[rjstyles69]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Why is it that The King in all its pics seems to look like Elton John with his arms stretched out wide?

Benny its just gay and happy to be on a long trip .

Gowda please post up about your Madurai and Rameswaram experience, my next trip is to these places.

[ravi@64bhp]

After three pages, I found only four futos.

[gowda79]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Why is it that The King in all its pics seems to look like Elton John with his arms stretched out wide?

To ask the typical question, what was the mileage you got on this trip?

Ben The King is ready everytime for a long trip and he has done already 33,000kms in 1year

Originally Posted by rjstyles69

Benny its just gay and happy to be on a long trip .

Gowda please post up about your Madurai and Rameswaram experience, my next trip is to these places.

Riju come on man.

The Madurai and Rameshwaram will be put on later tonight

Originally Posted by ravi@64bhp

After three pages, I found only four futos.

Ravi after 3 pages, it has only completed 1st day travelogue, 2 more days of travelogue left

[snaronikar]

Originally Posted by ravi@64bhp

After three pages, I found only four futos.

Buddy, this travelogue is already famous and most of the people are watching closely the developments in this travelogue.

Seriously, Raghu you did not take photos or you do not want to posting it here.

[gowda79]

Originally Posted by ravi@64bhp

After three pages, I found only four futos.:)

Originally Posted by snaronikar

Buddy, this travelogue is already famous and most of the people are watching closely the developments in this travelogue.

Seriously, Raghu you did not take photos or you do not want to posting it here.

Guys will not be a spoilsport by not posting the pictures, will make sure to keep you all guys happy and post it tonight

[gowda79]

This is what we found at a hotel @ Salem (bit worried by seeing the menu) and did not wanted to be added on the menu Special item - gowd79



This is what happens after a long night drive, don't know what you will be doing , taking pictures of anything you find in the room





This what we see 1st thing when we stepped out of the hotel and go for darshan



Jumble in the rumble



and frankly speaking even we were at the same state while driving from Salem to Madurai with those Tamil boards and wrong deviations on every stretch . Not knowing which road leads to which place, it was totally a Maze in the night to reach Madurai.

[HappyWheels]

Raghu,

Nice photo of the, errr..., table with the card (?) on it and the phone towers!

Salem to Madurai is actually a straight road. Take the right on the 3rd round after entering Salem and keep going, but yes, sign boards are just not the best things on Indian roads!

And night driving would have been even worse. So, where are the rest of the travelogue.

[snaronikar]

The pic "jumble in the rumble" i feel only the lineman of TNEB knows which wiring goes to which place. This is the problem with almost every town in India and some parts of city too. Imagine just one short circult to one line and how it will be to others? It can be the disaster waiting to happen.

@Happywheels: Pls wait patiently. The king also deserves some rest, right?

[gowda79]

The 2nd day of our trip was bit hectic as we had to reach Kaniyakumari in the night and we needed to finish Madurai & Rameshwaram.

We woke up in the morning got ready and had breakfast at the Adyar Bhavan and waited for one of our cousin who was suppose to join us at Madurai who had left Davangere earlier night. He reached around 12noon and when we
reached the temple, the temple was closed and we had to wait till 3pm for the Darshan. So now we were in a total mess and not knowing what to do next.

We went back to our room as the weather was scorching hot and took rest till 3, then we went to the Temple and now the security says it will open at 4pm and nothing can be done and went for a juice break into a hotel and find this Madurai Special board



The temple is undergoing maintenance work and is being painted. We had to be careful while walking in the premises not to touch the polished or painted pillars and get the colour on our body. It is very hard to walk in the temple premises as it is been laid by stones which are hot in the aftrenoon due to the hot weather.

This is the West Gate Gopuram of Madurai Temple -





Some picture of the interior of the temple -






The other Gopurams of the temple -





Now enjoy some pictures guys and will post the 2nd session of the day later -

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Originally Posted by gowda79

The 2nd day of our trip was bit hectic as we had to reach Kaniyakumari in the night and we needed to finish Madurai & Rameshwaram.

What?
Finishing Madurai and Rameshwar and reaching to Kanykumari in the night!!!

This is going to be hectic, i mean really really hard and hectic.

I remember, road from Ramnathpuram to Thirunelveli [Read virudnagar to parammakudi] is some internal road.
Otherwise, there is another route from Rameshwar to Kanyakumari via Thuthukud[ Tutikorin] which is in bad state after tsunami.

I am really waiting to read about this stretch.

