Arulmigu Kuzhandhai Velayutha Swami Temple, Kurunthamalai

Date: 30th April 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi and Harsh

Timing: 7:00 AM to 12 Noon, 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Fee: Parking Rs 20

Main Deity: Lord Murugan

After confirming the pooja timings in Madeswara temple kuttayiur we reached Kurunthamalai at 6:30 PM. We were not aware the temple will be closed very soon. During festivals the temple will be open for longer time. The person at the parking asked us to rush as the temple will be closed at 7. There were some 50+ steps to climb up. There are small shrines for lord ganesha and karupanna swamy on the way up. There were only couple of people only before us and they too were leaving. The temple is located on the small hillock and the evening views from the top is amazing. The idol of lord murugan was decorated beautifully and we had a nice darshan in temple. We were there till the closing time and climbed down. The temple gets lot of visitors from the nearby and faraway places during the festivals like thaipoosam and tamil new year. There is also a shrine for Lord hanuman on a smaller hillock opposite.

Few pics from the temple.

On the way to the temple.

Main entrance to the temple.

Steps leading up.

View of the temple.

Inside the temple.

Temple bell.

Other smaller shrines.

Hanuman temple.

Beautiful temple and a nice place to visit.

Madheswara Temple, Kuttaiyur

Date: 30th April 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi, Harsh, Muthusamy, Vijayalakshmi, Saraswathi and Sneha.

Fee: None

Main Deity: Lord Shiva

Madeshwara temple is well known in the Coimbatore district and is located on a small hill. Lot of people come to the temple on special occasions to perform some kind of special pooja. W We had couple of accidental death of cow in our farm and so visited the temple to perform pooja. We were to present a nandi of any size to the temple. We had got a small nandi from thirumurugan poondi near tirupur. The nandi was placed in water in temple for 10 days. We went the earlier day to confirm and went on 1st May to perform the pooja. One could find various stone statues around the temple. The temple is easily accessible by steps. Vehicle can be taken till half distance and can climb the steps. There we few other people performing vechile pooja and ear piercing ceremony for kids. The nandi  was kept in front of the Shiva linga and then pooja was performed. We left happy and satisfied after an hour of pooja.

Few pics from the temple.

Steps starting from the base.

Half way to the temple.

Various statues kept around the temple. Mostly they were nandi.

Statue of the dog.

Baby statue.

Cool and peaceful place to spend an evening. 

Sri Mundhi Vinayagar Temple, Puliakulam

Date: 30th April 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi, Harsh and Vijayalakshmi

Fee: None

Timing: 5:30 AM to 1:00 PM and 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Main Deity: Lord Ganesha

Statue in Puliakulam is the largest monolithic statue of lord Ganesha in Asia. Road is constructed around the temple making the temple center of the round-a-na. The lord is decorated with fruits on the Tamil new year day. The temple is more than 500 years old. We reached the temple at 12:30 after visiting Eachanari Vinayagar temple. It was extremely hot when we reached the temple. We got a parking right in front of the temple. We had to walk just 10 steps but even that we couldn't walk and for the first time we ran to a shade. The temple itself was not very big. It was not crowded when we went. We had a nice darshan of lord Ganesha.

Couple of pics from outside.

Largest monolithic Ganesha statue in Asia is one of the famous places to visit in Coimbatore.

Eachanari Vinayagar temple, Coimbatore

Date: 30th April 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi, Harsh and Vijayalakshmi

Fee: None

Timings: 5:00 AM to 10:00 PM

Main Deity: Lord Ganesha

Located 17 Kms from Sri Pateeswarar temple, Perur is the famous Vinayagar temple of eachanari. The temple is located right on NH209. The road was not very wide and lot of cars were parked on the side. I am sure there will be massive traffic jams during festivals. The story of the temple is that the idol was carved in Madurai and was transported to be installed in Perur. The vehicle carrying the idol broke down at this very place so the temple was constructed here. Ganapathi homam is performed in the temple everyday at 5:30 AM. The temple is open from 5 am to  10 pm without any break. We reached the temple around 11 AM when the priest were decorating and performing pooja. We had a nice darshan of Lord Ganesha and left the temple at 11:45.

No pics allowed as in many temples. So couple of pics from outside.

One of the famous and most visited temple in Coimbatore.

Sri Pateeswarar Temple Perur, Coimbatore

Date: 30th April 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi, Harsh and Vijayalakshmi

Timing: 6:00 AM to 1:00 PM, 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Fee: Rs 20 Special entrance, Rs 20 Car parking.

