25 Apr - 27 Apr 2011 Thanjavur






South Asia
Republic of Incredible India, the world's biggest democrazy
Tamil Nadu
Thanjavur
Hotel Valli +914362231584 arasu_tnj@rediffmail.com
Clean double room for INR 441.- or US$ 10.- per night. Friendly and helpful staff.
Beer: 650-ml bottles of cold enough Kingfisher Premium Lager (5 % alc./vol.) for INR 100.- or US$ 2.20 per large bottle, wrapped with newspaper and well hidden under our table, wisely provided and thoroughly concealed by the ever-so-helpful staff of the unlicensed hotel restaurant.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Hotel Valli in Thanjavur, which we would recommend, and for directions:









Touring the breathtaking 11th-century CE Brihadishwara Temple aka Big Temple, a very tall UNESCO World Heritage Site and Tamil Nadu’s most awesome Chola monument, whose 65-m high tower, a testimony to the engineering skills of the Cholas, dominates Thanjavur’s skyline and whose colossal 4-m high mahalingam, a gigantic stone phallus, dominates the sexual phantasies of many Indian devotees.



Exploring the walled old city of Thanjavur, the capital city of the mighty Chola Empire between the 9th and the 13th century CE when it was at the height of its glory and stretched from the islands of the Maldives in the south to as far north as the banks of the Godavari River in Telangana, visiting the rather uninspiring Royal Palace and the much more interesting, very lively vegetable market right below the palace’s tall northern fortification walls.



Taking a T.N.S.T.C. (Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation) express bus from Thanjavur through the flat landscape of the Cauvery Delta, an intensely green world of paddy fields cut by more than 30 major rivers, canals, dams, dykes and rivulets, which has been intensively farmed since ancient times, to Chidambaram (110 km, 4 hours, INR 41.- or US$ 0.95 per person).


Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2011 Map Konni & Matt 

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res travel photos
Konni & Matt Travel Photos


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from Germany:

For Amazon bargains from the United States, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United Kingdom, please click here
Destination:

23 Apr - 25 Apr 2011 Tiruchirapalli






South Asia
Republic of Incredible India, the world's biggest democrazy
Tamil Nadu
Tiruchirapalli aka Trichy
Hotel Arun +914312415021
Large a/c double room with private balcony and private bathroom for INR 660.- or US$ 15.- per night. Indifferent but very professional staff.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Hotel Arun in Tiruchirapalli and for directions:
N 10° 47.79' E 078° 41.01'









Visiting the 72-m tall, 13-tiered beautiful gopura of the illustrious Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangam, located on a 600-acre island c. 7 km north of Trichy proper and surrounded by the waters of the Cauvery River on one side and its tributary Kollidam River on the other side, one of the district’s most important pilgrim centres and one of the most revered Vishnu shrines in South India.


Meeting the good Dr. R. Santhanam, a friendly and seemingly experienced Reiki Grand Master, at his hospitable house in Srirangam, learning about chakras and being diagnosed by his sensitive palms as physically healthy and psychologically sound (boy, oh boy, if he only knew…), but learning later from the the Sceptic's Dictionary that "... reiki works as well as any other placebo medicine ... it works primarily by the power of suggestion and classical conditioning, both of which can bring about physiological changes in the believer or the open-minded skeptic who knows little about placebo energy medicine ... reiki, however, will have no effect on someone who thinks the reiki ritual is superstitious showmanship ...".



Exploring the Old City of Tiruchirapalli on Easter Sunday, climbing up the 83-m high Rock Fort which looms incongruously above the bazaars and is topped by the 17th-century CE Ganesh Temple and enjoying panoramic views of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple to the north, its gopura rising from a sea of palm trees, and the cubic concrete sprawl of central Trichy to the south.



