[for_cars1]

This trip had been planned during Sep-Oct 2014 and had to be cancelled during the last minute due to some political disturbance in TN that had suddenly cropped up then.

Fast forward to April 2015 and it was a beautiful experience travelling through most of Tamil Nadu driving at a leisurely pace. Tamil Nadu is known for beautiful and huge temples and the intent of this trip was to visit some of the key temples.

Day 1 (Saturday)
Plan: Drive from Bangalore to Trichy (about 320 KM) and visit Srirangam and Rock-Fort temple at Trichy.

Left Bangalore at 5:45am and reached Trichy at 11:30am
Left hotel and reached Srirangam at 1:30am and got to know that temple is closed during the noon until 3pm, so drove to RockFort temple and climbed up the stairs and had darshan of Ganesh at the highest point and Shiva and Parvati temple mid way on the way down.

The fleet of about 340 steps leading to the Ganesha Temple on top.


View of Trichy city from the top of Rock Fort Temple


Most of the temples are closed between 12PM to 4PM on an average, so you have to plan your visit either before 12 PM or after 4 PM.

Drove back to Srirangam and had darshan of lord Vishnu (Ranganatha swamy).

Day 2 (Sunday)
Plan: Visit Samayapura and Jumbakeshwara temple by noon and then drive to Thanjavur (about 60 KM from Trichy) and visit the Big Temple (Brihadeeshwara temple) in the evening.

Drove to Samaypura at 8:20am and finished darshan at Amman temple by 10 am via quick darshan queue.
Finished darshan of lord Shiva at Jumbakeshwara temple (water element linga) by 11am.

Jumbakeshwara Temple


Vacated Trichy hotel at 11:45am and drove to Thanjavur and reached at 2:45pm
Visited the magnificient Brihadeshwara temple at 4pm a UNESCO world heritage site, found darshan is well managed. This temple is so magnificient and built at such a humongous scale. Even the Shiva lingam is about 12 feet high and the priest has to climb to the first floor inside to perform puja.

It was constructed by the great emperor Raja Raja Chola1 about a thousand years ago and is part of the UNESCO World heritage site.

The Chola kings had the most powerful Naval fleet of 600 to 1000 ships in ancient times and conquered Sri-Lanka, Maldives, Java, Sumatra, Bali, parts of Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia.

Raja Raja Chola the Great!


Brihadeeshwara Temple Entrance Gate: The huge fortified walls is surrounded by a (now dry) moat.


Second Gate:


Giant Nandi carved out of a single stone.


Area around the temple.



The top of the tower at 216 feet is covered with a single stone weighing at 80 tonnes


Retired for the evening.

Made Thanjavur as the base (place of stay) to visit the nearby towns of Velankanni, Kumbakonam and Chidambaram during the next three days.
The area around Thanjavur is beautiful with lush green paddy fields and canals and rivers/tributaries around them.

Day 3 (Monday)
Plan: Drive to Velankanni, visit the famous Velankanni Church (about 100 KM) and on the way back, drive via Kumbakonam to Thanjavur (about 130 KM)

Left Thanjavur at 8:45am towards Velankanni church and reached by 11:25am

Beautiful church by the beach and easy darshan inspite of heavy crowd


Left Velankanni after lunch at 1:30pm and reached Kumbakonam Airavateshwara temple at Darasuram by 4:25 pm

The entrance to this temple was peculiar, had to wade through a foot deep water filled moat to reach the main gate seen in the pic.



Followed by darshan at Adi Kumbeswara temple at 5:30 pm, reached hotel at Tanjavur by 7:45 pm.


Day 4 (Tuesday)
Plan: Drive from Thanjavur to Chidambaram (about 110 KM) and in evening visit the Royal Palace and Fort and Thanjavur.

Drove to Chidambaram at 8:20 am and had darshan of lord Shiva (Nataraja: sky element) by 12 pm.
Drove back to Tanjavur and reached by 3:30 pm and finished visit of Royal Palace and Fort.

Day 5 (Wednesday)

Started from Tanjavur at 8 AM towards Tanjavur via Pudukkottai-> DevaKottai-> Ramanathapuram-> Rameswaram (Distance of about 240 KM)
At Rameswaram, visited the Ramanathaswamy (main) temple at 4:30 PM and walked down to Agnitheertham beach about 200 meters from the main temple.

Day 6 (Thursday)
10:30 AM, drove towards Dhanushkodi and parked the car and took a Mahindra 4x4 maxicab for the last 10 KM drive by the side of the beach on the sand.

It drives all the way just short of the Ramasethu point.


A wider perspective


On the way back from Dhanushkodi, visited Kodandarama temple.
Relaxed at hotel after lunch and visited Gandhamadana Parvatham temple in the afternoon.

Views around Rameswaram from Gandhamadana Parvatham temple:


Day 7 (Friday)

Visited our former President A.P.J Abdul Kalam’s house/museum and post noon visited Vivekananda Memorial, Guru Nanak Dham Gurudwara and Panchamuka Hanuman temple.

Three days is a good enough time to cover most of the places at Rameswaram leisurely.






Day 8 (Saturday)
Started at 8 AM from Rameswaram and reached Bangalore by 6:30 PM covering about 600 km, including 45 min break for lunch and 30 min for evening snack and 40 min wading through the traffic in Madurai City.

Total tripmeter reading: 1850 KM
Overall efficiency during the trip: 21.5 kmpl.

Route: Bangalore -> Trichy -> Thanjavur -> Velankanni -> Kumbakonam -> Thanjavur -> Chidambaram->Rameswaram.


Return: Rameswaram->Bangalore (Via Madurai)

[KALSANKRPAI]

I am planning to visit Rameshwaram on 13th of this month in my HYUNDAIi10 along with my family. I would like to know the road condition from Rameshwaram to Madurai and from Madurai to Bangalore also please inform me whether there is a bypass in Madurai to touch Ramanathapuram Road How many toll booths are there? Best place to stay at Rameshwaram

[for_cars1]

Originally Posted by KALSANKRPAI

I would like to know the road condition from Rameshwaram to Madurai and from Madurai to Bangalore also please inform me whether there is a bypass in Madurai to touch Ramanathapuram Road How many toll booths are there? Best place to stay at Rameshwaram

Road conditions are very good throughout. I found road infrastructure in Tamil Nadu in general to be very good.

Rameswaram to Madurai is a single lane (divider less) road and the condition is good. I would recommend limiting the max speed to 80 kmph on this rood. There are no toll booths in this stretch.

Toll booths start only after hitting the NH7 just after Madurai on the 4 laned road.

I relied on Google Maps throughout, it will take you through Madurai town which is time consuming and crowded and you'll need about 45 min to come out of it.

For Hotels, you can go by trip-advisor reviews, there are plenty of options.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Travelogues Section. Thanks for sharing!