We couldn’t find a good eating place nor did we find a good toilet through out our journey for the 3 days. We covered almost 1500 kms through out this belt. While traveling through these places we were traveling on the river belt of Cauvery. It is almost going along with the river flow. Very rich and beautiful landscape. But the thought of filth, no toilets and no good eating place still haunts and comes along with the beautiful temples as memories.
Since we could not cover Rameshwaram in my first leg of the trip, I decided to go to Rameshwaram via Madurai. I had been to Madurai twice before and was glad to go once again as the Meenakshi temple is worth seeing multiple times in one’s life. Also, Madurai offers some decent place to stay unlike Rameshwaram. October 2nd holiday gave an opportunity to take one day off and combine the weekend giving some 3-4 days off from office. I booked the Karnataka Government bus which flies from Bangalore to Madurai every night and back from Madurai to Bangalore every night. Very convenient and also is a very good alternate when flight prices are becoming unaffordable. There is a train which goes to Madurai every night as well – Mysore express. Unless the booking is done ahead of time you will always find yourself in waiting list. So, I decided bus as a good option.
I went to the bus stop well ahead of time anticipating traffic congestion. Surprisingly I found the bus stop very clean! J. After waiting for half an hour the bus was ready to board. I was apprehensive as to who would sit next to me. It is not always pleasant to have unknown company for a night journey unless the person next to you behaves well. I saw a well built sturdy looking man sitting in the seat next to mine. As soon as I said that the window seat was mine, he started laughing loudly! He said, “oh my god!Here also I have a lady for company. I could not get the private traveler book my ticket as the lady who got a seat next to mine refused to travel and bought both the tickets”! I told him, yes, it is difficult for a lady to travel because men seldom behave decently. We have to be careful. However, the guy turned out to be a decent man and very friendly striking conversations with fellow passengers near to our seats. He told me what he does and where he works etc… I was not so forthcoming in giving my details. He asked if I am visiting temples and I said yes. I was expecting the next dialogue from him, which without fail he uttered “good”! We can never stop being judgmental about others. What is so good about visiting temples, unless one’s heart and mind is void of jealousy, hatred etc..! J
Thank god, the night was fine and the bus reached Madurai at 7.00am. I got down at the main bus stop – Mattuthavani. An auto driver came running offering me to take where I wish to. I checked how much he would charge me to take to Taj – Pasumali. He said Rs150/-, which was fine as I had checked with Taj hotel last night about these charges. I did not want to be cheated by any one as that would spoil the pleasure of my much anticipated trip. The driver turned out to be very enterprising and actually helpful. As usual he asked if I am coming to Madurai first time etc…. I said yes and enquired where I would get to book tickets to go to Rameshwaram. He said not to worry and he will take me to a travel agent before dropping me off to Pasumali. He was also not very happy that I was staying at Taj as it is very expensive. He was coercing me to change the hotel to much cheaper option as he was not finding it worth to stay in Taj which is so expensive! I just smiled. After that, he said – anyway madam, “your money your choice”. I am just advising. Then he said, if you want to see Madurai I can take you in my auto- half a day trip will cost Rs700/-. You can also go in the tour bus with others they will charge you Rs150/-. Anyway, it is “your money your choice”! Our conversations were happening in broken Tamil along with Hindi/English from my side and broken Hindi and English from his side. I thought his English was pretty good and he knew some essential sentence constructions which he needs for his livelihood! On the way, he showed me some important sites of Madurai. He was very eager to be my guide and show his town. He also asked me - in Madurai we have Meenakshi world famous temple. Like wise what do you have in Bangalore? I was kind of struggling for answer – the first thing that came to my mind is “software engineer”! J. Anyway, I just smiled as I had nothing in my mind to tell him about Bangalore. He also showed me a hotel “Northern Gate”. Madam even this is good. You can stay here. It is cheaper than Taj. However, one day’s rent is equivalent to my monthly salary! Anyway, it is your money and your choice.
He took me to a place near the temple. It was a very old lodge very old and needless to say dirty. Since I was expecting the whole place to be dirty, I did not feel repulsion for a change! There was sweeper cleaning the dim corridor and the driver walked on the dirt as though he did not see it! I politely asked the sweeper to stop sweeping for a second and walked around the dirt! What a difference in reacting to dirt! It just did not matter to the driver! Then I was politely told by the driver and the travel agent that there are power cuts in the morning for an hour or two and hence it is very dark inside. I booked a Madurai sight seeing trip for half a day and Rameshwaram trip for full day. I was told that the coach is good and is 12 and 20 seater. I had no choice but to trust till I actually saw the coach!
