Spiritual Trip 2012

I was glad and feel blessed when I was given the opportunity to fulfill my mom's long time wish to visit the temples in India. It was truly a chance which I grabbed at the most suitable time as I myself never  believed I would step into India for the second time in my life :)
Our family's spiritual journey started on 28th of June 2012, a day after we reached Chennai, capital city of Tamil Nadu. We travelled to Kanchipuram, on the way visited Melmaruvathur Aathipara Sakti temple. We had lunch at Pondicherry and proceed to Chidambaram. It was already quite late in the evening, just nice for another temple visit to Nadaraja Perumal temple. It was quite undeniable that the temples are much more grand and huge compared to the ones in Malaysia.

Temple at Chidambaram

A road side view at Chidambaram

The next day, 29th of June, we headed to Vaitheeswaran temple and a place well known for Palm leaf astrology.  We were not spared either, we checked out how our future lives going to be. Whether it is true or not I'm not quite sure about it, nothing much to comment :)
On the same day, we travelled to Kumbakonam. On the way, we visited few more temples - Sani Bhagavan Sannathi (Thirunallar), Sri Ramalingeshwarar (Kumbakonam), Suriyan temple (Kumbakonam) and Thirunageswaram Sri Rahu (Kumbakonam). We put up a night at Kumbakonam and we had some time to do some preliminary rounds of shopping ;)

A view at Vaitheeswaran temple

We traveled to Thanjavur the next day. One of the most visited and famous temple located here was Brihadeeswara temple. This temple was huge and magnificent. The weather was hot and so windy. It was said the month of June/July brings strong wind. We spent some time with the local tourist guide who explained some history of the temple to us. One of the most noticeable thing about the temple was the whole structure was made of granite. 

The magnificent Brihadeeswara temple

Another view of Brihadeeswara temple

Undeniably beautiful view at Brihadeeswara temple

Our next destination was to travel Ramanathapuram district at Pamban island. We reached here quite late in the evening and visited the city's most historic temple , Ramanathaswamy temple, yet another huge one. There are many holy water bodies in here, one should not leave without 'purifying' themselves in these water. The next day day morning, we visited the temple again, this day which I never forget when I accidentally dropped my camera and the lenses broke :(

A view from Pamban bridge

We travelled to Thirucendor on the same day. Another famous temple which would be my favorite of all -  a temple by the sea side. It was such a beautiful temple with glorious surroundings. This is one of temples which is worth visiting and should not be missed. 

A view at temple in Thirucendor

Sea view at Thirucendor

We headed to Madurai and put up a night in the city hotel. The next day morning, we visited the Meenakshi Amman temple, Madurai. We travelled to Palani. It was a long wait to go up to the temple situated on top of a hill. We had options either to walk by the stairs or train or cable car. Unfortunately the cable car service was down at that time so we took train to go to the hilltop. Here, we got the opportunity to view the deity from near. It was a blessing though. We travelled to Tiruchy the same day. The next day, we visited the Maalaikottai Uchhipillayar, Rockport (Thayumanaswamy) temple. It is quite noticeable that the temple was built on top of big slab of rock. We took many steps to each atop. The city view was visible from here. Our next destination was Sri Rangam to visit Sri Ranganathaswamy temple, where the idol was said to be seen in form of coiled serpent (we were not gifted to see this, subject to note for our next trip :) )

Train trip to the hill at Palani

City view from Rockport

Temple located on top of huge rock, Rockport

We also visited Samayapuram Amman temple before heading to Thiruvannamalai. The Annamalaiyar Temple was located at the foothill, the most famous temple in this district. Yet another huge temple with amazing backdrop of hills. The journey to this place was very pleasant. There were trees at both sides of the road and very cooling environment to our eyes. We went to Vellore and put up a night there. Here, we visited the magnificent Golden Temple at Sripuram. A very well kept temple located a the middle of a huge pond.
Next, we went to another temple in Vellore, Jalagandeeswarar Temple and then travelled to Kanchi. A very famous temple, Kama Kotti Kamatchi Amman temple located in here. It was quite hard to get the blessing, as usual all the temples were extremely crowded with people. Then, we went to another temple called Varadaraja Perumal temple which is also famously known as Golden Lizard temple. There is a golden lizard embedded on the ceiling and it's believed one's sin will be washed off by touching it. Hope I did wash off some of my sins on that day ! 

A view at temple, Thiruvannamalai

A night view at temple, Kanchi

The last destination for the day was Arulmigu Kachabeshwarar temple before heading to Tirupathi. This hill top temple was said to be very powerful, the journey up to the hill was awesome with scenic breathtaking beauty. It was an quite an experience for us visiting this temple , of course self explained 7 hours long wait to see the magnificent deity. Something which we  might not be able to forget in near future. Our last temple in the list was Thirutani which we visited before heading to Chennai. It was a tiring day for us as we spent most of the time shopping for goodies to bring back home. It was quite sad that finally we had to head back home although few of us couldn't wait to break from vegetarian fast :) But most importantly, we missed our dearie homeland food. All in all, the trip was wonderful and the experience was an eye opener for all of us, especially to our parents. Can't wait to have another family trip again in future!