Tamil Nadu:
We had been thinking of a trip to Pondicherry and Dhanushkodi for a very long time, but it never got materialised. Few articles on Autocar magazine about Tamil Nadu kick started this plan again and this time we had few places to visit along the way too. So after a month of research we were finally ready with a long tour plan by the end of October. Finally January first week was chosen as the time for this travel and by end of November all bookings were done, well in advance.
Route map of the planned trip
Day 1 (3/1/2015):
Woke up early at 4:00 AM, got ready, loaded the car and left home at 5:00 AM. Journey was smooth with limited traffic and good roads. We reached Krishnagiri at 6:15 AM and stopped at Saravana Bhavan for early breakfast. It was dawn by now and traffic thinned. We galloped miles in no time and reached outskirts of Madurai by 11:00 AM. From here the road condition was bad and traffic too thickened. It took us an hour to complete last 20 KMs and reached out destination Poppy's Hotel by 12:00 noon.
We checked in, had lunch and left for Thirumala Nayakkar Mahal at 2:00 PM. This place is just 8 KMs from the hotel with ample parking space. We reached there in 15 mins.
good to know information
Thirumala Nayakkar Mahal
Thirumala Nayakkar Mahal
We left from here at 3:45 PM and walked to Meenakshi Temple which is just a KM away and reached there in 15 mins. There was a huge queue to buy tickets and equally huge queue to enter the temple. We decided to skip the temple visit and return back.
Note: Meenakshi temple follows strict dress code and cameras are not allowed into the temple.
Madurai Meenakshi Temple
Madurai Meenakshi Temple
We left from temple at 4:30 PM and on the way did some saree shopping, had some snacks and stopped at St. Mary's Cathedral for some photos.
St. Mary's Cathedral
We reached Thirumala Nayakkar Mahal at 5:30 PM and waited for the light and sound show to start. First show ( in English) starts at 6:45 PM and tickets are issued 30 minutes prior to the show. And the 2nd show ( in Tamil) begins at 8:30 PM. Here the history of the place is narrated as the light show goes on.
Sound & Light Show
Sound & Light Show
We returned back to hotel at 8:00 PM. After dinner, retired early for the day.
Day 2 (4/1/2015):
We woke up at 6:30 AM, got ready, had our breakfast and checked out of Poppy's Hotel at 9:00 AM. Here the break fast deserves a special mention, you will be spoilt for choice when you look at the buffet breakfast spread . We reached Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam in 15 mins.
Note: There is boating facility in the evening to reach the temple which is in the middle of the lake. During summer when the lake dries, you can walk to the temple any time of the day.
Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam
Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam
We left from here at 9:45 AM after clicking some photos and drove towards our next destination Azhagar Kovil. This route was narrow but in good condition. We reached temple at 10:20 AM.
Azhagar Kovil
Temple was crowded, we finished darshanam and left from here at 11:30 AM. We started our journey to our next destination, Uthiragosamangai. We stopped at a weaver's colony at Emaneswaram near Paramakudi. Wife did not find anything interesting, so skipped the shopping and moved on. Road condition was very good through out. We stopped for lunch on the way.
Ganesh Bhavan, high "glass" veg hotel
We reached Uthiragosamangai at 3:00 PM. We had to spend a lot of time to search for a parking space as the temple was chock-a-block because of some festival in the temple. We left from here towards Rameshwaram at 3:40 PM after clicking some pictures.
Uthiragosamangai
We stopped on the way near Rameshwaram in a lonely beach for some photos and reached Pamban bridge at 5:00 PM.
Lonely beach on the way
Pamban Bridge
Pamban Bridge
We left post the sunset and reached Hotel Vinayaga in Rameshwaram at 6:00 PM. Dinner at 9:00 PM and we called it a day.
Day 3 (5/1/2015):
Woke up at 6:30 AM, and left hotel at 8:30 AM to Ramanathaswamy temple. Reached there with in 5 mins, had breakfast at New Saravanan Bhavan near the temple and went to temple visit.
Note: No hand bag, mobile phone and camera is allowed inside the temple here.
Ramanathaswamy temple
We went back to hotel at 9:30 AM after a quick temple visit. Parked our car there and came back near the temple and booked a Jeep in a travel agency for Dhanushkodi, the ruined ghost town. You can also take a bus to Dhanushkodi beach and take a van to visit these ruins.
