South India Tour - Rameshwaram

6 June - Rameshwaram and Dhanushkoti

Went to the station at 3:45 am. The train as usual is IST…(late)…it came at 4:45 am. I was sooo sleepy. Since we are going to one of four “dhaam” I decided not to eat until after darshan. The route was usual until we got to Mandapam. From there to Pamban, the route was just magical. The train literally went into the Bay of Bengal to get to Pamban. It is hard to describe – one has to see it to believe it. 

At Pamban, a pundit got into our compartment and started talking about doing puja at the temple. We were not into the ritual part at all. We are more into darshan. But the pundit just sat there and gave us a lecture on how we should be more spiritual etc. etc….all he wanted was to sell his services. We reached Rameshwaram at 10 am and went straight to the temple. The shivling was amazing….we did the puja with the priest there and then walked around the temple. It was a huge temple and we walked barefoot everywhere. It was quite tiring as it was hot and humid too. One can easily get lost in the temple. 

Rameshwaram Temple

Few minutes later we took the bus to Dhanushkoti, which is where the bridge to Sri Lanka is. It was 12:30 pm by the time we got there – the sun was on its peak. The land was a very thin strip, I could see the ocean on both sides of the land. The land itself was just beach, no trees, nothing; just a few vendors and a whole lot of beach.  There were a few huts there – maybe of the people who catered to the tourists, but they would have to go at least 30 mins out before they could reach the city. Its tough living conditions. I did not see any running water either. 

We passed the Vibhishan temple. By the time the bus came to a stop, there was no road, only sand and the huts were built on the sand. So found out that the bus driver was the errand runner for all the residents there. Interesting. We walked around the beach for a while. A small jeep/truck was taking tourists to the edge of Dhanushkoti, where one can see the bridge. We did not go. it was too hot and we were not sure how long we would stay there.  We drank some coconut water…nice and cool.  

As I was walking around I could feel the breeze on my face, but I could also feel the salt. There was so much salt in the air; it’s sticky.  

Got on the bus and went back into the city.  The bus dropped us way before the temple though, so had to take another bus from there.  It was 2 pm and bloody hot. Had lunch near the temple and went to the station. Our train was at 7 pm, so took care of all the reservations right there. The station was empty by 4 pm. School children came back at 4:30 pm and then it was all quiet again. Went out little later to eat something but there were only dirty dhabas around, nothing to eat. So had coffee back at the station only. 

Luckily the train came on time and we left for Madurai and reached about 12 am. Tomorrow we have to get to Trichy, so time for bed!