from Kashi to the priest and asked him to do 'Abhisheka' to the diety. With this, as the legend goes, I successfully completed the trip to Kashi. At Varanasi, I was a bachelor and over here, I came as a married man :)

Beside the main temple, there was a temple of Goddess Parvati too. After having seen both, we came out and saw the biggest temple corridor in India. All along the side of the corridor, there were 108 Linga's established.

We exited the temple and returned to the vehicle. Upon coming, we got to know that we need to come back to Madurai and then go to Kanyakumari from Madurai in a different vehicle. All along, we had thought that directly after leaving Rameshwaram, we would go to Kanyakumari for night halt. But it seemed that there was no route direct from Rameshwaram to Kanyakumari. With no option left, we travelled another 4 hours back to Madurai and reached at around 8:30 PM. There, at the railway station parking, another vehicle stood and we transferred our luggage to the new mini tempo. We had food at a nearby restaurant and finally started our journey to Kanyakumari at around 9:45 PM. We never knew that we would be doing a night journey in this trip and nothing had been communicated to us. It was a gruesome 4.5 hr journey to Kanyakumari and finally we reached at 2:30 AM. The driver took us to some under-construction hotel and dumped everyone there. The room was horrible, with dust everywhere, no curtains to the window and no proper washroom too. With great regret, we had to sleep there, only for 3 hours as we had to be ready by 6 in the morning for sunrise.

For more info on Rameshwaram, click here and here.

Day 1 - Madurai

In our wish list of the places to be seen, Madurai-Rameshwaram-Kanyakumari also had its reservations. This was finally realized when we booked our 3 day package tour to MRK thru STC Tourism starting 13th Feb. The package costed Rs. 2,500 per head and only myself and Soumya went for it. The travel guy had told that all hotel reservations had been done and we would be put in Ramakrishna Towers in Madurai. On arrival at Madurai, a person by name Syeed will contact me and give the tour details for 3 days. On the night of 12th, we boarded a SRS semi-sleeper bus to Madurai at 9:30 PM and reached the temple city at around 6:15 AM.

We took a rick to hotel Sri Ramakrishna Towers, which was hardly a km from the bus stand, and the rick charged Rs. 30 for it. We woke up the hotel manager and showed him the receipt given at Bangalore. After sometime, he handed over the keys of room and said that Syeed will contact us by 9. We took some rest and freshened ourselves by 9 and then Syeed came and gave us the tour itinerary. Syeed had his travel agency - Bengal Travels and STC was its partner. He told we had time till 2 PM to relax, and then the Madurai sightseeing bus would come by 2:30 PM, and take us around Madurai and drop us near Meenakshi temple at around 6:30 PM. The next day, we had to be ready by 7:30 AM to go for Rameshwaram, and night halt would be at Kanyakumari. The day after, we needed to leave hotel at 6 AM for sunrise and then Kanyakumari sightseeing and later back to Madurai and Bangalore. 

As we had lots of time in the morning, we thought of finishing Meenakshi temple as it was close by and in the evening, photos won’t come good. We left the hotel, had breakfast at the nearby Murugan Idly hotel and went to the temple. It was just a 10 min walk from our hotel and the outer compound wall was lengthy. The road leading to the temple was hopeless with lots of potholes and dust. As we came close to the South Tower, we were fascinated by its structure. The South tower was very colorful, rises to over 170 ft (52 m) high with 1511 statues and is the tallest among the 12 towers!

As we entered the temple, there were 2 queues - one free darshan and another special darshan for Rs. 15. We could take snaps of the temple by paying Rs. 50 for camera. As we entered, a marble replica of the temple was kept near the general queue. The ceilings were painted with different themes - the 8 forms of Goddess Sakthi, all God forms, wedding of Meenakshi Amman, etc.

The corridor of the main temple was amazing.

To the right was the Golden Lotus pond which was dried up. Its believed that it was in this pond that the Golden Lotus for Indra to perform His pooja bloomed. This pond is also known as Adhi Theertham, Sivaganga and Uthama Theertham.

At the far end, enclosing the Sundareshwar temple wall, there was an idol of Lord Ganesha.

We first went to Sundareshwar temple as it had less queue. 2 bronze statues guarded the entrance. The presiding deity there was Lord Shiva in the form of Sundareshwara. The Sundareshwara temple also had a big Prakara, and we took a round around it. There were deities of Kalabhairava and other deities within its corridor.

