Trichy and around...

Trip members: Karthik and family / Karthik, Sanjeev, Jagadeesh
Trip date: 20-Mar-15 and 21-Mar-15 / 1-May-15
Trip Route: Trichy - Thanjavur - Gangai Konda Cholapuram - Trichy

An adhoc planned trip to Trichy for a friend's marriage turned out to be trip between Chennai-Madurai-Trichy-Tnajavur-Trichy-Chennai in 3 days!!!

Day-1:

We reached Trichy bus stand by 2:30 PM from Madurai and checked into Hotel Maya Residency. The hotel is 500m distance from the Chatram bus stand and room was booked online. The rooms were very good. The rooms are sound proof. though they are closer to bus stand, we don't get any noise. The cleanliness is also very good. Another important thing is the Pure Veg. restaurant that is available at the ground floor - Sree Sangeethas. They serve one of the best South Indian foods and very good. After having a good lunch at Sree Sangeethas, we planned to goto Jambukeswarar temple @ Thiruvanaikoil.

The temple is just 2 bus stops away from the Chatram bus stand, on buses towards Srirangam. The temple is 5 minutes walk from the bus stop. There is no need of auto or cab to reach this temple. We reached the temple around 5:30 PM and learnt that the some pooja was going on and opened for darshan around 6 PM. The Shivalinga is one of the Panchabhoota Sthalams and represents water. The deity is few feet below ground level and the Garbhagriha is always wet. One would need to see the deity through window (like Udupi, if one had visited). However, you can take Rs.10 special dharshan ticket and pay darshan closer to the deity as well. I would suggest you to do both, go in general queue first and then in the Rs.10 queue to have a closer look.

After completing the dharshan, we came out around 6:45, had some hot vadais and bhajjis and next planned to goto Uchi Pillayar temple - The Rockfort temple. We got into a bus to Chatram bus stand and took an auto for Rs.70 to the entrance of the hill temple. The temple has steep steps and one has to be fit to walk non-stop. There is a practice of carrying a banana-heap to the Thayumanavar Temple on top of the hill.

The dharshan shall be closed by 8 PM and we were at the base of the hill by 7:15 PM. We marched quickly non-stop and reached the temple by 7:45. The view of the town is amazing from the hill top. The night view was amazing to see glazing lights on the highway and the Cauvery river bridge. This is a must visit during sunsets and best time killer for visitors in the evenings and deserves time!

We returned back to the hotel and had a great sleep and ready for a long road trip next day.

Day-2:

We started our day by 6:30 towards Thanjavur. The plan was to see Thanjavur - Brihadeeswara temple and Gangai Konda Cholapuram. We had visited most of the popular temples of Thanjavur-Kumbakonam stretch in our earlier trips; including the navagraha sthalams and other famous temples like Uppliappan, Swamimalai, and other temples.

Distances:
Trichy - Brihadeeshwara Temple – 59 kms
Brihadeeshwara Temple - Gangaikonda Cholapuram = 73 kms
Gangaikonda Cholapuram - Trichy – 101 kms

We reached our first destination - Punnainallur Mariamman Temple, one of the very famous and important temples in Thanjavur. To the biggest of surprises, we were the only one to be in the temple and had an amazing dharshan of the deity.

After which, we had some good breakfast at Hotel Anandaas and went to the next hop - Lord Brihadeeshwara temple. Again, we had a very good dharshan here also, with only 20-25 people in the temple premises. After a great dharshan, we decided to goto Gangai Konda Cholapuram. We bought few souvenirs of clay dolls from the Tanjore temple - very famous ones in the locality.

Gangai Konda Cholapuram is close to 80 kms from Thanjavur and would take more than 2 hours to reach. The timings are 6 AM to 12 noon and 4 PM to 8 PM. So, plan accordingly. When we came out of the Big Temple @ Thajavur, it was almost 10:15 and we had limited time to reach. The cab driver was conscious about the timings, drove well and took us by 11:50 to the temple premises! Yes, we did made it and had a dharshan on time. We were one of the last batch of people to have dharshan before the Sanithi was closed.

This temple is a ditto of the Big Temple, Thanjavur. The Big temple, built by Rajaraja Cholan and this temple is built by his son, Rajendra Cholan. This temple is maintained amazingly clean and green. We were surprised to see the greenliness of the temple and was watered properly, all trees/plants were bearing flowers and fruits. This place is a must-visit when someone goes through the surroundings to visit places across Thanjavur-Kumbakonam sector. This temple is closer to Jayamkondan, 35 kms farther from Kumbakonam.