First we visited Kothanda Ramar temple and also visited the beach behind the temple. The route to this temple is one of the most scenic one with both sides covered with back water and a wonderful place to drive. Road is in excellent condition allt he way till the Dhanushkodi beach.
Kothanda Ramar temple
Beach near Kothanda Ramar temple
Road to Kothanda Ramar temple
After the temple visit we went towards Dhanushkodi. Once the jeep reaches Dhanushkodi beach driver adds a majic disk ( differential) to the front wheel which gives the 4 X 4 capabilities to the jeep and allows it to drive through the knee deep back water to the ruin town.
Our ride to the ruin town
Disk that converts the jeep to 4 x 4
Route to Dhanushkodi
Ruined town of Dhanushkodi
We returned to Rameshwaram at 2:00 PM, had our lunch and returned to hotel at 3:00 PM.
We had already finished what was planned for the day, but looking at the road from Rameshwaram to Dhanushkodi from the back seat of the jeep, i badly wanted to drive there.
So we went back to Dhanushkodi beach at 4:00 PM again, this time driving on that wonderful arrow like straight road.
Watched one of the best sunsets on the Dhanushkodi beach and returned to the hotel by 7:00 PM. Had dinner and retired for the day by 10:00 PM.
Day 4 (6/1/2015):
We woke up early, freshened up and checked out at 7:45 AM. Had breakfast at New Saravanan Bhavan and left Rameshwaram at 8:15 AM. Stopped at Pamban bridge for some photos.
view of Rameshwaram beach from Pamban Bridge
Reached Karaikudi at 10:45 AM. The only Chettinadu palace here has been converted to a heritage hotel, The Bangala. Visited this place, wife shopped for some sarees here, we left in 30 minutes.
The Bangala
We reached Kanadukathan at 11:45 AM. Most of the houses here are palatial but no visitors are allowed to see the architectures inside. So we spent some times clicking these magnificent pieces of architecture from outside.
Chettinadu Architecture
Chettinadu Architecture
We had Chettinadu special lunch at Narayana Coffee House.
Chettinadu special lunch
After lunch we visited Shri Mahalakshmi handloom weaving centre to watch the processes involved in making handloom sarees. Wife also filled her bags here as she found some good bargain.
We left Kanadukathan at 1:45 PM and reached Athangudi at 2:00 PM. Here you are allowed to visit a palace to view the some parts of the insides of it, how ever the care taker demands for Rs 50 per head.
Chettinadu Palace
Central Hall
Dining area
Here we bought Kavuni Arisi (Black rice) which is used for making chettinadu special sweet and visited a tile manufacturing factory to see the process involved in making famous Chettinadu tiles. Also bought one tile as souvenir.
We left Athangudi and reached Chidambaram Vilas at 3:15 PM, another chettinadu palace converted to a luxury hotel. We could not enter the hotel as it was closed on that day.
Chidambaram vilas
We left in 10 minutes and reached Thirumayam fort at 3:30 PM. Here we were asked to prove that we are Indian citizens.
Thirumayam fort
We left in half an hour from here as it was very hot to roam around and reached our hotel in Thiruchanapalli at 5:30 PM. We took rest for rest of the evening as we were exhausted after walking in hot sun through out the day.
Day 5 (7/1/2015):
Woke up at 6:30 AM, freshened up, had breakfast and checked out from the hotel at 8:15 AM. Our first destination was Rockfort temple. Reached here at 8:40 AM after driving through some real narrow roads around the temple to find a suitable parking spot. Here you have to climb about 400 steps to reach the temple at the top of the hill. I was asked about my religion here.
Rockfort Temple
We left from here in an hour to our next destination Srirangam which is out side the Trichy city. We reached here at 10:00 AM. Most of the gopurams here were getting painting work done for the Pongal festival in the coming week.
Note: Sri Ranganathaswamy temple follows strict dress code to be eligible to enter the temple.
Sri Ranganathaswamy temple
After a quick temple visit we left from here at 10:45 AM towards Grand Anicut. Road condition was not very good and we reached our next destination at 11:20 AM.
Grand Anicut
At 12:00 PM we left to Tanjavur from here. Road condition was very good and we reached Tanjavur in an hour and stopped for lunch at Hotel Annapurna. We reached Maratha Palace at 1:30 PM.
Maratha Palace
Maratha Palace
Tanjavur doll
We left at 3:00 PM and reached the Big Temple in 5 minutes which is just a couple of KMs away.
