Tag: videos

Trichy, as Tiruchirappalli is known, (pop 847,000) has 2 main temples to visit.

The first one, Rock Fort Temple, is built on top of an 83m rock outcropping – it takes 437 rock-carved steps to get to the top!
There are actually two temples at this site – one big one half way up, and one little one dedicated to Ganesh at the very summit (non-Hindus can’t go into the first one, nor into the sanctum of the second one). However, you do get a great 360° view of the city from up top!
My heart rate was 168 when I made it to the top, almost non-stop. Oh, and you have to do it barefoot, since the whole thing is a temple site.
The entrance is through another temple at street level on the main bazaar street in the area.

The second one, Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, is actually a ridiculously large temple complex consisting of 7 concentric circular walls, with a total of 21 gopurams (pyramid-like tower on an entrance archway) – the tallest one, which you hit first at the south end, is a whopping 72m high! Granted, the area within the outermost walls are city (dwellings, stalls, etc.), and only the innermost parts are temple per se, and a huge pillared temple at that.

Thanjavur is a smaller town (pop 215,000) 50km east of Trichy; I visited it as a day trip (1¼ – 1¾ hours by train, Rs10/$0.25 in unreserved second class).
It has one World Heritage listed temple and a palace to visit.
I rented a single-speed bicycle for Rs3/$0.08 per hour.

The first one, Brihadishwara Temple, is a large sand-coloured complex in Chola architecture, built in 1010 by Raja Raja. It is different than most temples here in that the vimana (the pyramid tower over the inner sanctum) is taller than the gopuram (over the entry way). In fact this vimana is 66m tall! There is a huge Nandi (bull) statue carved from one 25 tonne rock (it’s 6m long and 3m high). Just inside the outer wall is a covered arched walkway containing hundreds of linga (phallic statues representing Shiva). And in the centre, a huge carved pillared temple; the air is cool inside. The inner sanctum contains a huge lingam.
See http://jantrabandt.blip.tv for a video.

The second one, Thanjavur Royal Palace & Museum, is an old palace seemingly surrounded by schools. There are a number of buildings to visit, including:

• Durbar Hall, where the king once held audiences, with a large dais

  

• the Saraswati Mahal library containing interesting artefacts, inc. palm leaf manuscripts with tiny script, and a 1785 World Atlas (with the latest discoveries of Capt Cook!) in which Australia is called New Holland, and Hawaii is the Sandwich Islands
• an art gallery with detailed Chola bronze statues from the 9th-18th Century.
• a slog up the narrow circular stone staircase of the ~8 story bell tower for a great view (though on the way down I saw a sign that said tourists shouldn’t go past the 3rd floor for their safety)
• the Royal Palace Museum, which was small and the only case that grabbed me contained royal embroidered shoes & hats
• and the uninteresting Raja Serfoji Memorial Hall

A lesser highlight of Thanjavur was that school kids kept wanting to talk to me and, gasp, I talked to them!
At one point I was surrounded by school boys (age 10?) in uniform on their break, near the palace, and they wanted their picture taken (and see it on my LCD) and they didn’t even pickpocket me (if you’ve been to Rome, you know what I’m talking about

About 60km south of Chennai, the World Heritage village of Mamallapuram (pop 12,000) was more laid back and more touristy but definitely worth a stop.
I ended up taking an auto-rickshaw (tuk-tuk) to here from Chennai, Rs680/$17 to avoid the (scary, unknown) hassle of taking a long distance bus (plus avoiding a ride out to the Chennai bus station in the first place, as it is inconveniently located 7km east of “downtown”).
The weather was good, mostly sunny with some clouds. It looked and felt like it would rain one late afternoon, but it didn’t come.

Highlights include (the first 3 are from the 6th & 7th Century) :
– fantastic rock carvings and mandapas (little temples) carved out of the rock, esp. Arjuna’s Pennance which is a 30x12m carving in a rock cliff face!

– the interesting Five Rathas chariot-like rock temples
– the annual famous month-long Dance Festival (I caught 2 performances on this last weekend of the festival) see http://jantrabandt.blip.tvfor a video

– the nice Shore Temple in a scenic location by the shore (duh!)
– going for a “swim” at the beach (just once, not really a beach/swim town as there are dangerous rips and the locals that do go into the water a little are either the fishermen or are wearing full clothes.
– watching a wild baby monkey play in a tree-top 3m away from me as I stood on a rock cliff in a park; see http://jantrabandt.blip.tv for a video

I stayed in a small mosquito-“infested” hotel (to be fair, there was a good mosquito net over the bed, and a ceiling fan) in my Rs350/$9 room, in the tourist ghetto near the beach. The food was similar to Indian dishes served in restos in North America, i.e. different from (and more expensive than) what I ate in Chennai. Though the restos were generally on a rooftop with some breeze, or right on the beach – one of the food highlights here is fresh fish and prawns…

And since Republic Day happened on Jan 26 (India’s equivalent to Canada Day or Independance Day), I got to see how Indian tourists from other (and presumably wealthier) parts of the country behave.