Tiruchirappalli

I have left lovely Pondicherry and entered into temple mania. Tamil Nadu has over 5000 temples and I am on the temple circuit for the next few days. Trichy is a dirty, dusty, busy city that has two wonderful temples. I arrived here on the train and knew as soon as I left the train station it was going to be a tough go. The hotels are disgusting but the Femina which caters to 'business men' will do the trick. In India you are often asked "profession?" and when I ask back these are some of the responses I have gotten: "typesetter' 'professor' and the funniest is 'business man' - what the hell kind of answer is that? Well, the Femina caters to them and to backpackers like me who look nothing like a business man but at least it is clean. Clean yes, showers no... bucket style.


Bonus: Continental breakfast included.



The first temple I hit up was the Rock Fort Temple. It is literally on top of a rock that you climb over 400 stairs to reach. Nice view which made it worth it as I could not go inside the temple - Hindus only.




The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple is beautiful. It is possibly the largest temple complex in India and feels more like an enclosed city rather than a place of worship. The pictures really don't do it justice.




As I was leaving the complex I almost got ran over. Is he old enough to drive?



The best part of my day was the bus ride back to the hotel. I sat next to a wonderful lady and we had such an honest and sincere conversation, it was lovely.