Chennai trip - Day 3

Monday morning, we got up early, packed the various items bought, and without having breakfast, rushed to the Chennai Moffusil Bus Terminus to catch a bus to Vellore. Earlier, we had read somewhere on the internet that the Vellore Golden Temple would be open only between 8 AM - 12 PM and 4 PM - 9 PM. So in order to get back to Bangalore at proper time, we had to hurry up for the Golden Temple. Vellore was about 3 hours from Chennai and we had very less time. On arrival at the CMBT, fortunately there was a bus immediately leaving for Vellore and we got into the same.
 

After about 2:45 minutes of journey, we landed at Vellore bus station at around 11:30 AM and quickly got into a bus to Sripuram. We had thought that the temple would be very crowded, and to get quick entry we had contacted one of colleagues of my father-in-law who was the manager of Karnataka Bank at Vellore branch and who knew the PRO of temple office. One the way to temple, we called him and he told to talk to the PRO mentioning his name & then the PRO would let us for quick darshan.
 

We reached the temple premises at 11:50 PM and went straight to the PRO office. The strange thing here was, we were not supposed to carry luggage, cameras & mobiles inside so had to be deposited at luggage room, paying for each item & also for the plastic cover for keeping slippers. And also, if we had to call someone after depositing, they would give the entire set and had to be re-deposited paying again. What a way to make money!
 

At the PRO office, an assistant of the PRO handed over a pamphlet & discussed with us the different Sevas that were performed mentioning the cost. The starting price for each seva was Rs. 200 per person & went upto Rs. 5000. She was coaxing us to perform atleast one Seva of Rs. 500 per person so that we can have a quick darshan of God. She told that without Seva, quick entry to the temple would not be possible. We were thinking of ways to escape from this looting and called her dad again. He told no need to pay money and just to ask them to let us have darshan. We again came back and told her that we dont intend to do any seva. After some consultation with the PRO, the assistant finally agreed to let us in thru the quick gate. We kept wondering what all people can do to extract money from devotees. Only later we came to know that we had avoided only walking about 0.5 kms thru the queue lines and also there wasn't much rush that day.
 

The temple, was open from morning 8 to evening 9 and we cursed the guy who mentioned wrong timings on the internet. We had to walk for about 1 km in a path similar to a star shaped padma (Sri Chakra).  The landscaping was too good & there were preachings of Narayani Amma here and there. We somehow didn't get the feeling of a temple as it looked more like an amusement garden. The Golden Temple of Lakshmi was at the centre of the Sri Chakra & it was glowing in the sun, making it a majesty to see it. The idol of Godess was so impressive. Its said that more than 600 kgs of gold has been used to build this temple and is the biggest structure made out of gold. Photography wasn't allowed inside the temple, but here are a few snaps taken from net.

Its said that the temple looks dazzling at the night.

After having darshan of the Godesses, we came out where people were standing in queue for lunch prasadam. We too stood there & had lunch. Later we went to the PRO office but thankfully he wasn't there. So said thanks to one of his assistants & quickly left the temple premises. We got a bus to Vellore bus station and on the way saw the Vellore fort and Jalakandeshwara temple. We had plans to visit this temple too, but it was closed till 4 PM. At the bus stand, we waited for about 10 mins & a direct bus came from Chennai to Bangalore and got into it. It took around 4.5 hours to reach Shantinagar bus stand & from there we took a rick to home.
 

Overall, this trip was a good one & a nice break from work schedule. Next, Hyderabad is on the cards..

Chennai trip - Day 2

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.

Chennai trip - Day 1

Before the memories of Chennai trip fades away from my mind, I thought of writing a quick blog on that trip. It was the most rapid trip planned, since my father-in-law was in Chennai on inspection. Initially everyone of our families had planned to go, but gradually, only myself & Soumya were left out to go. The train bookings were done within 10 days for the night of 17th Sept. Our initial plan was to cover Chennai, Kanchi & on the way back to Vellore.

We both landed in Chennai station at sharp 6 AM on 18th where my father-in-law had come to receive us. He had lodged very near to the station and all of us stayed together in a double bed room. As we were still feeling sleepy, we slept for sometime upon arrival. At around 8:30, we got up & went to have breakfast at the nearby Vasant Bhavan hotel. In Chennai, there are no popular dishes as such, so just had normal idli-vada and dosas.

The first look of Chennai was not pleasant as such. The railway station was built in Victorian style, like Mumbai's. There was traffic as early as 6:15 AM, a drainage flowing like a river next to the station, & huge garbage piled up on the streets making us difficult to walk even on the footpaths. People spat everywhere & if you are not careful, they might just spit on you!

After having breakfast, we came back to the room and her dad left for office. On the TV, there was nothing except for Tamil channels and a few Hindi channels here and there. We slept for some more time & finally freshened up. She called one of her college friend - Jagdeep & he told that he would come to meet us & take us round of Chennai. We waited for more than 1 hour near lodge & finally upon calling him, he told to come near Park Station. There too we waited for some time until he finally turned up. I had asked him to find the location of Snake Park as it was very famous here, but he didn't knew of the place. We asked others, but nobody gave the exact place. Finally somehow we could find the nearest station close to Snake Park and boarded the train to Kasturiba Nagar from Park Town.

On our way, we could see the famous Marina beach at a distance. It’s the longest city beach & the shores spread for about 0.5 kms from the sea waters. We finally arrived at Kasturiba Nagar station at about 12:30 PM and hired a rick to Snake Park. On the way, we saw IIT Madras campus. The zoo & the snake park are close to each other & by mistake we took the tickets for zoo. After some time, we realized that this was not the place we wanted to go, & exited the zoo & went to snake park.

The Guindy Snake Park here is filled with different types of snakes, all kept in glass cages, and some water snakes too. Some of the notable species are the pythons, rat snakes & cobras. All the snakes were lying lazily as if they were dead. It also houses a crocodile bank. There were some fossils of snakes, lizards & other reptiles too.

After spending an hour there, we left for having lunch. Jagdeep took us to Sangeetha restaurant near station and we had authentic Chettinad meals. We ate till the stomach exploded and walked down till the station. We waited for more than half an hour for the train and finally boarded the train to Park Town bidding adieu to him. We finally reached the lodge at around 5:30 PM and slept for a while. By that time, her dad was already back from office.

At around 6:30 PM, we all left for a round of shopping in Chennai's famous shopping area - T Nagar. Before that, we booked tickets for day tour around Chennai for the next day at our hotel. We went to Park Station and got into a train to Mambalam. The ticket fares are very cheap in trains, but its fully packed, like in Mumbai. We alighted at Mambalam and went to S Usman road, on which there are the famous showrooms of Saravana Stores, GR Thangamaligai, Nalli Silks, Pothys, Kumaran Silks, etc. It was a crowded area. First we went to Pothys, which was a 5 storeyed building for only dresses. We peeped into all floors & saw rates were same or more as compared to Bangalore. We didnt buy anything there & so next went to Saravana Stores, which is a huge retail brand in Chennai. This also was a huge complex, slightly cheaper than Pothys. We bought dresses for everyone in the family after shopping for more than an hour. By that time, one of her dad's friends turned up & so he decided to stay back at his friend's place for the night. We both took the train back to Park Station, had light dinner at Vasant Bhavan and slept. One day tour was next on our cards.