8 June - Chennai -> Mahabalipuram -> Tirupati
Train arrived promptly at 5 am at the Egmore station. I
had taken a bath at the Egmore station but Papa and Bhaiya could not as the men’s
room was closed. So we went to the central station where we had to keep the
luggage also. But again disappointment for them in the men’s room. I tell you,
these railway stations need to up there hygiene conditions. We went to Perry’s – the bus station. Had
good breakfast of idli and took the bus to Mahabalipuram. We had plenty of time
as the bus was to leave at 8 am. Bought some cheeku and anaar for the road.
Cheeku was really good.
8 June - Mahabalipuram
But left promptly at 8 am. The bus went through the city,
so we saw a lot of Chennai as well. We
crossed the suburbs, the IIT campus. Reached Mahabalipuram at 10 am. After a
drink we hired an auto to take us around all the monoliths (Rs 100 for a 2 km
radius) we started with one of the huge monolith rath – amazing! But not much
explanation was given. There were tickets to enter the big area. It was about
Rs 100.
From there we went to the Krishn mandap and Arjuna’s penance. The next
few monuments were: Ganesh Rath, Trimurthi Cave, butterball (a huge boulder
balancing on the edge); Varha cave, Rayer Gupuram. All monuments were spread
out. The most interesting part of the monuments is that they are all monoliths.
Very good and descriptive carving and stories on the caves. Luckily everything
was well preserved considering that they were 2000 years old.
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| Krishna Mandap |
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| Arjuna's Penance |
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| Butterball - behind me :-) |
Mahabalipuram is definitely worth visiting but there are
a few issues: 1) there was no proper information or guideline on the monuments;
2) there were no professional guides anywhere; 3) there was a lot of litter
around; 4) vendors were harassing too much; and the worst thing 5) a number of
places smelled like public toilet! Again India and her hygiene issues.
The last stop was the Shore Temple – one of the seven
found under the sea. The rest of the six are yet to be discovered under the
sea. It was very well preserved – very beautiful and lovely carving on the
temple. There was a shivling and a lying down Vishnu in the two rooms. The
outside wall had a lot of nandis on it. And of course it was by the ocean – so
really lovely.
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| Shore Temple |
There was a lot of stone workers around the area, so we
went by and bought some stone work statues. After that we took the bus back to
the city and to the railway station. It was only about 2 pm so we tried to look
for a place to eat, but could not find a decent place! We had really terrible food
at one of the dhabas.
Chennai -> Tirupati
Came back to the station, got our luggage out and took
the 3:15 pm train to Tirupati. (Yeah! We had it all planned out. There was no
rest for the tourist!). The train sadly
was not AC…it was hot! Our co-passengers were Marwari so were speaking in Hindi
with them. As usual Papa talked all the way to Tirupati. We reached Tirupati at 9 pm – the train was
delayed during the engine change process. The station was so bloody crowded! Papa
followed the marwaris so much that Bhaiya got left behind. I had to go back and
find him – which I did. And then we took the one hour bus ride up to Tirumalai,
where the temple is located. Even Tirumalai was crowded! There was just no
space anywhere. There were more vendors than I have ever seen before. It all seemed more commercial than spiritual.
We did not find a place to stay and did not get tickets for darshan for the next also. The first available tickets were for a day after. So then decided to come down to Tirupati to sleep. The
bus driver had such loud music that it gave me a headache! Ugh! It was hard to
find a hotel there also, so we stayed in the worst place ever! We had to stay
separately in three different rooms. Dinner was the worst! Really bad
experience. My room was on the main
road, so whatever sleep I got was because of I was exhausted.
9 June: Tirupati/Kaalaahasti
Woke up at 6 am to blaring horns and noisy street. I
think I may just get sick looking at the room we stayed in! So yucky! Checked
on Bhaiya and Papa (they did not check on me) and they both were awake in their
rooms. Left the hotel at 8:30 am to have breakfast – idli....again – no problem!
I love it. Bhaiya’s tummy is not doing so well today.
Caught the bus to Kalahasti and reached there after an
hour. There was a beautiful Shiv temple – one of 12 linga’s. the temple was in
a typical south India architecture. First we went to the Ganesh temple, which
was underground, and then bought tokens to see the Mahakaleshwar ling. It was
the longest line! Took us about 30 mins to get inside but once inside I barely
had any time to do darshan, before I was pulled away by the security guard.
They don’t even allow proper darshan – what’s the point of visiting these
temples? We all came out a little
empty. Bad experience.
We got the bus and went back to Tirupati. Rested in the
yucky hotel for a few more hours and then checked out and found another hotel.
A little better than this and at least one with three beds! Ate some mangoes (not
that great) and went to sleep. Not much of a day today.
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