Sunday, November 06, 2005

Roaming free...well not exactly

Well it’s been a week today that I came to Trivandrum to celebrate the festive season with my parents here. I took two days off and got the whole week, I reckon holiday like this is hard to get. This is the second time I am coming to Trivandrum my first visit was very short -2 days. This time around I din plan much just wanted to relax. Trivandrum is a nice place, but the place comes to a grinding halt after 8 in the evening (reminds me of Melbourne days), you can’t expect much after that time. Possible shops open after that- Pharmacy and Restaurants. Went to Kanyakumari and on the way went to a temple in susindhram (I think the spelling is correct) the place doesn’t have anything other than the temple itself. Though I have been to old temples before but this one I think is one of my favs (guys if you have not visited this place before then trust me you should visit). There are a lot of unusual things here. 1.There is tree which every one claims is 2400 years old (that’s a bit hard to believe but then..) 2.There is vigneshwari (yes female Ganesh …have you heard of that) 3.The temple itself is 2300 years old ( again hard to believe …) 4.The saptha swara pillars – these things are marvelous and if they were built at that time, man those people were genius. You hit one pillar and stick your ears to others (actually one person should hit the pillars and others should listen to it) it is amazing!!! ..the people there say that all these saptha swara pillars are carved out of one single stone…(6-7 thin pillars close to each other) it has to be, otherwise it is not possible at all 5.The navagraha ….this unlike the other places is not on platform, but are carved in the ceiling. Hey guys, I was just wondering that if the temple was built 2300 years before and they have this navagraha (which denotes seven planets, sun and moon) did the guys then, knew about those planets? Its quite mind boggling. Next stop was Kanyakumari … it has a bhagavathi Amman temple. The main attraction is the nose ring of the goddess, the original one was stolen by the British (that’s what the priest there claims) the nose ring made of diamond once served as a light house to the ships sailing by (so bright! hard to believe….but).Now you don’t see the diamond ring but something else which is bright (I don’t know what it is) Vivekananda rock is a nice place and the jetty ride is good as well (the govt can improve the place a lot though). There was no ride to the thiruvaluvar rock, they don’t allow after the tsunami, that’s what the locals say. It was heavily raining and sea had swollen a bit. Also went to a place called Neyyar dam (one a separate day this is not on the route to cape comrin). It has a large lake (27sq km). We took a boat ride, it normally takes 20-30 mins, we arranged for a 1 hour ride. The waters are croc infested. You can spot them near the shores of small hills. These small hills actually boost the scenic beauty of the place. There is also a lion safari….it was fun, it is a mini van and you think will this thing make it.The driver opened the door when we spotted two lioness very close (his explanation that we get is that we will get a clear view for snaps and the both the lionesses were pregnant and wouldn’t harm us…still…you know) Overall… susindhram is a must a visit and neyyar dam a nice place to relax. croc in the neyyar dam Agasthiyar mountain at the backdrop!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

navagraham, mmm...

Saravana said...

Dai good post machi ... trivandrum and adjoining places are very good ... lot of places to visit ... even me somehow don't like places that sleep at 8:00 at night.

machi the temple you've mentioned looks interesting.

Daii and that Astrology and Astronomy details, our indians were very much advanced than what we are today da .. I will soon be writing an article on divisions of time in this blog here I'll tell you abt that. It is simply amazing to see such advanced knowledge in an bygone era ... I've come to an conclusion that everything happens in cycles ... that is just like a sine wave everything alternates between extremes and it continues for a finite amount of time in a timeless concept (I think I'm going more and more complicated here)

Coming to the age of Astrology, it was actually written before 5000 years, I'm not so sure of the age of the temple though, coz most of the temples have been renovated by the chola, pandya, pallava, chera empires mostly after 8th century AD (I read abt these things in a book called ponniyin selvan). Actually they existed as small temples before that for a long long time.

btw did you really capture those lions

senthil natarajan said...

@saravana: do write about it da...yes da that pic i took and hence the fact that it is shaken... after all the door was open

Anonymous said...

good that you are going around places. Lucky you !
-> sudar.

Saravana said...

hey sathyu enna paartha marketing junkie maari theriyudha ... paarthukko un siteku aprom oru click kooda varaadhu

NaiKutti said...

looks like u had ball of a time... i will put this on my "to-visit" list... and i can imagine taking a pic. of a lion with doors open ;-)...

btw, on a lighter note, for some reason, my IE window closes generates an error message when I open ur blog and it hasn't happened to any of the other blogs i visit... have u by any chance added some extra javascript or something??

senthil natarajan said...

@sudar: what about your official mumbai travels mate?
@sathya:no vendudhal and all.... summa
@karthik: i have to check the html...i took the template as it is.

Ponnarasi Kothandaraman said...

Hai,
This blog was very interesting. Was bugging dad to take to those places, after reading your blog had a feeling as if i have been there.... Part time- Tourist guide... ;) ???? Just kidding.

Have a nice day,
Ponnarasi Kothandaraman

senthil natarajan said...

@ponnarasi: u must visit.... atleast the temple... part time tourist guide a?