First visit to Tamilnadu-----Tour 1 (20-08-2012)

This is my first visit to Tamilnadu.
In this tour i planned to cover from starting Rameswaram,Madurai,Palani,Tiruchy,Srirangam, Tanjavur,Swamimalai,Kumbakonam,Chitambaram.

Note : As our ancients tells take sea water from rameswaram ....have the abhisekam in kasi....come back to remeswaram and end the journey. This is the reason this is Tour 1.


In these Places Palani and Swamimalai are the most important palces of Lord Subramanya/Muragan. There are 6 temples of Muragan temples in TN to visit.
1.Palani (80km from madurai)
2. Swamimalai.(15 km from kumbakonam)
3.Tiruchendur (90km from nagerkoil,tiruchy)
4.Alagarkovil(10km from madurai)
5.Thripurakundram(10km from madurai)
6.Tirauthani(80km from tirupathi)

Day 1 : Dep from Hyderabad/Vijayawada to Chennai.Reached to Chennai central by afternoon 3pm. Trains towards south starts from Egmore station,so that we reached Chennai Egmore station by local train from Park station. [ Central station - park station is walkable,next station to park is egmore station]. Since the train is at 6pm there is nothing to hurry ourself. Boarded Rameswwaram Exp. 

Day 2 : Reached Rameswaram for the first time at 5 am.Crossing the Pambam bridge hearing the sound of Indian Ocean is pleasant.As this is my first visit i told to the auto person to take to the Lodge/Satram belongs to Telugu.Auto guy person took me to the brahmin's satram.[devsthanam/arya vysya /private lodges are also available],had the room finished my brush,bath and gone to Spatika dharsan(limited periond upto 5:30am only)thereafter went to have a dip in the ocean,with the wet clothes gone to have a bath in 22wells located in temple compound.Ur wish pay Rs25 ticket for all wells or a persons stand by out side the counter with an bucket in their hand.They move to every well quickly but pay more to him.

Back to room had bath again went for Abhisekam Rs50 ticket.Had the breakfast gone for local tour( Rama thirth,lakshman thirth,floating stone,vibhishan temple,kalam house).2hr trip

Afternoon had our lunch.reached railway station in the evening to reach madurai.Train departs from rameswaram at 5:30pm and reached by 9:30pm.

At the out side of the Madurai railway station u can find Bangar guest house(good place to stay).

Took the room near to temple.[station to temple is 1.5km only]

Day 3: Early in the morning i went to the temple at 5:30,had an pleasant and peaceful dharshan of Meenakshi amma.Architecture of the temple and gopurams are superb.  Had my breakfast and also the lunch.

In the afternoon i moved towards Palani to visit palani subramanyam temple.Frequent Buses fly from Madurai to palani [ask the hotel mgmt and auto since there are two bus stands in madurai city].It's been 3hrs journey to reach palani. Here swamy is on the top of the hill.we can reach the top either by steps/by road/cable car.Had the peaceful dharsan.

My next stop for the night is Tiruchy/Tiruchinapalli an 3.5hr journey from Palani.The time i reached tiruchy was 10pm.before reaching tiruchy i started to know whether i can get an room in the list of hotels that i am carrying.No rooms. Finally i moved to Srirangam by bus(15km last bus at 11pm),reached srirangam,myself enquired   reagarding the rooms,luckily i found the room in Chinna Jiyar swamy guest house in that night.

Day 4: Srirangam place to visit.wonderful architecture of the temple.Had my dharsan at 7am.Don't forget to buy prasadam in the temple.Eat  and feel it.Had my lunch in the guest house ...nice meal.

Around 2pm i started my journey towards Tanjayur(2hr) from Tiruchy.Tanjavur a place that not to miss in this entire trip.Wonderfull architecture of the temple ,nandi,Lord shiva.Must....must to visit

At that night stay i reached Swamimalai(2hr) famous Lord Subramanya temple. Stayed in the Private guest room.

Day 5: Early in the morning i reached temple for the Abhisekam (Rs 1500)...must watch this(others can also watch this). Priest gave the two tins of prasadham.Had the lunch i.e prasadham in the afternoon.Started towards Kumbakonam(30min).

Here is the surprise where ever i.e from day 1 i stared to talk in hindi or in english/buttler english till now.While i am looking out for the room i asked an police SI who is having his chat.I asked whether he can understand english or hindi...he replied 'No'. There after he took me to the hotel which is good near to the bus stand.Visited local temples around the puskarini then enquired regarding the cab for the next morning to visit all the places of Navagrah temples that are located around the Kumbakonam.Tata Indica AC for Rs 3200.

Day 6: Next day  at 6:30 cab came to the hotel to pick me up.Stared the journey by visiting all the 9 navagrah temples and also visited the birth place of Thagaraju and Padit Ravi shankar house.

Back to Kumabakonam at 7pm,visited the main deity of kumbakonam.Kumbakonam is also called as City of temples. Rest for the night

Day 7 : We have not planned for the day.First i decided to take myself for taking rest.Again planned myself why not to visit Chithabaram an 3hr journey time.Visited Chitambaram temple at 9am.donot miss the abhishekam done there.If the local are standing besides you they can show the Chitambaram rahasyam or else give money to priest they take you inside. Refer to the internet pages for more briefly.

back to kumbakonam hotel room had the lunch ,rest and reached the railway station since my train is at 7pm Kumbakonam- Chennai exp.

Day 8 : Reached Chennai egmore,got into to local train to reach Central station.Time to leave to Vijayawada was at 6am.Got the train reached Vijayawada at 2:30pm.

Note: South Indian food is available in every hotel.If u ask for for extra chuttney they give an stange face towards you. Meals not available in the night only tiffins . 

 Sambar......Sambar......Sambar......Sambar......Sambar......Sambar......Sambar......Sambar......Sambar......

This is how i planned my self and visited onside of the tamilnadu in low cost.

                               

                                PLAN YOUR SELF GUIDE YOUR SELF.