[gowda79]

For Darshan at Madurai we went for a special darshan paid 15rs for a ticket went inside, later a more special darshan was awaiting us. One of the temple person who took us inside to the temple says Sir pay 100Rs per head and he will take us inside the temple and will let us have very good darshan of the goddess. We paid him 600Rs and believe me the Darshan we had was really un forgetful, we had very close darshan we were right in front of the garbhagudi.

After the darshan we came out and asked one of the constable on the roots to Rameshwaram and he says to take the via Ramnad & Paramakudi and road is in a OK condition and says we can have darshan only in the morning as the temple closes at 8pm and after hearing this we started cursing ourselves as the time was already 5pm and we had to travel 180kms to reach Rameshwaram.

We kept our hopes of reaching Rameshwaram and atleast have the last darshan, myself & bro discussed with everyone and said that no stops until we reach Rameshwaram and it was totally depending on me to reach the place before the temple closes, we did not have our lunch and packed our stuff and left from the hotel. We left Madurai at 5.30pm, we were on the Ramanathapuram road NH49. On our way we passed Thirupuvanam, Manamadurai, Paramakudi, Ramanathapuram, Mandapam. The roads were of OK type and did good speed on this road and it is a single lane road.

After driving on this lane we could not think of anything else except to reach the temple before 8 on our way we passed the famous Pamban Bridge - Indira Gandhi Bridge at a very high speed and suddenly see people waving hands and stopped the vehicle, reversed it back and check with him and he says sir toll fee Rs.60, so paid him and continued on the bridge, this bridge is parallel to the railway bridge which is at a very low height.

We made this stretch by 8.15pm and luckily the temple was open. We had a surprise waiting for us and how many would get a chance to make god sleep. We got this oppurtunity at Rameshwaram, when we reached the temple pandits were getting the cradle ready for making the god to sleep. We had a good darshan at the temple.

Pamban Bridge Details -

The Pamban Bridge also called Indira Gandhi Bridge lies on the Indian end of the Palk Strait that connects Pamban island to mainland India. It actually refers to both the road bridge and the cantilever railway bridge, though primarily it means the latter. It is the longest sea bridge in India at a length of nearly 2.3 km (2345 meters) and stands as a fine example of Indian architecture. The bridge was constructed with sufficient elevation and a beautiful scenery of the sea, adjoining Islands and parallel rail bridge below can be viewed from the bridge.

Wanted to take some picture of this bridge but could not do the same as it was already night and could not see the bridge, some people say that from this bridge we can see a small part of Sri Lanka. But downloaded some pictures for you guys -

Directory of Hotels in Rameshwaram | Resorts in Rameshwaram | Hotel In Rameshwaram | Resort In Rameshwaram | Tourist Guide to Rameshwaram | Rameshwaram Tourist Map | Rameshwaram Tours | India

[akroy]

Originally Posted by mjothi

Umm, seems you did the same mistake I did in this junction. A sign board is a MUST in this junction. Luckily I was not that far.

Yes, second signal is tricky. It also doesnt have any sign board.
It happened to me during my Kodai trip. I reached Salem at around 3AM but still stopped asked a guy when the signal seemed confusing. Luckily got saved.

Abhi

[hotstuff]

Bahala interesting log gowdre!

This is what we found at a hotel @ Salem (bit worried by seeing the menu) and did not wanted to be added on the menu Special item - gowd79

You are referring to the Gopi 65 ?

Talk about connections ... Nice pic

[deepclutch]

Originally Posted by gowda79

We went back to our room as the weather was scorching hot and took rest till 3, then we went to the Temple and now the security says it will open at 4pm and nothing can be done and went for a juice break into a hotel and find this Madurai Special board

I think it reads "jigar thanda" icecream?weird though.

[gowda79]

Originally Posted by deepclutch

I think it reads "jigar thanda" icecream?weird though.

They have named it has jikharthanda and may be they wanted to name it like that instead of Jigar Thanda as u said.

Bahala interesting log gowdre!

Thanks Hotstuff

You are referring to the Gopi 65 ?

That's why ran from there after having a juice and coming to connections even the lines man will get confused.

Yes, second signal is tricky. It also doesnt have any sign board.

Umm, seems you did the same mistake I did in this junction. A sign board is a MUST in this junction. Luckily I was not that far.

Abhi - they need to put some board over there showing the directions, it misleads the person travelling not only in nights but even in morning.

mjothi - you were lucky but we were not as we did not find anyone on the road till Attur which is 51kms from Salem