With great accomplishment on the driver’s face he took me to Taj at Pasumali and asked if I would need his service in the afternoon to drop me from Hotel to the lodge for Madurai sight seeing. I was much obliged and said fine please come at 1.40 in the afternoon. He readily agreed and said he will be in the hotel sharp at 1.40pm.
Taj is a wonderful place to stay as long as one can afford their price. It was kind of decent price that I got in Madurai. The staffs were very polite and eager to assist. So, I was showered with all details of Madurai and Rameshwaram. I also wanted to go to Danushkodi which is 18kms from Rameshwaram. This village was washed away in the 1964 cyclone. It is also a confluence of Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean and very close to Srilanka.
At 1.40, I was ready to go to the temple to take the Madurai sight seeing trip. Alas, my morning auto driver never turned up till 2.00pm. I got another auto and got dropped near the temple. One has a choice to take a taxi but for one person it is prohibitively expensive and I found auto to be the cheap alternate of travel from Taj to temple. I was like an auto queen always calling for an auto. Somehow, this did not surprise the hotel guys. Probably they have some guests like me who use auto instead of car or Taxi!
The Madurai sight seeing trip was a put off. It started at 3.30pm instead of 2.30pm! Thanks to some guests coming late. We never have sense of time and respect to other’s time. However, we started off with 15 people in 12 seater coach (due to kids we could all get accommodated in the coach). We were first taken to a palace. What a put off that was! It was getting renovated and the ideal thing for the tourism department was to shut it off from visitors. Unfortunately they had not and all one could see inside the palace was sand, dust, filth and many pillars. No writing as to how old is the palace, significance of the palace or any thing that would attract a tourist’s attention. After that disaster, we were taken to Gandhi museum. I liked the museum. It depicted the British monarchy and independence struggle without mincing words. I thought this is one of the best and honest depictions of the hypocritical British monarchy.
After that we were taken to Alghar temple. It is a temple on the top of a small hill. There is another temple at the foot of the hill which is very beautiful but poorly maintained. There was also a big temple complex behind the one that is open to public which is also very beautiful. Unfortunately under renovation and it was impossible to see without sufficient light. These are probably 800 years old temples. I hope after 2-3 years this will be restored back and becomes one of the best tourist spot.
After that the driver rushed back to town since the coach had a couple who had to catch the 7.30 Mysore express back to Bangalore. He dropped them first near the train station and dropped all of us back at the temple square. I went to the temple complex outside and was almost exhausted just seeing the line. It was so long I decided to skip the visit inside and do it on the 3rd day of my trip and headed back to hotel. Overall, I couldn’t but think that it was worth taking this small sight seeing trip as we traveled in and around the temple city and got a glimpse of the city.
Next day, I went to the pick up point near the temple for Ramshwaram at 7.30am. I was told by the agent that the coach will be better than the one we had the day before. I was not convinced though. It is 8.15am and we see no sign of the coach! The agent is outside on the road calling on his cell phone and was acting busy! Then I see the auto driver who picked me up on the morning to drop me at Taj discussing animatedly with the agent. He saw me inside the lodge waiting and came running as though he saw a long lost friend. I looked at him with a stern face showing my disappointment that he did not honour his word of picking me up afternoon yesterday. He was very apologetic and explained that his vehicle was under repair and he did not have my phone number to inform. He apologized profusely and wished me luck for my stay at Madurai and pushed off! Interesting character!
8.30am and the agent says the coach has come. I went and saw inside the coach. No place to sit. It was full. I was asked to sit opposite to the driver with my back on the side! I came back to the agent and refused to board. The drama went on for 10 minutes with the agent arguing with the coach driver and me arguing with the agent. The agent insisted that there was a seat at the back but men are sitting! I told him nothing doing this is cheating and asked him what alternate arrangements he can make. Anyway, the coach was also not going to Danushkodi which I wanted to see. I had thought that I will take a drop till Rameshwaram in the coach and come back on my own from Rameshwararam. After arguments and a sorry from the agent, I asked him to arrange for taxi for Rs2,000/- to and fro. He first refused and told Rs2,500/-. Since I had made him feel sufficiently guilty, he then agreed and arranged for a taxi at Rs2,000/-. I also had another condition that the driver should not smoke and chew tobacco. The agent convinced me saying that such people do not exist in these lines! Hard to believe. After waiting for another 15 minutes the taxi arrives. For a change it was clean and the driver looked like a small boy just getting into job. I was fine with the arrangements and asked the agent to inform the driver that after Rameshwaram he has to take me to Danushkodi. The driver seems to be aware of these places. We started off at 8.45am from Madurai to cover a distance of 200kms one way to Rameshwaram. The driver’s name was Manikantan and he was really good. Thank god. As usual I did not expect any good place to have breakfast, lunch or any good toilet facilities on the way. Thankfully, the Taj guys at hotel had packed sufficient breakfast which kept me going through out the day!
