Temple ‘Towns’ – south Tamil Nadu

Last coffee in colonial Pondi – Baker street Cafe…train to Thanjavur (Tanjore)

Impressed with disabled terminology if not the state of car.

THANJAVUR

Key attractions:

1. Brihadishwara Temple

Temple is a world heritage designated structure built between 1003 and 1010 by Raja Raja I.

Beautiful intricate stonework; left: usual foot (or more) inspection – no footwear allowed.

Temple contains one of India’s largest statues of Nandi – Shiva’s sacred bull carved out of one piece of rock, 6 metres long – 16th century Nayak:

This is a truly big guy.

2. The Royal Palace

Partly constructed in mid 1500s by the Nayaks and later by local Maratha dynasty 1600s to mid 1800s.

Scolar/king Serfoj II 1798-1832 was a great collector of books on display:

Saraeswati Mahal Library Museum Art Gallery

Contains medieval dictionaries, and medical books as well as, Chinese torture methods.

Library contains 65,000 books and 50,000 palm leaf paper manuscripts.

TRICHY

After short train trip from Thanjavur we arrived in this bustling smaller city.

Top: civil engineers ask for a selfie; bottom: Sri Rananathaswamy Temple

The temple is huge – one of India’s biggest. Has 49 separate Vishnu shrines; Flowers, fruit and other offerings for Vishnu sold everywhere nearby and inside. Tallest building is newish – built in 1987 – one of Asia’s lallest temple towers @73 metres high.

Rock Fort Temple

Like its name says, this temple sits on a massive rock 83 metres high. Four hundred stone cut steps (which I did Not count) mainly inside the mountain, leading past caves. We entered in the south gate and had the good fortune to see the real temple elephant.

Evermore requests for group photos on our way up.

On our way back to hotel chanced upon some women doing usual housework; this lady was happy to demonstrate her charcoal burning iron:

MADURAI

Moving from Trichy to Madurai we had our big train travel lesson. We thought we had confirmed tickets – WL9 and WL 10.

WL turns out to mean Wait List. We jumped on the train innocently enough and couldn’t find WL seats🙄. Took train ride to get sorted. We had in fact been confirmed before the train took off but conductor initially just had out-dated paper records.

Conductor not sure what to do with us at first (no squatters allowed on train; our chemistry teacher seatmate advised us the usual practise would be to have the trained stopped to dump the freeloaders, gulp.

Arriving in Madurai, we quickly dashed to a prebooked walking tour with Storytrails, a company that does tours focused on neighbourhood myths, legends, truths and half truths.

Our Storytrails guide, Swarna; Diane getting daypack stitched in temple market.

Three-breasted Meenakshi and Shiva with his high leg challenge.

Meenakashi Amman Temple

Peak of southern India archetecture; another huge complex dating back to 1500s.

Home of the triple breasted warrior Goddess, Meenakashi. Story goes she was an undefeatable war hero who met her match with Shiva. She, who could equal him in battle, got tricked when she refused to match his high leg shananagans due to femine decencies.(because it was true love tho’ she lost one of the three breast).

Temple and street views.

Making of Parota, a south Indian bread

A visit to the Gandhi Memorial Museum was very worthwhile. It was here he gave up wearing western dress and began wearing the dhoti.

Great bbq dinner – shown: the starters; women: don’t apply for Mgt position!

On to Southern Kerala state – spice haven:

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/TRIVANDRUM

Western Ghats and passing scenary on train south

Fort area serenity contrasts with nearby shopping hustle and bustle.

This is the state of Kerala’s capital city. Interesting fact: Its government is communist and in 1957 it had the first freely elected communist government in the world. It is one of the most progressive states in the country.

We took in a movie – a lesbian story very subtly told to try and move this country forward. Translated roughly the title is: How I felt when I saw that Girl. Popcorn and movie movie both good.