Our wanderings and perceptions

 Our second at Thiruchendur started with a tea and Kaaravadai again. Left the hotel to take some beach water on your head followed by the Nazhi kinaru water. The Nazhi kinaru here is a well with good water though being few steps away from the beach. It is believed that Lord Murugar created this well for his troops to drink water during the battle Soorapadhman by the help of his Vel. Today being Monday, the pilgrims crowd had drastically dropped compared to yesterday. Still the free darshan had a big queue so we opted for the special darshan. Today through special darshan we could worship the Lord in Raja-alankaram and come out with 10-15 minutes. Pongal prasadam was given near the exit. With that it was time for breakfast. We had a quick breakfast at Hotel Mani Iyer - pongal and dosa for Rs.120. Valli Caves We walked back to the temple complex again, took detour to the Valli caves. On the beach side of the temple a small corridor takes you to the Valli caves. Rs.1 is collected for entr

 After having visited 4 of the 6 abodes of Lord Muruga we planned to take on a trip to the fifth one in July. As soon as the month was born we got our tickets booked to Thiruchendur. Train tickets were not available due to short notice so got to do with bus. Its our maiden tryst with AC Sleeper Coach. So all excited, we started our trip in the night of 2nd July. With the current sky rocketing prices of fuels, no auto rickshaw was ready to ferry us to the bus boarding point for a normal rate. After walking for almost we 2 kilometers we finally paid a heft amount to reach the YBM travels bus boarding location. First time availing the booking through Redbus, it has coordination process. There were reminders sent, messages sent on bus information, delay in bus arrival and confirmation on boarding too. Bus reached our place 30 minutes late and there was enough traffic to slow down till we crossed the city limits. YBM travels Bus was themed in blue. Our seats were in the upper deck so got a

 Texvalley This is on the Nation Highway in Erode. Texvalley is a shopping mall exclusively for textiles. It has been promoted by the textile ministry. This mall has two separate building. First building near to the entrance accommodates shops from the locals selling locally produced goods which is in standard rates. While the other building towards the rare end of the Texvalley campus is dedicated to export quality and branded textiles. Texvalley has thousand plus shops. Not all of them are occupied but it has all the popular names in the textile industry. Being a week day it was sparsely populated when we went in. The mall is well maintained and one needs to look into different shops which cater to their needs. But any clothing need can be fulfilled in Texvalley in one visit for the whole family. There is ample parking space but it is not covered. We did buy clothes ranging from t-shirt to kurti to saree. Though not very cheap it was worth the buy. Having spent a good two hours here

 Gandhipuram to Avinashi In the evening we were picked up by our friends to their house near Codissia grounds. We had dinner at Anandhaas. This was also good. Price may not be less than Chennai but the ambience and quality was up to the mark. For a change this restaurant offered veg vaazhai-ilai parotta. North Indian combo, small idly sambar and dosa-vadacurry were delicious. There were many  apartments near the Codissia ground. Our friend's apartment complex was quiet huge with four blocks and play area for kids. On the way back they dropped us with 20 mins as the time was 10:30pm. Anaikatti On Sunday morning as planned yesterday we set out to Avinashi after having breakfast at the Salem Ravishankar's - Thattu idly and Dosa. Breakfast here was pretty average. Sunday morning roads in Coimbatore are quiet free like any city. From Avinashi we took the scenic route towards Anaikatti. We had to drive through the Kerala border. Just before the Kerala check post we took a break and h

 G D Naidu Museum Saturday morning saw us having breakfast at Gowrishankar's, which also seem to have been taken over by Annapoorna. After that we set out to G D Naidu Museum. Having seen the difficultly in navigating around the city in the car we decided go for call taxi. Installed Red taxi app and booked the trip from our accommodation. Red taxi is popular in Coimbatore and Erode like Ola in Chennai. We came to know that Red Taxi runs Pink taxi only for ladies, driven by ladies. After filling in the register and buying the tickets for museum we were let inside. Wearing mask was mandatory. There is a science museum and an automotive one. In the Automotive museum one could see the evolution of cars. A video runs here showing the first ever motorized vehicle run. Then on display are the various cars starting from the olden times, Wosley to the latest ones, Ferrari. Well kept museum has information on each of the cars on display. Having spent an hour here we moved to the science muse