Bruhadeeshwara Temple
We left from here at 4:00 PM and reached Hotel Vinayaga at Kumbakonam at 5:30 PM. Had a quite evening and an evening walk in the town. Went to bed early as we had nothing much to do here.
Day 6(8/1/2015):
We checked out from hotel at 8:00 AM after breakfast. Kumbakonam is the temple town of Tamilnadu. We obviously did not have time for all. We visited Athi Kumbeshwarar temple on the way.
Athi Kumbeshwarar temple
We left from here at 8:45 AM and reached Gangaikonda Cholapuram in 45 minutes. The temple premises is the cleanest of all the temples we had visited so far in this tour. We spent almost an hour clicking photos here.
Gangaikonda Cholapuram
We left from here at 10:30 AM towards our next destination, Danish Fort. Once you take deviation from road to Chidambaram towards Tharangambadi, road condition worsens and travel becomes slower. We stopped for a coffee at Just Coffees on the way. A 100 Km drive took us two and half hours and we reached Tharangambadi (Tranquebar) at 1:00 PM. We had lunch at Hotel Tamilnadu here and went to visit the fort.
New Jerusalem church
Danish Fort
We also visited the Dutch museum in the fort and then went to take a walk on the sea shore.
The Dutch Museum
Tharangambadi beach
We left Tharangambadi at 3:00 PM and reached Hotel Vandayar at Chidambaram at 4:15 PM. We checked in, freshened up and went to visit Nataraja temple at 5:00 PM. This temple is at walk-able distance from the hotel and easily one of the best temples in TN.
Nataraja Temple
We returned back after the sunset, had masala dosa and coffee. Dinner at 9:0 PM, EOD.
Day 7(9/1/2015):
We left from Chidambaram after a wonderful breakfast at 8:45 AM. It was cloudy and over cast. Once we turned towards Pichavaram, the road condition worsened, surroundings turned foggy and green and it also started drizzling. We reached Pichavaram at 9:15 AM. We waited for the rain to stop and went on a boat ride to Mangrove forest at 10:00 AM.
Telescope tower that gives full view of the Mangrove forest
View from the tower
Note: Camera charges are extra and boatmen takes you deep into the mangrove at extra tip. We recommend row boat as machine boats can not go in the shallow waters if you want to enter the narrow lanes of the forest.
We left from here at 11:30 AM after a memorable boat ride and drove towards Pondicherry. We went in search of Arikemedu, but did not find the heritage site and we drove straight to our hotel and reached at 1:30 PM. After checking in we had lunch at Pasta Bar Veneto, came back to room and took some rest.
We went in search of Osadu lake at 4:00 PM. Google map took us through some horrible roads and we reached no where. Finally we decided to call of this adventure and returned to room at 6:00 PM. Went out for a stroll, did some shopping, had dinner at Cafe Ola ( if you visit this place, try Mud pie for desert) and returned to room.
Day 8(10/1/2015):
We woke up leisurely and after the daily chores we left our hotel room at 8:45 AM. We walked and reached A2 B for breakfast. After breakfast we went to visit Aurobindo Ashram and White town (French Colony).
Houses in White town
After a long walk we had lunch at Pasta Bar Veneto, did some shopping and returned back to room at 1:45 PM. We were tired after almost four hours of walking so took some rest in the room. After some rest we left for Paradise beach at 4:45 PM. We reached there at 5:15 PM and enjoyed one of the best sunsets on this trip.
Paradise Beach
We left from here after the sunset and reached room by 7:00 PM. At 7:30 PM we went out walking and did some shopping, had dinner at A2 B. Went for a walk on beach side near Premonade, had ice cream returned back to room by 11:00 PM.
Day 9(11/1/2015):
We woke up by 6:00 AM and started from Pondicherry at 7:00 AM. This was our last day of this trip and we had a final pit stop on our return journey. We stopped for breakfast at Dhanalakshmi Restaurant on ECR. We reached Mahabalipuram at 8:45 AM. This place was already filled with tourists. We found a parking spot near the Shore Temple and decided to visit all the important places by walk.
Shore Temple
Arjuna's penance
Krishna's Butter ball
Mahishamardhini cave
Light House
Pancha rathas
It took us 3 hours to visit all the places and we returned to the parking spot by 12:00 noon and left from Mahabalipuram. We reached Kanchipuram at 1:45 PM and had lunch at Sarvanan Bhavan, wife did some saree shopping and left from here in an hours time. On our way had 2 fuel breaks one for us and one for the car and reached home by 7:30 PM. And that ends our longest trip so far.