We had lunch at Hotel Aryaas near Kumbakonam, which was not that great; provided Kumbakonam is famous for meals! We then headed towards Kallanai (Grand Anicut). Kallanai is 98 kms from Gangai Konda Cholapuram. The whole stretch of roads are on the banks of Cauvery river. Since we visited in the month of March, it was dry all the way. If one gets a chance to go in the months of August-September, this would be an amazing route to stop, take bath and great for photography!

We reached Kallani in scorching sun by around 3 PM. The two channels of the river Cauvery split and join in this place - Kollidam and Cauvery. The dam splits the river Cauvery into 4 - known as Kollidam, Cauvery, Vennaru and Puthu Aru. This would be a breathtaking view during the months of August and September. There is a small part available for kids to play and lot of security in place to guide tourists. Ensure you take safety as the only factor and be cautious with kids and valuables. This is a must visit place around Trichy. We returned back to Trichy after spending close to 1 hour in Grand Anicut.

1-May-15:

We visited 2 more popular temples in Trichy - the Uraiyur Vekkaliamman Temple and Vayalur Murugan Temple. These 2 temples are very popular locally and known for the strong beliefs by localites for the their wishes and prayers.

Uraiyur Vekkaliamman temple is present in Uraiyur - across small streets. The Goddess is open to sky, bearing Sun and rain. The prakara for the Goddess is surrounded by gold plated walls. The temple is small, yet the crowd that goes is very big. There are special tickets available for Rs.10/15 and Rs.50. Parking is available only on the streets near the temple.

Uraiyur Vekkaliamman Temple

Next, we visited the very popular Vayalur Murugan Temple. This is one of the ancient temples in Trichy and is located around 15 kms from the Chatram bus stand. We took support from known people in Trichy and able to get a dharshan quickly. The day being very auspicious and holiday, the temple was very crowded. Once entering the temple, one gets to visit the Sivalinga deity. Then, we get to visit Lord Murugan. The place is so divine-filled and special and one can visit when they go to Trichy.

History and greatness @ Ajanta-Ellora-Lonar

Trip members: Karthik, Murugan, Sriram, Sanjeev and Sathish Raja
Trip date: 20-Feb-15 to 24-Feb-15 (3 days !)
Trip Route: Chennai – Pune – Shirdi- Aurangabad - Ellora - Ajanta - Lonar - Pune – Chennai

Distances:

Pune - Shirdi (via Shirur, Ahmednagar) - 182 kms - 4 hours
Shirdi - Aurangabad - 109 kms - 2 hours and 30 minutes
Aurangabad – Ellora Caves – 29 kms – 40 mins
Aurangabad – Ajanta Caves – 107 kms – 2 hr 15 min
Aurangabad – Lonar (via Jalna) - 153 kms - 4 hours
Aurangabad – Pune - 235 kms – 5 hours

Day-1

We started to Pune on 20-Feb-15 (Friday) later in the evening and reached Pune by 00:00 hours. We had our pre-booked cab (Somdev Cabs) ready to pick us up. The actual plan was Aurangabad, Ajanta and Ellora. At airport, we re-planned to visit Shirdi and then towards Aurangabad. We started towards Shirdi and reached around 4 AM. Our car was parked near the temple and there are lot of private parking near the temple. For the biggest surprise, we were well closer to the queue for the first dharshan of the day and had good dharshan by 5:30  AM and were out by then. This was totally unplanned and the visit was too short for us to realize how quick it all happened, whereas, many plan for days and wait for ours for the dharshan.

We started towards Aurangabad by 6:15 and checked-in to hotel Panchavati around 9 AM. We had booked this hotel after collecting details from TripAdvisor and booked through MakeMyTrip. This was a budget hotel, but, surprisingly, it had great cleanliness, service and spacious rooms. It had hot water as well early in the morning and later in the evenings too. We got the rooms at great price, incomparable to such comfort across many cities in India. A definitely, good place to stay. The hotel was also closer to the station road, which was good for an evening walk after tiresome visits to Ellora and Ajanta.

After refreshing and having breakfast at the hotel restaurant itself, we started to Ellora on day-1. Ellora is close to 33 kms from Aurangabad and roads are quite bad. It take little more than an hour to reach Ellora. These caves are spread across but one can reach these different complexes by car (entry ticket is Rs.10 for Indian but higher for foreign visitors). Cave no 1 to 12 are devoted to Buddhism; 13 to 29 to Hinduism and 30 to 34 to Jainism. As you enter, you could see cave.16, the Kailasha temple, an example how great the Indian sculptors have been. It is suggested you walk to extreme right and start with cave 1. First 5 caves (1 to 5), gives you an idea how difficult it was to create these caves and the era of using sunlight alone for everything can be evidenced.