The road to Rameshwaram is good and one travels through many villages. One stark revelation is that there are lots of hay huts through out Tamilnadu. I had noticed this during the earlier trip as well. It is quite disturbing to see as one do not understand what progress of the country that we discuss with 9% growth etc… and who are the beneficiaries of all Government programmes.
On our way to Ramanathapuram the next big town near Madurai we saw an escort of police vehicles coming from Ramanathapuram. It was our ex President Abdul Kalam on his way back from a visit to an Engineering college. I said this to the driver. He asked me if I saw ex President Abdul Kalam in one of the cars. I said no it was difficult to locate as they were speeding off. He was also very disappointed that he could not see Dr A P Abdul Kalam. I told him, let us at least see his house in Rameshwaram while we are there in the afternoon.
The way towards Rameshwaram is very beautiful with two sides surrounded by ocean. It is out of the world and one of the best drives one could drive. Very well maintained road and decent traffic sense by the drivers. The colour of the Ocean is very green and beautiful.
We reached Rameshwaram around 11.30am and the first place we went was the temple. The temple closes in the afternoon after 1.00pm. It is the temple which hosts Shiva Lingam built by Sita after she was rescued from Ravana. The lingam was supposed to be built by her in sand. It also houses two other lingams which were brought by Lord Hanuman from Kailash. The temple is famous for having the longest corridor and also has 22 wells inside the temple complex (which are called Theertham). Almost all devotees take bath in the water of these 22 wells and then go inside the temple sanctorum to worship. However, I did the other way round I first went inside the temple and saw the worship place. It was not that crowded and they have some special entrance for additional fees. It is a very nice temple and the long corridor is really very long! On my way around the long corridor I saw people hopping in wet clothes from one Theertham to the other. One of the coordinator asked me if I want to join. Initially I was not convinced but then I thought who knows when I will come back here and decided to go to the Theerthams that was available inside the temple corridors. The boy who took me around was decent and could speak Hindi and explained that the water in each well tastes different. I did taste the water of the 10 wells that I went around and indeed each was different. It is amazing that one complex could host so many wells with different tastes of water. I recommend this to all visitors to the temple. One should not miss the Theerthams. The boy also explained to me that the temple was built through the aid from a king of Nepal and the priests are from Maharashtra. The visitors mainly are from north India as this is one of the popular holy places after Varanasi. He also said Tamilians only assist the tourists in giving baths in the Theerthams and outside work of the temple. As expected poorly maintained temple with wet floor all over due to deities taking bath in Theerthams and going around in wet clothes! One should be blind to these and enjoy only the beauty of the temple and its sanctity.
I was kind of actually happy after visiting the temple and went back to the waiting taxi to visit ex president’s humble abode. Humble it is named as “Kalam House”. Even now the access roads are not good! However it would inspire every Indian that it is possible to reach greater heights in life if only one is determined and work towards it.
After that, my driver Manikantan had lunch and I waited outside in the taxi. It was hot and sweating. After lunch, we drove to Danushkodi. The route to Danushkodi is fantastic. It is beautiful with sand and ocean on both sides. The road is well maintained probably by the navy. We reached Danushkodi, tip of India on the eastern side. To see the Danushkodi village that was washed away in the Cyclone of 1964 one needs to go further two to three kms on sand. We need to get into a special van which is available in plenty. Fortunately, I got a van which was hired by a family from Bangalore. They were around 15 people and they seem to be fine to take me and my driver along with them. So, it turned out to be safe and I enjoyed their company.
