It was 23rd Oct Morning, woke up at 6 AM then the bus was at Dindigul which is 67kms far from Madhurai, so started playing venkateswara suprabhatham followed by vishnu sahasranaamam in my phone as it was a Saturday and enjoying the journey to Madhurai.
We reached Periyar Bus Station Madhurai at 7:30 AM and took a room at Hotel Sethu which is very near to the Meenakshi Amman Temple for getting ready to goto Rameshwaram. Chella Pandi is the cab person we booked by the reference of my friend Vijay came on time around 8:30 AM.
We had our breakfast at Murugan Idly a very famous restaurant in Tamil Nadu and started to Rameshwaram around 9:30 AM, On the way to Rameshwaram we were passed from some important districts of Tamil Nadu like Siva Ganga, Ramanathapuram where famous people like Kamal Haasan, Vadivelu and P.Chidambaram were born.
Around 20 kms before Rameshwaram we were passed through a Bridge to The Pamban Island where actually The Rameswaram is situated and from the Bridge the view towards the sea, a village near by and also a Railway bridge parallel to the roadway bridge which can be separated when big ships comes on that lane are amazing to see.
We reached Rameshwaram by 1 PM but, at the that time the main temple will be closed so, we went to Dhanushkodi which was a bigger town than Rameshwaram on the Pamban Island but, after the Tsunami 2004 it was left out with a small area. The Color of the sea is blue mixed green and the sand around it also in the color nearer to white.
We took some nice photographs over there and started back to Rameshwaram, Around 2:30 PM we reached Rameshwaram and had our Lunch at Ganesh Mess which is opposite to the west Gopuram of the Rameshwaram Temple. After having Lunch went to Sri Ramvari Padam temple which is approximately 2 Kms from the Main Temple.
As the name says Lord Rama came to his place and watched Lanka Island which is very near to this place (Around 18 kms). Now also we can have a look at the Sri Lankan lights at night from here. In this temple We met a just married couple came from France and their names are Joe and Julie, They were in a discussion with some Indian girls who are explaining something to them, later we went and asked what was that discussion regarding? They told that Julie is interested in wearing anklets and Joe gifted her a pair and she is wearing them, everyone is staring at her as if she has done something odd and the girls explained them like it is only for Hindus, and not for any other religions. We said that what they told is a bullshit and its just a women ornament. We took couple of snaps with them and started back to the Main Temple.
We reached the main temple at 4 PM and before going to the main temple, we have went to the sea shore opposite to the temple and cleaned our foot and palms there, after that we visited the temple. Temple was very old and very nice in terms of architecture, It is known as Southern Kaasi Of India. Took some photos to the 1000 Pillar Coridor which is surrounded by the temple.
After this we visited Hanuman Temple where we can find the stones used to build Ramsethu which will be floating on the surface of the water without sinking.
Came Back to Madhurai and rested for a while, Later went to Hotel Vasantham near by Periyar Bus Station in-order to have our dinner. After dinner came to the Hotel Sethu and had our sleep.
It was 24th Oct 5:45 AM, i woke up and was waiting for my alarm to ring which was set on to ring at 6 AM. By 7 AM everyone was ready, me and Satya planned to go to the temple in a typical tamilian getup and went to a near by tea stall to have coffee. Around 7:30 AM we were at the temple premises which is a 5 minutes walk from the Hotel which we resided.
As We entered into the temple premises, An Elephant welcomed us. We kept our chappals at a stall where we purchased the pooja items. Entered into one of the Biggest Temples in India and were spell bounded by seeing the architecture, art, paintings..etc.
We took some pictures of the architecture of the temple and later entered into the main temple where photography is prohibited and took special darsanam tickets and got the Darshanam of The Madhurai Meenaxi Amman within 15 minutes.Later went to the Siva Temple for "ayyavari" darsanam. Coming out of the Shiva temple we found many big sculptures in and around a big hall. After passing this hall we found an Elephant which blesses all the pilgrims. We took many snaps over here with elephant, three americans came to visit Madhurai and also to the external architecture of the temple and the mind blowing Gopuram's.
Around 9:30 AM had our breakfast at Hotel Modern located opposite to the temple street, and later went to the Hotel back to change our clothes, back to normal casuals and hired a seven seater auto to cover famous places in Madhurai. On the part of this we covered Murugan Temple, Alwar Raj Museum, Mariyamman Temple and the Tank in front of this temple.After this had our lunch at Vasantham hotel again and back to the Hotel Sethu to rest for a while around 2 PM.
Had a nap till 4 PM, me and satya planned to visit the temple again. We were there in the temple at 5:30 PM but the temple was so rush, this time the queue for special darshanam is also very long. We were discussing outside on what to do, a person from the trust came to us and took us to the Sheegra Darshanam section by charging Rs100 per head, but there we were very close to the Devi Idol had our darshanam more than 20 minutes, felt very happy and also visited the rest of the temple includuing Lord Siva, Ganesh, Murugan, Dhakshinamurthy, Kala Bhairava...etc.
Around 6:30 PM we completed everything in the temple and later visited surrounding streets in Madhurai came back to the Hotel Sethu and Started Back to the Return Trip to Bangalore around 8PM.
