Category: Travel

  • Trip to Guruvayur, Thrissur and Athirapilly Falls, Kerala

    1) Guruvayur: Time of visit: November 2011 Mode of travel: Car from Calicut (around 120 kms) Places visited: Visited the following temples: Guruvayurappan Temple: The one temple that most pilgrims visit Guruvayur for. More details on the temple, timings, customs etc can be found at http://guruvayurdevaswom.nic.in/index.html Mammiyur Sri Mahadeva Temple: Not…

  • Trip to Wayanad, Kerala

    Time of visit: November 2011 Mode of travel: Car from Calicut (around 80 kms to our place of stay) Places to see: Please refer to http://www.wayanad.net/places.html , http://www.mustseeindia.com/Wayanad/attractions or similar web sites. Would highly recommend the Muthanga wildlife sanctuary and the jeep ride there. We spotted quite a bit of wildlife, including…

  • Trip to Yercaud

    *** Giving details of a recent trip to Yercaud below; may prove useful for people planning a trip to the place *** Went to Yercaud, a hill station near Salem in Tamil Nadu, India, a few weeks back. HOW TO REACH? Modes of transport I used:  Chennai to Salem: Train Salem…

  • A trip to Padmanabhapuram, Suchindram & Kanyakumari – Part 2

    Part 1 of this post can be found here   SUCHINDRAM THANUMAYALAN TEMPLE We caught a local bus back to Thakkalai from the bus stop just outside the Padmanabhapuram palace. The bus service was not that frequent. Autorickshaws were also available. We boarded a Kanyakumari bound bus from the Thakkalai…

  • A trip to Padmanabhapuram, Suchindram & Kanyakumari – Part 1

      PADMANABHAPURAM PALACE Padmanabhapuram was once the capital of the princely state of Travancore, a state that later merged with Cochin and Malabar district to form the present state of Kerala. The Padmanabhapuram palace is a beautiful wooden palace located in this place, constructed by the rulers of Travancore around…

  • A Trip to Vadivudaiamman Temple, Tiruvotriyur

    Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar, the great composer, had traveled to many temples and composed songs on the deities there. Vadivudaiamman Temple (also known as Sri Thyagaraja Swami Temple) in Tiruvotriyur, at the outskirts of Chennai, in one of them. Dikshitar composed the song “AdipurIshvaram sadA bhajEham” in the rAgam Arabhi at…

  • Trip to Tiruvannamalai

    Went on a weekend trip to Tiruvannamalai which is located about 185 kms from Chennai. The route we took was Chennai – Tambaram – Melmaruvathur – Tindivanam – Senji (Gingee) – Tiruvannamalai.  While traveling on the highway from Chennai to Tindivanam, one has to take a right turn about 4…

  • Trip to Nallattoor (Nallattur)

    I was looking at the list of Carnatic concerts in Chennai some days back, confused as to which ones to attend the coming Sunday. Just then my mom came and said, “Let me help you with your choice. You are not going to any concert but will be coming with…

  • Trip to Elagiri (Yelagiri)

    *** Giving details of a recent trip to (Y)Elagiri below …. might prove useful for people planning a trip to the place in the future *** Elagiri is a hill station located in Tamil Nadu and is a nice weekend getaway, especially for the Chennai junta. Characteristics: Weather is supposed…

  • Trip to Tirupati/Kalahasti

    Went on a 2 day trip to Kalahasti, Tirupati & Tiruchanur with all the kith and kin that could make it. We started from Chennai at about 11 AM in the morning on Sunday and took the Chennai – Poonamallee – Tiruvallur – Tiruttani – Puttur – Renigunta route. From…

  • A trip to Gingee (Senji) Fort

    While on our way to attend a friend’s marriage in Villupuram, Tamilnadu, four of us (the youths in the group 😉 ) decided to visit the historic Gingee (Senji) fort which gets its name from the place where it is located viz., Gingee (Senji). It is located about 160 kms…

  • A trip to Srirangapatnam/Mysore – Part 3

    Click Part 1 and Part 2 to access the earlier posts on this topic. The last place in our itenarary was Mysore. We first visited the Mysore Palace. Its construction culminated in 1912 at a cost of Rs. 41.5 lakhs then. There were apparently three palaces at the same site…

  • A trip to Srirangapatnam/Mysore – Part 2

    Part 1 of this post can be accessed here. After seeing Sangam and boating in a coracle there, we went to Ranganathittu which is a bird sanctuary spread over many islets on the river Cauvery. Located about 3 kms from Srirangapatnam, it is considered to be a paradise for bird…

  • A trip to Srirangapatnam/Mysore – Part 1

    Six of us went on a one day trip to Srirangapatnam and Mysore on Saturday. Though there is a package tour offered by KSTDC, we rented a qualis for the trip as the cost per head wasn’t coming out to be much different from the KSTDC package and because it…

  • A trip to Nagarjunasagar

    A group of us planned all of a sudden during the party day before yesterday to go to Nagarjunasagar and hit the road yesterday morning. Nagarjunasagar is the world’s largest masonry dam and is located about 150 kms away from Hyderabad. The dam was inaugurated on 10th Dec 1955 by…