FAMILY & GROUP 23 DAYS PILGRIMAGE TOUR TO TAMIL NADU - 2009

Part One :-

This would be my second trip to Tamil Nadu with my family. My first trip was in December 2006. Then it was a short trip for 14 days. The tour agent i used was Ultimate Travel Services in Chennai. My son was 5 years old and my daughter was 4 years old. We were worried that my children being young would find it difficult to adjust to the climate,food and also to the travelling involved in this trip as visiting temples is not really an easy cruising trip....

Well on the 3rd day into our tour, my son was not feeling well while travelling and eventually vomited and we have to give him some medications.On the 5th days, my daughter was feeling the same and even she vomited and rested with medications as we continue our journey. I must say that my children although were sick and feeling unwell, they did not gave us any problem whatsoever as

they were very excited about the whole tour thing. I mean i was actually pleased with them as i was expecting them to throw tantrum of wanting to stay in the hotel and not go to temples that we have planned to visit. I must say that for their age they were very well behaved despite their health conditions.True enough i was not feeling well when we arrived in Thanjavur, and the best was that my wife was sick on the last day we were there returning back to Malaysia.

So i believe that Tamil Nadu has got one up on us...and we were actually already planning our next trip to Tamil Nadu while awaiting for our flight back to Malaysia.

So this bring us to our Second Trip to Tamil Nadu and this time it was for 23 days full pilgrimage tour. I have always wanted to visit as many temples as i can throughout India and hope that one day i fulfill my dream. I don't just intend to visit big temples but also the smaller ones with historical backgrounds to them. Example : Amman Kudi Temple in Kumbakonam - Place where it is said that Durga Amma washed her blood stained trident after killing Mahishasuran.

So itinerary was drawn for us to visit approximately about 60 temples. Our Travel Agent was OS Tours in Chennai.We had booked ourselves a 25 seater bus for comfort as there was total 16 of us including children.

We arrived in Chennai Airport On MH 180-04th December 2009. As soon as we arrived we board onto our Bus and headed to the Hotel. We stayed at the Southern Crest Hotel for the night before officially starting our Pilgrimage the next day. Cant say for the others, however as for the feelings of mine and of own family...excited with worried feelings mixed together. My gut feeling was saying that this tour will have its up and it downs.

05th December 2009 (1st day of Pilgrimage)

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As we wanted to have a good and blessed tour..we informed the tour guide to head to a Amman temple first for us to get the blessing and start off our journey.

So we were brought to a (1) Muppatha Amman Temple in Chennai near out hotel itself.As i enter the temple, my vibration was strong towards Anjeneyar as he was there as protector of the temple. I sought out his blessings and we boarded the bus and begin our journey at about 0900 AM.

First stop :  (2)Kalahasti Temple. We were headed to Andra Pradesh Border as we were to overnight in Tirupathi.We arrived in Kalahasti at about 12 noon. Our bus took some time to cross a small river to get to the parking places for the tour buses,cars and vans. Seems legend has it that, people surrounding this place used to mine this river for gold. King used the proceeds from the gold to build the temples.

It was crowded,hot and humid when we arrived. Took our guide sometime before we found the proper entrance and paid the special entrance fee. All of us were excited as we began to queue to enter into the temple. Police or temple security were there to do body and personal belongings check before entering into the temple. As i was carrying a camera, i was stopped by the security guard who tried to remove the camera from me..i refused to let go as i did not want them to just take my camera away. Security guards told me that i had to remove the film from the camera...but i told them i had a digital camera as such there were no film to remove. The security guards was then just staring at me and that is when i realised that he did not understand English or Tamil. He was trying to talk to me in Hindi but only response he got from me was " Me Hindi Na-hi Mal um"....and after a few seconds of empty stares..he waived me in...

We went around the temple and while in queue as usual..we were pushed and pulled and some staring and some people were branding us as madrasi...as then i had to straighten them out by saying..not madrasi...Malaysian..and sounds of ohhhhhhh echoed from them.....

After darshan...we took a few pictures before boarding back onto the bus to head to Tirupathi. We arrived at Hotel Fortune Kences, Tirupathi at about 5.00PM. We checked in the hotel while our tour guide was arranging for us to go (3) Lord Venkatachalapthi Elumalaiyan Temple.

Our guide secured 02 jeeps for us to go up the hill to the temple.At first it seemed it was not safe without proper strapping but the guide assured us that it was safe for us..and so off we went to the temple. Midway we stopped at the guard post for checks..i must say that the security guards there are down right rude and obnoxious...the way they look at women and grab on their handbags and grabbing on man's wallet..i mean its like they are expecting to be bribed to make them stop from frisking you..

Anyways after a gruesome wait for over half an hour, the journey up was breathtaking....winding roads over the hills...and the sight of the "Thanga Gopuram" was making every one's heartbeat racing...may it be its your first time or second time or multiple time coming for the darshan...your heart always beats fast out of the excitement of seeing the Lord Venkatachalapthi...."The Lord of Wealth".

We then joined the queue to head for the payment booth...now this queue itself was frustrating enough...we have to queue and move at a pace even a tortoise will be laughing at us but we stood there..sat there..waited patiently but not happily and moved along when the queue moved.Sight of the pay booth made us happy briefly as then it was back to another queue but this was like compartment moving queue...we moved in like a class room sort of compartments and as it gets full..gate will closed and people would get onto another compartment and so the process goes on..as soon as the compartment in front of us clears ..we go in onto that compartment..

Like this we have to go through about 5 compartments before gathering back to a normal queue...this is when pushing and shoving comes into the picture..the small children are the ones will suffer the most as breathing will become difficult in the crowd.Parents will have to hang on to their children tights or else they could go missing in the crowd..