The most important cave in the Buddhist set is cave 10. The grand pillars and the acoustic brilliance of this cave is just more than amazing. There is a big Buddha statue and one can feel great vibrations in this cave. The echoes of "Om" just resonate for few seconds and is a must-feel experience. This is 2-storeyed cave and one may want to spend close to 30 minutes in this cave. Caves 11 and 12 are multi-storeyed and one can imagine how they had designed the roofs, flooring and pillars in multi-storyed caves so many decades back.

Cave-15 is known as Dasavathara cave and the sculptures of Dasavatharam is seen with amazing piece of brilliance and expressions in first floor of this cave. There is big Nandi as well, which had lost its legs, pedestal and horns, thanks to the demolitions across years.

Cave-16 is the Kailasha temple - a monolithic rock cut temple, which excavated from top to bottom. They say that this cave was excavated and sculpted by ten generations of people across 200 years. The 2 giant pillars standing alone and elephants are great to see. This cave also had 3-D carvings of Yaksha hanging from the ceiling, which is very rare. This also has some paintings, which is not so common in Ellora caves. We can see three gopuras behind, couple of them unfinished and one is finished.

Caves 17 to 20 are mostly unfinished and more demolished. Cave 21 has some great sculptures. The one that catches attention is that of skeletal sculpture, with great focus to the the curves and expressions. Caves 22 to 27 are similar to this between 17 and 20. The path to Caves 28 to 34 was cut-off and we had to take de-tour by cab.

Cave 29 was also a massive piece of history and has enormous sculptures. The height from which the cave has been sculpted is more than amazing and this cave has various chambers.

Caves 31-34 of Jainism are located around 1 km from the rest of the caves and advised to reach out by car. There are small eateries near this set of caves. This caves has some great monolithic sculptures. This is two-storeyed. One gets to enter into cave 33 and gets to cover all 4 caves together.

Ellora caves are closed on Tuesdays. It takes close to 5-6 hours if one wants to visit all the caves. If you want to spend time only at important caves and rush through the rest of them, 4 hours should be more than sufficient.

Important to note: There are no great hotels or restaurants to eat. There are no toilets too as you go across caves. Carry enough water, snacks, biscuits and may be chocolates too. Carry sunglasses, caps and some good slip-ons/shoes (to avoid your legs getting hurt). Also, carry a torch with you as the caves would be dark in some places.

A set of lunatic people, set a beehive loose and we had to run back to the cab to be safe. We heard that the bees sting so much and even the watchman was running. So, take care, if you get to see bees around, better move out immediately and get into a safe location - definitely not inside any cave !!

We also visited one of  the Jyothirlingas near to Ellora - Ghrishneswar Temple. A Couple of kms ahead of Ellora, is the Ghrishneswar Temple, one of twelve Jyotirlingas of India, and a Swaymbhu. Leave the mobiles and cameras in the cab itself as they are not allowed inside the temple. There are shops, which provide locker facility. Men must remove their top clothes before entering. One gets to touch and pray with the linga in this temple, which is not common in South India.

We reached back to the hotel, refreshed and took a walk on the station road. We had some good dinner at Hotel Tandoor, 1 km from hotel Panchavati. On way back, we packed, required snacks, cakes, biscuits for the next day visit to Ajanta.

Day-2

Ajanta is about 107 km from the city of Aurangabad and takes about two hours by road (cab) as the quality of road is not very good. From the parking area, one has to do a 6-km ride by MTDC operated buses. Its a 10-min ride, which means, if you get an option and stand and travel, better prefer it rather than waiting for the next bus to be full. AC buses charge Rs.20/- one way to the caves or back and non-AC Rs 15/-. One needs to queue up for the Caves Visitor ticket and light ticket and queue up again for the return bus ride ticket. Ajanta has 26 caves, some of which are unfinished. Carry a torch as well with you and flash photography is not allowed inside the caves. Ensure you buy the entry tickets as well as the ‘light charges’ (Rs 5/- for upto 20 people), which would be checked randomly. There are drinking water fountains all around (once every 4-5 caves), but, no food is available. So, make sure you pack enough snacks when going to Ajanta. There is also a small marketplace near the parking and a MTDC restaurant close to the ticket counter.

One really does not need a guide in this place, if you have read enough about Ajanta caves. If not, just going into dark and not knowing what it is, does not bring any meaning and sense to your trip. So, bargain and get a guide with you for important caves. It is useful to buy a booklet for Rs.100/- sold at the entrance. The book has good explanations about the caves. Tickets are to be purchased at the counter near the MTDC restaurant.

Ajanta caves is closed on Monday. Dholis and porter service are available in Ajanta. One has to climb close to 100 steep steps to start the comfortable journey of visiting Ajanta. Ajanta caves are all on a single hill - horse-shoe shaped. The caves are closer when compared to Ellora. Ajanta is fully dedicated to Buddhism and is known for paintings rather than sculptures, unlike Ellora.