This small van trip is a must do for all who visit Danushkodi. Do not miss to take the vehicle and go to the place where Bay of Bengal meets Indian Ocean. It is out of the world and beautiful is not the word to describe. The landscape is outstanding and gorgeous. Very clean thanks to meagre population. Some 500 fishermen live in and around this area fishing both in Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. The contrast colour of the Oceans is hard to believe. The local drivers are enthusiastic and explain how close Srilanka is and how and where Lord Rama built the bridge to reach Srilanka to rescue Sita from Ravana. Also, there are remains of the railway track, post office, church on banks of the Indian Ocean where once the village of Danushkodi thrived. After 1964, government declared that it is not a fit place to habitat and relocated the village to nearby Rameshwaram. While I was enjoying the waters of Bay of Bengal a local driver caught my attention giving me a dead star fish. He explained how the fishermen live there and all that they know as occupation is to fish.
Depending on the wind and season fishermen either go to Indian Ocean (six months season for each ocean) or to Bay of Bengal. There is always a fear that the fishermen cross borders and get caught or shot by Srilankan navy. I was reading in the news too that few fishermen were shot by Srilankan navy and is now being a controversial topic in political debates. The fisherman also told that generally the fishermen go off for a week or more in the ocean. So, generally they have two houses, one in this part of the coast and the other in that part of the coast (probably in Sir Lankan borders). So, it is common that they have two wives and two families, one in this border and one in that border! Interesting….polygamy can never leave man! So, with this we had a hearty laugh and I departed to the van to join the others. After an hour, we were taken back to Danushkodi. I recommend to all travelers not to miss this opportunity of seeing the lost village. Though people say it is dangerous with LTTE presence, locals are also secretive and do not want to exhibit their LTTE links to tourist like us. This will create more problems to them.If you have good fellow travelers to accompany please do this trip.
Having felt very elated and thanking god for this beautiful day in my life, I headed back to Madurai via Rameshwaram at 5.00pm. I could have stayed back for the sunset, but that would delay reaching Madurai and I thought I should not risk being alone.
On the way back Manikantan stopped at a place closer to Madurai for a cup of tea. We could not get any good place other wise to have even a cup of tea. We reached Madurai at 8.00pm. I profusely thanked Manikantan for being a good driver and also giving me a good company through out. Though the morning started with a disaster, all turned out very well for me at the end of the day!
After a very tasty Pongal for dinner at Taj, I slept off as though it was my last day in life!
My bus to Bangalore was at 9.30pm next day night and I had plenty of time during the day. I went to Madurai Meenakshi temple at 3.30pm in the evening to be greeted by a long line of people waiting to enter. Security and Policemen were every where due to the recent bomb threats all over India. The celebration of Navarathri was on and also lot of tourist due to the long weekend and school holidays. At 4.00pm we were allowed inside the temple. One of the beautiful temples with stone carved sculptures. I spent nearly 3 hours inside the temple complex going to all four gates and spent nearly an hour in the 1000pillar museum. I think this is one of the treasure houses of Indian architecture and sculptures. Each and every pillar depicts the glory and the glamour of the kings ruling then. Like any other temples of Tamilnadu, this too needs maintenance. If the same temple was in any other part of the world probably the maintenance would have been thousand times better. It is sad that we do not even appreciate and value what we have. Government is doing precious little about these and less said the better. I sat to listen to the live Veena recital that was going on inside the temple complex. It was a very well built auditorium keeping in mind such evenings. However, the maintenance was very poor and there were handful of people listening. I remembered my recent trip to Greece where in the stadiums in most of the archeological sites are being used now for live performances. To watch those people throng from all over places buying the high priced tickets. Artists also feel elated to perform in these venues. I could see complete contrast in here. Disinterest by the Government, temple authorities to advertise, poor maintenance and kind of “I don’t care” attitude. The Veena recital was over and then there was a speech by a principal of a music college in Tamil. As I was not fluent in Tamil I decided it is wise for me now to head back to hotel and then leave to catch my bus to the bus stop.
I had my dinner at Taj and went to the Mattuthavani bus stop. I was told by the hotel staff that it is one of the biggest bus stops in Asia. My auto driver was kind and ensured that I board the right bus insisting to carry my bag till the bus. Bus started on time at 9.30pm and reached Bangalore at 7.00am. Getting down at Lalbagh I was greeted by bunch of auto drivers pushing one another to get their morning business. Till the public transport of our country improves, autorikshaw zindabad!
I called my mom and told her that she missed this trip. She said she will make it next time. I said let us explore Gujarat next, traveling along the paths of Gandhi.
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