There was a big bronze Nandi in front of the temple, and numerous carved pillars all around.

Next we went to the main Meenakshi Amman temple and there was already a long queue for special darshan also, as it was Neyvedyam time. We stood in the long corridor between Meenakshi and Sundareshwar shrines.

We stood in the queue for more than 30 mins and finally we had the darshan of Meenakshi Amman. The idol stood far covered in natural lights only. After darshan, we came out of the sanctum and went towards the eastern entrance along the pond. At all places, the corridor ceilings were painted with some or other stuffs and it looked beautiful.

On the way, we found temple art museum and 1000 pillar mandapam, but we thought of visiting it later. The eastern side had two entrances and its tower was relatively small compared to the south one.

There was also a marriage hall besides it.

It was already 12:30 PM by then and we decided to go back to the hotel. On the way, we had lunch at Modern restaurant near South tower. The name was 'Modern', but they served traditional lunch on plantain leaves. As we were tired for hours of walking, we had proper lunch and came back to the hotel at around 1:45 PM. From our hotel rooftop, all the towers of Meenakshi temple was visible at a distance and it was a pleasant sight.

We slept for about half an hour when the ring from the reception woke us up. He told that the sightseeing bus had come and was waiting for us. We quickly got readied and left the hotel at 2:30 PM. The traveler bus was a mini tempo and we were the first ones to board it. we were wondering if we were the only people for sightseeing, but then the driver took us to some place and made us wait for 1 hour in the sun for other fellow tourists. We finally started our sightseeing trip at 3:30 PM.

First we went to Thirumalai Nayak Palace. This is the palace of 17th century Pandya ruler Thirumalai Nayak who contributed extensively to the Meenakshi Temple. The area is huge with colorful dooms. There is also a museum, which houses not only the original portraits of Thirumalai naicker, but also unearthed stone carvings of the 7th century, along with many sculptures of Hindu Gods like Brahma, Nataraja, Saraswati of the period. There is also a sound and light show conducted in the evening.

Next, we went to the Mariyamma Tank which is a huge tank with a temple in its centre.

Next, he took us to Gandhi Museum where Indian Independence struggle has been depicted in pictures from the time British came to India. There are some artifacts related to Gandhi also, and among them is the Gandhi's bloodstained dhoti which he wore on his last day when he was shot. This museum is good for those interested in India's freedom struggle.

Further continuing, he took us to Alagar Temple which is 20 kms away from Madurai located in the nearby hills (Alagarkoil). This is Vishnu Temple dedicated to Sundaraja Perumal (or) Alagar (beautiful). The Lord is considered the brother of Meenakshi (Lordes Paravathi) given in wedding with Sundareshwar (Lord Shiva). The temple is situated amidst a very picturesque surroundings.

Next on the way back to Madurai, we stopped at the SuryaNarayana temple which is a relatively new one. Inside the temple were huge idols of Lord Shiva, Karthikeya, Hanuman among other deities. Photography wasn't allowed inside it.

We came back to Madurai at around 7:30 PM and he dropped us near Meenakshi temple West tower. Regarding other places mentioned in the travel guide, like Madana Gopala temple, he told that it was nearby and could be visited after Meenakshi temple. 

We came back to Meenakshi temple and entered it again via South tower to go to the 1000 pillar mandapam. There was a procession of the Lords going on it that area. As we entered, the replica of the temple was now lit and we could now understand the architecture of the temple and the corridors.

We went to the 1000 pillar mandapam and it was beautiful with each pillar having a source of light above it. At the far end was an idol of Lord Nataraja.

Here is a section of the 1000 pillar mandapam.

The temple art museum was within it and it had collections of ancient bronze idols of various dieties.

After seeing all these, we took Prasadam and left the temple premises. We had no patience to go to Madana Gopala temple as we were totally exhausted. We had food at the same Modern restaurant. In TamilNadu, where all places we have visited, dinner is not served at night at hotels. So, we had to have heavy snacks - parotha, roti and milk. We came back to the hotel, tired. After calling up our homes, we crashed on bed as next day we had to be ready by 7:30 AM.

For more information click on: Madurai, Meenakshi Amman temple.

For the temple art and architecture, click here.