Cave 1 is one of the best of the bunch there. A guide would make more sense for you to understand the expressions, the cause and the background of the paintings. For most of the caves in Ajanta, one has to leave the footwear outside. So, better plan to go with slip-ons to Ajanta. The place is quite clean and tidy. The floral and fauna paintings are great across the caves and imagining this was done centuries back is just amazing and exciting.

Caves 1, 2, 9, 10, 17, 19 and 26 are most important ones as far as Ajanta paintings are concerned. One can plan to spend 3-4 hours in Ajanta. One way journey from Aurangabad easily takes 2 hour and 30 minutes. Hence, 5 hours lost in travel, means, you cannot visit any other place on the same day. Cave 26 has the Lord Buddha in Nirvana position and this place is similar to Cave 10 of Ellora. This is a great place to meditate.

The MTDC restaurant at Ajanta serves tasty food at a more-than-regular price. But, getting food after an arduous day is much better than travelling back 2 1/2 hours for food to Aurangabad ! So, avail the opportunity to feed your stomach @ MTDC restaurant. There are shops at the parking area for buying any souvenirs, and remember you can bargain at 1/5 - 1/6th of the price they quote.

Back to Aurangabad around 8 PM, we went to the hotel Great Sagar, known for Mugal food - veg and non-veg are being served here and the food is of high quality at normal price. This restaurant is a must-visit in Aurangabad and don't miss Qubani as your dessert. This is made of dried Apricots.

Day-3

After a great sleep, we started our journey to Lonar. Not to mention the great breakfast we had on day 2 and 3 at the Idly-Wada-Dosa center near to our hotel. We had some great Idlys, cut-dosas and tea.

LONAR is a crater lake, one amongst the three in the planet; other two - one in Siberia and other in Oregon state of US. So, this makes the place a must-visit. Lonar Lake is a saltwater lake at Lonar Maharashtra, which was created by a meteor hitting the Earth. This lake is both saline and alkaline in nature, which is uncommon. The waters is surrounded by thick forest hosting wild monkeys (Langur) and birds like Stork, Flamingos, Crane, Mynas, peacocks and ducks. The shores of the lake hosts few temples as well, a Hanuman temple, Daityasudan, temple and few more to name.

We reached Lonar around 11:30 AM, after starting around 8 AM. One needs to go through Jalna and Sultanpura. You can sight MTDC resort on the left side and in 100m, we get the view point to view the lake. We trekked down the hill from the entry opposite to MTDC, which quite steep and slippery. We first reached a Hanuman temple, located on the right side of the path way down - the slopes of the crater !

Then, we started to trek around the lake through the forest. First time in a real forest with no guide and none around the lake was quite fearsome and daring for this bunch of people ! :). We restricted ourselves to be closeby and took some good snaps. Slowly and steadily, we got our breathe as we saw couple of ladies walking to the temple on the other side of the lake. We could site lots of water birds and Langur monkeys. After close to an hour of exciting and eventful walk, we reached the temple on the other side - the Kamalja Devi Temple.

It was quite a place to visit once in life time. The trek back to the top of the crater was quite steep and took 20 minutes of sweating climb to be back to the top. Earlier, we had asked our cab driver to come to this point to pick us back, which is close to 2 kms from the MTDC resort. We made our way back to MTDC for food, based on our experience at Ajanta, and we were not disappointed. We stuck to a simple menu of Jeera rice, dhal, aloo, papad and curd and was a great to savour after the trek.

Lonar crater lake is a must-visit for everyone who likes an experience with difference. The approach is a demanding one from Aurangabad, however, its worth it. One more important info to share is that there are great green grapevines on the way to Lonar after crossing Jalna. They sell grapes as cheap as Rs.40-50 per kg fresh from the farm and ensure you stock them up as much as want. They were too good until we came back to Chennai !

Please note that one can combine in this or we missed ! We did not see anything in Aurangabad - Daulatabad Fort, Bhul Bhulaiya, Aurangabad Caves, Bibi ka Maqbara and Panchakki are places to visit in Aurangabad. We thought of either doing these or Lonar, and decided to visit Lonar, which was a great experience and no so common among travellers.

As well, one can plan to visit Sri Datt Temple @ Devgad, Shani Maharaj Temple @ Shani Shignapur and one of the AshtaVinayak temple on the way back to Pune - plan for one day enroute to Pune from Aurangabad to visit all these temples, which are very prominent.

On top of all this, we had an excellent cab facility a Tavera with a very friendly driver, Mr.Somdev. If you want to take any cab from Pune, please contact Mr.Somdev @ 09763578181.