The walk pathway then will lead us to a stairway and turns and at last will bring us to the main entrance of the temple itself..we would be entering the temple from the left site..as water would be flowing onto your feet of the brown wet carpet as you enter as if your feet is being washed before entering into the temple..immediately the temple guards will again instruct you to either go to the left or right of the temple..people will start to be the rowdy self..ignoring other people just bulldozing their way in as though they have to pay by the hour..this is the part that you would hate standing in the queue..all your excitement will be crushed by this single act of these people who does not have the brains to just queue in proper manner and so everyone can have their turn and enjoy the darshan with complete peace of mind.

Well..after enduring all these..we finally manage to get the darshan of the Lord although it was for mere second..it was something would stick to your mind and memory for ever..

And as you circle around to leave the temple, you will be amazed to see another long queue of people who wanting to put money into the donation box which you will have to put in your money(offerings) into a clothed funnel leading into a steel box.This would amaze you to see as people will also be pushing and shoving each other to put in their offerings into the box. There is when you would wonder..."Hmmm..'People in India..are they really poor?" I mean if what you see in front of you is real...Everyone in India are well to do if they can afford to push and shove to give arms - donations - offerings...does not matter what we call it.!

After coming out of the temple, we took some pictures in the night.This is another thing that people in India are not known for - "common courtesy or common decency" . They know people are taking pictures and yet they would just walk across of the shot without even an apology. Some would be laughing and giggling as though it is a funny thing..they do not realise that what they did is irritating to others.

Well...after a few pictures snapped..it was time for us man to go and get the laddu's which comes with the purchase of the entrance ticket to the temple. Now we have to walk a few yards by the side of the temple and when you come to a area..you will see a row of counters..giving out the laddu's. You will have to again stand in the queue at the right counter to get the free laddu's. It is big about 10 times of the normal sized laddu's one buys at the sweet stores.

We took the laddu's and off we went making our way back to the jeep to head back down to the hotel. Journey down the hill will make your heart leap out as the jeep turning around the bends will be so close of hitting the wall of the protection markers...so people with faint heart should not be sitting facing the road :)

We reached our hotel round about late 10PM..ish...thus all were hungry as we have not had our dinner...so i ordered in from the hotel kitchen. As the menu was a bit out of our taste...we just ordered fried rice and to be honest we enjoyed the food...probably because we were just too hungry to care for the taste of the food.

We watch TV and the current news on the tube was the riots that were taking place in Andra Pradesh due to the political problems..and we were slight concerned that we were at the heart of Andra Pradesh..so we prayed for the best and slept..

06th December 2009 (2nd Day of Pilgrimage)

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Third stop:(4) Sri Padmavathi Thayar Amman in Tiruchanoor. After a nice buffet breakfast at the Hotel. Must say that the 'sambar vadai' was the pick of choices for me. It was simply good. We checked out and boarded the bus and off we went to our next destination.

It did not take us that long to reach the temple..we got down the bus..with our usual belonging with us...but as we reached to the entrance gate we realised that some of things that we were carrying was not allowed into the temple. There was a cloakroom where we were told put our stuff in but some of us felt that it would be safer if we left out wallets back in the bus rather then in the cloak room. So the rest of the stuff we put in one haversack bag and the rest were off to the bus and in the cloakroom.

In we went through a rattan barricade of a round and round line and straight into the temple entrance....as before we enter into the temple there is a checking done by the guards as well before allowing us to enter. As we enter..to the left there is another queue line we have to follow after taking the special entrance tickets.

As we were very early..the queue was not that long and was the wait was bearable..we had a nice darshan of amma and as we are coming out..there is also a clothed funnel donation area where people were also putting in their donations but must be said that here there was no people pushing or shoving to put in their donations.

Coming out of the inner temple..here there is also another queue to get the laddu's offered to people. As we head out of the temple we took some pictures as well before we headed to the bus and continue our journey.

Fourth stop :(5) Sri Narasimha Perumal Temple in Sholingur. This is one of the must see temple that was playing on my mind. Even the guide and the bus driver have not come to this temple taking tourist so i did take sometime for them to find this place. As we reach at the entrance to the temple, there is a huge Hanuman Statue about 15 feet tall. On the day we arrive, it was a festival for Narasimha so it was so crowded and we slowly make our walk up to the temple on the hill top.

At the foot of the hill after coming down from the Darshan.

Wife and a Friend (Mala) having a rest at midway coming down

We saw two hill and two temples on the opposite site of each other, we learned that one is a Hanuman temple which faces the Narasimha temple. There were row of shops at the beginning of the stairs to the top of the hill. Steps had numbers on them as so we could keep track of number of steps we are climbing.After the halfway mark,we started to slow down as crowd was bigger as eventually we can to a stand still and started to inch up by the minutes..people again to push and shove to make their way up by force not minding others whom are in a crowd queue.We counted about 1305 steps to the top.

Wife and Son : background view is the Yoga Anjayneer Temple

Group photo on the way up to the temple.

Eventually we made up all the way and at the entrance of the temple, there was a huge and beautiful gopuram. As we walked in the queue, we paid the entrance fee and then made our way in for the darshan. It was a very nice feeling seeing Lord Narasimha in his Yoga position. Feeling was great, despite a very long and tiring walk up the steps..and now we have to begin our walk down..we stop midway and had some refreshments to cool down and then we continued our walk down all the way. As we reach to the bottom..crowd was still there and we went in to a small anjayneer temple at the foothill. We then decided to take small van rickshaws which was filled with about 12-14 people in it. Was a nice experience for most of us as we laughed all the way to the bus. Once everyone was on the bus, we were off to our next destination........

............Part Two to follow very soon....