Main Deity: Lord Shiva.

Long weekend and not much things to do at home. Decided to take shilpi around the famous temples in coimbatore. We first went to Annapoorna and had nice breakfast. Temple's that comes to mind in coimbatore is Marudhamalai and Perur Sri pateeswarar temple. We kept marudhamalai for some other day as it was too hot and it will be difficult to climb. We went to Perur after breakfast. The temple is more than 1000 years old temple and was built by Karikala Cholan. The shivalinga in this temple is Suyambu linga meaning self emerged. It was crowded when we went there, after a bit of waiting we got a place to park the car. The temple is located near the noyal river. The beautiful ornate stone pillars and the paintings on the roof were truly amazing. There are many other smaller shrines inside the temple. The biggest of the others is the shrine of mother pachainayaki. There are many interesting stories attached to the temple. One of it is the Divine cow kamadhenu was pouring its milk on the linga inside the anthill and the calf patti by mistake hits the anthill. Kamadhenu sought the lords mercy and lord said he was pleased and the place will be known as pattipur and the lord was known as pateeswarar.

Few pics from outside the temple. Very sad that photography is not allowed inside the beautiful temple.

The temple is a must visit place in coimbatore.

Sri Kalyana Subramanya Swamy Temple, Kumaran Kundru

Date: 29th April 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi, Harsh, Muthusamy and Vijayalakshmi

Timing: 5:00 AM to 1:00 PM, 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Fee: Car parking Rs10

Main Deity: Lord Murugan.

Sri Kalyana Subramanya temple located in kumaran kundru is  one of the beautiful temple near mettupalayam. The temple is located on a small hill on the mettupalayam -annur main road. Lord murugan gives darshan to the devotees with his consort valli and deivanai. Its believed that a boy found a broken idol while grazing his cattle on the hill. The villagers then started worshiping the broken idol. Later they build the temple and installed new idol of Lord Subramanya along with Valli and Deivanai. We reached around 7 PM and the temple was quite empty. We had a very good darshan of the beautiful Lord Karthikeyan. Since it was dark we could not go down the hill to see other smaller temples near by. The specialty of the temple is, in the tamil month of Chitirai the sun rays falls directly on the lords feet. Devotees gather the day before Chithirai 1st and see the beautiful sight of the rays gracing the lord.

Few pics from the temple.

Front view of the temple.

Flagstaff.

Older stone flagstaff.

Family pic.

Selfie.

From car park

Beautiful place to spend some time peacefully. Must visit temple in coimbatore district. 

Weekend Getaway 38: Pichavaram Mangrove Forest, Chidambaram

Date: 29th Jan 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi and Harsh

Timing: 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Fee: Forest Entry - Adult 50 Ps (Yes paise),  camera 25 Rs.
        View point: Rs 5 per person.
        Boating tariff keeps changing. See the pic below for the latest tariff.

Info: 2hr row boat is ideal if you are not keen to visit the beach.

All of us were too tired after 400Kms of drive and visit to Silver beach in cuddalore and Nataraja Temple in chidambaram. We fell asleep very soon and woke up next day fresh and was all set to visit the pichavaram mangrove forest which was a main attraction in this trip. We had a nice buffet breakfast in hotel prakash and reached pichavaram around 8:30. We thought there wouldn't be anyone as it was not very famous tourist attraction. To our surprise we could already see 3 cars parked in the parking lot. How ever there was no tourist except the boat men. Then from the conversation between the person at the ticket counter and the boatmen we understood the boatmen took them without entering the details. The tourist had paid the boatmen money (its illegal) as the in-charge did not come in at 8:00 AM. There was also a rule that the boatmen should blow into the alcohol detector and only if the number is less than certain point they will be allowed to work that day. Those boatmen who left early could have taken the tourist just to avoid the test. The incharge was cool and from that we realized its common for the boatmen to do it. We took 4hr row boat. One needs to carry snacks and water if they plan to spend time in beach. Nothing will be available at the beach and the heat dehydrates us very fast. Water is must. We wore the life jacket and carried water bottle and set out to explore a different forest. Our boatmen said to another "na matikiten" meaning i got caught. I asked him what? then he said that sir you have taken 4hr ride. So i need to be with you for 4hr. If its 1hr ride i will get more money as i will get paid per trip and also tips from the visitors. He said now that you will be my our tourist i cant earn much. He was feeling very shy to ask for money. Then he said can you pay 500 i will take u all 4 hrs through different path. We agreed for 300. We also decided to skip beach as we had been to silver beach in cuddalore. In any case we did not want to get wet as we have no cloth to change and we need to get back to Bangalore. Row boat was better as it can navigate through narrow path which is inaccessible by motor boat. The boatmen was telling about the Tsumani and the research work that happens in the forest. Some part of the forest was man made and rest was natural. Its one of the biggest in the world. After an hour we decided to cut short the trip for two hours only. After initial excitement it is the same water and tree all over. If one is interested in watching birds then this place has plenty of them. We saw few different species of birds.

