This time we planned for a long trip taking advantage of the long weekend combining the puja holiday and Gandhi Jayanthi falling on consecutive days. Instead of making it in one shot we decided to break at Madurai and follow it up on the next day. Chennai to Madurai We decided to take the Porur toll road this time as out fast tag is enhanced to Fasttag 3000. Starting from here around 5 am, we crossed Chengalpattu and reached Manoj bhavan@ Mamandur for breakfast around 7:30 am. Our next break for tea was at 11:00 am and by 12:30 pm we reached Madurai. Our stay was at Kalyan residence. For Rs.1600 we had a decent room with complimentary breakfast. After a quick check-in we went to the near by Hotel Saravana for lunch. A simple meal, in the food famous Madurai. After that we relaxed for the rest of the day at the hotel. Meenakshi Amman Temple The next day we decided to start early to avoid crowd at the temple. Starting at around 5am, we reached the temple's multi level parking ...
Tiruvananthapuram A little late in the afternoon we reached Tiruvananthapuram. A quite city, this seems to be both traditional and modern. The road journey from Kanyakumari to reach here was challenging and a new experience. The service roads from the National Highway here are not flat, one needs climb up and down steep roads. Treebo West Fort Divine We booked our accommodation at Tiruvananthapuram before Chennai at Treebo. With amble parking space and wonderful ambience this was such an instant hit with us that we immediately decided to extend our stay here for one more day. With spik and span room we had a fantastic 2 days stay at this place. This is near the west gopuram of the temple hence the name. Padmanabaswamy temple The temple opens at 3:30 am in the morning with Vishvaroopa darshan and closed by 8 pm at night. So woke up at 2:30 am and walked bare foot to the temple's west entrance. Men had a separate queue while women went their entrance faster d...