Taking the Southern Indian Railway’s express train, in “general class” for only INR 22.- or US$ 0.50 per person from Tiruchirapalli through the plains between the Shevaroy and Palani hills, Tamil Nadu’s rice bowl, to Thanjavur aka Tanjore, one of the busiest commercial towns in the Cauvery Delta.
Click below for more blog posts about interesting treatments of body and soul
15 Aug - 18 Aug 2012 Ulaanbaatar
21 Sep - 23 Sep 2011 Palu
01 Apr - 05 Apr 2011 Kanyakumari
01 Mar - 01 May 2010 Bangkok
24 Oct - 04 Dec 2008 Khao Pilai

 Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2011 Map Konni & Matt

Visit the Konni & Matt Online Albums and order high-res photos 
Konni & Matt Travel Photos


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United States:
For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon deals from Canada, please click here
For Amazon deals from the United Kingdom, please click here
Destination:

12 Apr - 23 Apr 2011 Madurai






South Asia
Republic of Incredible India, the world's biggest democrazy
Tamil Nadu
Madurai
Hotel Sri Deevi +914522347431
Double room with private balcony for INR 505.- or US$ 11.50 per night; matchless views over the western gopura from the hotel's roof-top terrace.

Click below for an interactive road map of the Sri Deevi Hotel in Madurai, which we would recommend, and for directions:










 Exploring the touristy and chaotic city of Madurai which is famous for (i) its ceaseless round of festivals and processions, (ii) its profusion of busy markets and intriguing corners, and (iii) its squillion of street traders and open-air kitchens (where competing paratha-wallahs literally drum up customers for their delicious fresh breads with a tattoo of chopping knife/spatula-on-skillet signals) and discovering, by pure means of trial-and-error, the most effective countermeasure to immediately shut up any tourist-harassing tout, wannabe-guide or rickshaw coolie when simply answering their slimy sing-song attempts to get in touch with us ("Which country do you come from, my friend?”) with a short and brisk: "Izzzrrraelll!"



Circumambulating together with (i) the painted and decorated temple elephant in charge, (ii) a particularly cantankerous camel and (iii) many excited Hindu devotees the divine love-nest of Shiva and his consort Meenakshi, the mighty Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar Temple, its 12 massive gopuram loaded with multicoloured mythological figures and crowned by golden finals, and being overwhelmed by an atmosphere largely unchanged since the time of the ancient Egyptians: (i) glittering market stalls inside the eastern entrance, (ii) endless rounds of ongoing puja ceremonies, (iii) loud music from nagaswarams (double-reeded, oboe-like wind instruments for which the Madurai area is particularly famous), thavils (barrel drums) and hand cymbals, (iv) ecstatic devotees prostrating themselves and (v) wandering holy cows (demanding the right of way with a peremptory nudge of the haunch).



Joining tens of thousands of zealous and excited Hindu devotees and taking part in Madurai’s colourful and exciting Chittirai Festival where all kind of icons from the temples and special movable images of the gods are taken out and lavishly clothed in silk and ornaments of rubies, sapphires, pearls, silver and gold, thus (i) witnessing goddess Meenakshi’s celestial wedding to god Shiva inside the crowded Meenakshi-Sundareshwarar Temple (Thirukalyanam, on the 10th day), (ii) watching the procession where Meenakshi and Shiva travelled in fifteen-metre-high chariots, with giant wooden wheels, hauled in a clockwise direction through Madurai’s Masi streets by hundreds of devotees, all tugging on long ropes (Ther Thiruvizhah, on the 11th day), and (iii) sharing the disappointment together with flocks of devotees when god Vishnu, Meenakshi’s brother, who travelled to Madurai to give his sister away at the wedding, arrived on his golden horse too late only to find, on reaching the Vaigai river, that the ceremony had already occurred (Theppa Thiruvizhah, on the 12th day) - Grimm's Fairy Tales in India, ganz wunderbar!
“In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected."


Taking the crowded Southern Indian Railway’s passenger train, in “general class” for only INR 24.- or US$ 0.55 per person (from the “Guidelines to Passengers” on the back of our tickets: “It is dangerous to entrain or detrain a moving train...”), for the 161 km from Madurai to the sprawling commercial centre of Tiruchirapalli, usually referred to as Trichy, where Western tourists are still so rare that the friendly locals greet you on the street with welcoming handshakes.



Click below for a summary of this year's travels
2011 Map Konni & Matt


Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United Kingdom:

For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United States, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here
Destination:

07 Apr - 12 Apr 2011 Rameshwaram






South Asia
Republic of Incredible India, the world's biggest democrazy
Tamil Nadu
Rameshwaram
Sri Kumaran Deluxe Lodge +914573221410
Clean double room for only INR 500.- or US$ 11.40 per night.