Few pics from the trip.

Fisher men at work.

Waterway.

Harsh posing in the forest.

Another view.

Motor boat going past us.

HDR view.

We stopped for a while for the boatmen to rest.

Tow service on the way back. Both the boatmen kept taking and they forgot to notice the fishing net. The motor boat got stuck as the net tangled the motor fan. After 10 minutes of struggle they cut the net and managed to ride again.

View of the watch tower.

View of the forest from the watch tower.

Boats parked at the dock.

Boating tariff.

A different experience at the end. All three places combined make a memorable weekend.

Weekend Getaway 37: Thillai Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram

Date: 28th Jan 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi and Harsh

Fee: Special entrance 100 Rs per person else none.

Timing: 6:00 AM to 12 Noon and 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

We came back from Silver beach, Cuddalore around 7:30. We got ready and went to Thillai Nataraja Temple. Its just few hundred meters from hotel akshaya. We left the sandals in the shop infront of the temple and went inside the temple. There was a dance program going on one side and some other pooja in front. There was aarathi happening when we went inside and there was a huge crowd in front. This temple like other temple doesn't have a straight path to go inside and have darshan and move out. The entrance to main mandapa is from the side and to enter that one needs to get special entrance ticket. This is nothing but a piece of paper in which the priest sitting in front write number of people and give it. We showed that sheet to the person at side entrance and went up. There too again we couldn't get proper darshan. People were pushing and pulling. We waited for some time and finally had darshan. It was more of business in the temple. The priest at front was selling some pooja for which we need to pay 1200 Rs and they will do pooja and send prasadham (viboodhi) every month. Then even prasadha (tamarind rice) needs to be purchased and no free prasadham. It was too late and we too were tired so we did not spend much time in the temple. We sat out for a while and went back to hotel. More info on the temple and the chidambara ragasiyam can be found here. One of the five Shiva temple representing the five natural elements. This temple represent sky.

Few pics from the temple.

One of the Gopurams.

Few paintings on the roof.

Shilpi and Harsh at the entrance.

Lord Nataraja depicted with light.

One of the must visit temple in Tamilnadu. Need to visit it again during day and have more peaceful darshan. 

Weekend Getaway 36: Silver Beach, Cuddalore

Date: 28th Jan 2017

Visitors: Arun, Shilpi and Harsh

Timing: NA

Fee: Parking Rs 50

The lesser popular beach is located in Cuddalore, 45 Kms from Chidambaram. We left hotel after 2 PM and reached the beach around 3:15. The road was very good till the town and then 2 or 3Kms gets bad. We expected lesser crowed but not this low. There were just 4 cars parked near the entrance and all the small shops opening one by one. This time i decided to play in water first before clicking few pics. Left the camera in car and three of us went to the beach. The beach was clean and very nice. There were few people playing in water and we too kept the changing cloths and got into water. Harsh was very happy and he had good fun. All of us played in water was more than an hour. I went out first to bring camera and capture few pics. After saying 5 more minutes for 5 times Harsh agreed to come out. Shilpi gave her glasses to the sea goddess. We convinced Harsh to go for horse riding and after pestering he agreed to go. It was Rs 50 for one round. He was scared initially then while getting down he said it was fine but his back hurts because of the hard seat. By the time all the shops were open. Mostly it were all snacks shop. We had fried Gobi which was 30Rs for 100 gms. Sure the oil must be old and unhealthy but the taste was too good. We had two packs. Harsh too was very hungry that he had 3 oily banana bajji. Masala poori was another item that we tried. Everything tasted so good.

Few pics from the place.

Harsh in front of Silver beach.

Beautiful and less crowded beach.

Harsh and Shilpi playing in water.

He just doesn't want to come out.

Harsh on horse.

Next baloon shooting. Its 3 shots for 10Rs. He shot 2 in the first round. He wanted to do it again. The riffle was bit heavy for him and second time shot 1.

Circular stone bench.

The lady selling bajji told this is how it will be always and may be on Sunday few more people will be there. Any trip to this part of Tamilnadu and we will surely add this again to the plan.