Skip to main content

Thiruchirapalli 6 - Kallanai Dam & Shopping

 Trichy's third day saw us visiting Sri Ranganathar's temple in the morning. We came back to the hotel and took our car to Kallanai - another bucket list for Trichy drop around. It took us around 30 mins to reach Kallanai driving for 17-18 kms. On reaching the spot - Grand Anaicut, we were asked to park and walk thought he bridge as only 2 wheelers are allowed to ply on it. 

Kallanai is built during the early Chola empire and stands strong even today witnessing various eras in history. On a February month, as the raining season is off we get see some water in the river and the dam with a slow flow compared to the December month. We walked all the way on the bridge seems the water, sand, birds on a breezing late morning.  We could see the bust of Sir Arthur Cotton after walking through 2/3rds of the bridge. He was one from the British empire to check the dam. He was overwhelmed with the strength of the dam built centuries ago and informed his empire that further enhancement can done on the dam over the ancient one. 

Towards the end of the bridge is the Karuppasamy temple. On the other end of the bridge is the Karikaala Chozhan Manimandapam.

Glad to see that the Manimandapam is not just a namesake, the place had picture, paintings of King Karikaalan's achievements and his statue on a elephant. Very next to this mandapam is the park for children and various eatables sold.

It was a wonderful experience to watch water gushing out even though the flow is comparatively slower.  Many localities were having a bath in spite of the warning boards against it. As a Tamilian you cannot leave this place being utterly proud of   your ancestors.

On the way back to our hotel we had lunch at Hotel Suvai near the Trichy Central bus terminus. It was a very decent veg restaurant standing to its name. After a siesta we took a small shopping trip to the NSK road very near to the rockfort.

This shopping area could be compared the flower bazaar in Chennai. It was quiet crowded being a Saturday evening. We went to the Mayilmark Mittaikadai and for mixture and wheat halwa. Then did some window shopping with the street vendor. Also went to Saratha's - Trichy's famous textiles. It was quiet huge and we can see shoppers coming out with bags and bags. As it was getting around 7 PM, we took an auto back to hotel for Rs. 150.

From our hotel is the famous Parthasarathy vilas mess. This is in one of the Thiruvanaikaval surrounding street. It was difficult to get a table there at 8 PM. Many were waiting for table to get free. We had their famous ghee dosa called the super by them. It had the aroma of ghee and tasted good too. With this we called it a end for our third day in Trichy.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Anjaneyar Temple - Gerugambakkam, Porur

 Very recently we came to know about the Anjaneyar temple built by actor Arjun is at Gerugambakkam. On a Sunday evening we drove towards this place. We need to detour from the Kundrathur main road to reach this temple and from then on we need to face a rough and patchy road. In just 5 minutes one can reach the temple. A small residential street leads to the temple. Very near it one could see few small stalls mushroomed up to sell pooja items. The vehicles have to be parked in the street near the temple gates. First is the corridor were few trees are seen.  On taking left is the entrance to the temple and you can see the Lord Anjaneyar much ahead. Here too are few trees uniformly spaced out. There is a coconut farm adjacent to this temple. There is a shelter above Lord Anjaneyar, but for that it is a open air temple. Facing Lord Anjaneyar and to the left and right corner are two shrines - one for Lord Ganesh and the other for Lord Anjaneyar's - Lord Rama, Lord Lakshmana and God...

ECR Chennai - a Spiritual Trial

Pachai mamalai pol meni pavalavai kamala chenkan Achuta mararere ayar tham kozhute ennum. Echsuvai thavira yan poi indiralogam alum Achsuvai perinum vendean arangama nagarulanea. The East Coast Road in Chennai in known for the numerous resorts, hotels and other locations of entertainment. How about we take a spiritual trial on the same road for a change? This is what we did this weekend on a half day journey. Our first destination was Thiruvidanthai - around 30 kms from the city. The Nithyakalyana Perumal temple is an ancient one. Being near Mahabalipuram area its obvious builders were the Pallavas. Being a weekend there was a big queue of devotees till the entrance near the gopuram. Due to renovation on account of kumbabishen scheduled in near future we were allowed to workship only the urchaver instead of the moolavar. Perumal provided darshan in full floweral alangaram. Coming out after the darshan strong aroma of tamaraind rice pulled us towards...

Beach - Marakkanam

Born in the coastal area one realises the beauty of the beach only in instances where you have to stay away from your place for a long time or a person from non-coastal area appreciates the beach and call you lucky for coastal nativity. When Tsunami occurred, we are sure no one wanted to live in a coastal region. Having said that, over the weekend we went on a drive while resulted in experiencing the beach, back waters and the canal in Marakanam, roughly 120 kms from Chennai and 20 kms from Puducherry. Suddenly on a Saturday morning we decided to make a short trip to Marakanam where our friend has a farm house and called us in for a visit. After completing the weekend chores and a quick lunch, we started the drive towards Marakanam. We took the Chennai by-pass route to Vandaloor and then to ECR, crossing Mahabalipuram to reach the small town of Marakanam within 2 hrs. Numerous prawn Hatcheries in this place occupy the seashore. There seems to be around 53  Hatcheries in this stretc...