Click below for a street-view map of the Sri Kumaran Deluxe Lodge in Rameshwaram, which we would recommend, and for directions:









 Touring the 12th/17th-century CE Ramalingeshwara Temple (free entrance, camera ticket: INR 25.-) and eyeballing (i) its magnificent 205-m long pillared walkways (with c. 1,200 pillars on the north and south sides and with delicate scrollwork and brackets of pendant lotuses supported by mythical lion-like beasts aka yalis), (ii) its long galleries with stone shiva lingams in all shapes and sizes which looks like the showroom of an ancient sex shop which specialises in XXXL-size dildos - size obviously matters amongst the buoyant Hindu gods) and (iii) its 38-m high pyramidal gopura.



Spotting Hindu devotees with two different types of marks on their forehead, (i) one to three horizontal (usually white) lines distinguish Shaivites, and (ii) vertical lines in yellow or red, often converging into a near-V shape, are common among Vaishnavites, and learning that Hindus tend to be followers of either Shiva or Vishnu but Rameshwaram brings them together, being the place where the god Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, allegedly worshipped Shiva in the Ramayana, one of the two great epics of Hinduism, the other being the Mahabharata.

 Meeting groups of soaking-wet Hindu pilgrims from all over India, most of them fully clothed, who make their way from one temple tank aka tirtha to the next in order to be doused with a bucket of holy water by the temple attendants, thus taking a ritual bathe in the different holy waters from each of the 22 tirthas inside the Ramalingeshwara Temple, each of which is said to have very specific benefits (e.g. relief from debts, complete wisdom, love of their spouses).



Watching other groups of Hindu pilgrims from all over India at the Agnitheertham Ghats, c. 100 m east of the Ramalingeshwara Temple, where they perform puja in honour of their ancestors on this sacred beach which is shared (i) by groups of zealous bathers (a dip in the sea is supposed to remove the sins), (ii) by herds of relaxed holy cows and (iii) by teams of mantra-reciting swamis (religious gurus with or without disciples) next to their more or less realistic sand lingams (phallic symbols representing the god Shiva).



Konni: Joining a friendly and resourceful all-female group of Hindu pilgrims who had walked all the 1,600 km from Bombay aka Mumbai to Rameshwaram (about 30 km for each of the 50 days, day after day) in order to erect right on the beach of the holy Agnitheertham Ghats the most beautiful sand phallus (embellished with flowers, powdered pigment and incense sticks aka agarbathi) to make all their feminine dreams come true.
“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”


Sharing a rugged and worn Mahindra 4x4 mini truck with a group of brahmins and other pilgrims from Maharashtra (INR 80.- per person, return), visiting eerie Dhanushkodi, a ghost town which was destroyed in the 1964 CE cyclone after which the place got deserted, and driving along the ever-narrowing spit of sand to the eastern end of the sacred island of Rameshwaram where the sea finally closes in and the island peters out, tantalising short of the string of tiny islets, sandbanks and limestone shoals known as Adam’s Bridge aka Rama’s Bridge which peppers the sea (on one side are the waters of the rough Indian Ocean and on the other the waters of the calm Bay of Bengal) between the mighty subcontinent and the island of Sri Lanka, less than 20 km across the Gulf of Mannar.



Taking an exotic T.N.S.T.C. (Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation) bus, without window panes but with a powerful sound system which plays relentlessly high-pitched bhajan songs, from Rameshwaram to atmospheric Madurai (175 km, 6 1/2 hours, INR 56.- or US$ 1.30 per person), located on the banks of the Vaigai River and allegedly the oldest existing city on the Indian peninsula  - Incredible India, we love you and your fantasies!


Click below for more blog posts about Tantor's brothers
12 May - 18 May 2011 Hampi
12 Apr - 23 Apr 2011 Madurai
16 Feb - 17 Feb 2011 Colombo
22 Feb - 24 Feb 2010 Chiang Dao
27 Oct - 29 Oct 2009 Bilit

Click below for a summary of this year's travels
Recommended books - click below for your Amazon order from the United Kingdom:
For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here 
For Amazon deals from the United States, please click here 
For Amazon deals from Canada, please click here
Destination:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)