Madurai, Rameswaram & Kanyakumari

February 2023

Keeping this blog short. The trip was too far back to remember all.
Hence updating from what text/pictures I sent on Whatsapp in February 2023.

Visited Madurai, Rameswaram and Kanyakumari on a road trip with my cousin
brother. Sharing some pictures and my observations below.

Wonderful roads all across Tamil Nadu. If the roads continue to be like this
in future, I can imagine what boost it will give to the logistics and transport
industry. For example, I was able to cover 460 Kms between Kanyakumari and Salem
in six hours. Noticed that food was also relatively cheap in Tamil Nadu.

Madurai has a long history. The city is on banks of river Vaigai and hence
there are about 7-8 bridges across the river connecting two sides of Madurai.
Madurai has a long history as borne out by the relics on display at museums.

The Thirumalai Nayak Palace is inspired by the European architecture. One of
the large hall’s construction and roof look like a church. A museum in this
hall holds old runs, bricks which the text claim to be two thousand years old.
Sharing pictures of the palace Darbar and the relics. Pictures of rare Ganesha
idol and unique musical instrument kept at Government Museum shared below.

Found an interesting text display board in the museum that describes how to
convert palm leaf into a writable medium. Another two boards described the
history of Madurai. Both are from the government museum.

Moved on to Rameswaram. Pamban rail bridge connects the Rameswaram to mainland. The bridge can be raised in the middle to allow large ships to pass. A new rail bridge that is being built now, is supposed to lift this section vertically. You can see the videos on youtube. A road bridge next to it is the road connectivity to the area. Pictures below.

Rameswaram must be a place which has highest density of temples along the
main road, each temple having its own tale to tell…. factual or otherwise.
Visited multiple temples in the city. One of the Hanumanji temple had
“floating stones” on display. The explanation is that air gets
trapped in holes in the relatively lighter stones and makes them float on
water. Saw rocks with multiple holes in other locations in Rameswaram and
Kanyakumari.

Also visited Dr APJ Kalam Museum. It is museum dedicated to Dr Kalam displaying images, honours, and models of his work. The place where he stayed has also been converted into a museum with personal effects and books on display. Both the museums are worth visiting.

Visited the famous Ramanathaswamy Temple, one of the twelve jyotirlingas.
Large temple area, tall compound walls covering the outer area which was open
to sky. Gopurams on all four directions. Typical of all large south Indian
temples. The inner area was covered and had tall corridors on all four sides
formed the inner boundary for the main temple area. The corridors were tall
enough for an elephant to walk comfortably. The roof of these corridors is
decoratively painted with bright colours. Folks were taking bath in the sea,
then in the tanks in the temple before the darshan.

The ticketing arrangements were systematic. One taking free darshan had to
stand on a raised platform with two rows of devotees in front while praying.
Someone buying Rs 100 ticket would always be in front of the free darshan folks
but would still have one row of devotees in front. The premium darshan was the
closest to the idol and was Rs 200. There were separate queues for each
category.

While in Rameswaram, visited Dhanushkodi too. About 10 Kms drive on a 50-75
feet wide land strip with sea on both sides, to the closest place on Indian
soil to Sri Lanka. Saw ruins of a railway station and a church in Dhanushkodi.
A sea storm in 1964 destroyed these and were never rebuilt. Few pictures from
there. Notice the rocks with holes on the surface where air could get trapped.
The Ramsetu was built from this place. Few images below.

A glass boat ride also available to see the corals but could not avail of it
because of small number of tourists during weekdays. This is available from location
on the mainland.

Always fascinated by sunrise across the sea. Third time lucky in Rameswaram
after failed attempts at Puducherry and Mahabalipuram. Pics below.

Kanyakumari seashore is very windy shore. Stayed in hotel Tamil Nadu, a TTDC
hotel. Excellent location of the hotel. The shoreline is well developed for
tourists. Sharing pics of view for hotel room sit-out, sunset from specially.
built watchtower, fully lit Vivekananda memorial at night.

Sharing few images of sunrise with the Vivekananda and Thiruvalluvar statue in foreground. A portrait pic where you can see the moon in the sky too.

One can visit the Vivekananda memorial and the Thiruvalluvar statue islands
by boat. Could not visit the statue island because it was under maintenance.
Besides that, Vivekananda memorial the island has one another building where a
single footprint is seen on the rock. Among various claims, one is that it is footprint
of Kanyakumari praying on one footprint. Below, a few images from the island including a sundial.

Also visited the Gandhi memorial, the Kanyakumari temple wall and tsunami
memorial all along the same shoreline. You can see two churches dotting the
skyline of Kanyakumari.

Sharing a few images of birds seen at the TTDC hotel campus.

The return journey was uneventful. Had planned an overnight halt at Salem about 450 Kms from Kanyakumari. After driving to Salem, realised that we could have driven to Bangalore without overnight halt.

Few videos below.