I visited the Brihadishwara Temple this morning. In the center, it looks like a pyramid, 66m tall. It was impressive. I felt a few drops of rain today, first time I have seen rain in months! Later I visited the Royal Palace. There I saw an art gallery and walked up a tower. There was …
Category Archives: Travel
Day 131 – Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India
It was practically a sleepless night for me last night. I picked this room because it appeared to be sealed off from the outside, but as the night went on I noticed there was a hole rotted through the bottom of the bathroom door which allowed an endless stream of mosquitoes inside. In addition, the …
Day 130 – Chidambaram and Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, India
I started today with another bus. Unfortunately, it was one of the private buses I’ve been able to avoid my entire time so far here. Compared to state run buses, the private buses are slower and they have loud music. I got to use my ear plugs on this journey. I stopped at Chidambarm, the …
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Day 129 – Puducherry, India
Since Mahabalipuram is a small town with only a small bus station, there aren’t direct buses going to my next city starting here. I had to walk out to the highway and flag down a bus. Unfortunately, it meant standing up for half of the 2 hour journey on the crowded bus. Puducherry is a …
Day 128 – Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India
I visited all the places I skipped the day before. The famous and huge Arjuna’s Penance relief carving, Krishna Mandapa, a kind of cave temple, and Krishna’s Butterball, a large boulder. I spend the morning waiting for restaurants to open until I noticed no stores or restaurants in the town were opening today. I thought …
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Day 127 – Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, India
This town has some world heritage monuments that I saw today. First was the Shore temple. Later I visited the Five Rathas temple. Both over one thousand years old. Maybe not quite as impressive as some of the other places I’ve been, but I think people come here because it is a quiet, relaxing place. …
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Day 126 – Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India
I had a few more places to visit before I leave, so I walked to Devarajaswami Temple to see the 1000 pillared hall. It was impressive. I liked the chain cut out of a single stone. I’ve been getting paranoid about my shoes getting stolen (especially after seeing that Slumdog Millionaire movie, where the main …
Day 125 – Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India
It took most of the morning on buses to get to this old city, capital to a few dynasties in south India. I found a hotel close to the bus station, but this is perhaps the rudest staff I’ve encountered. After waiting to have a look at a room, the manager throws the keys towards …
Day 124 – Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
I decided against going all the way back to that Adyar Library and instead went to the nearby public library for a while today. Half the library was English books, which made it nice to read some things about India. I’ve noticed they don’t give you any blankets in Tamil Nadu. I guess it is …
Day 123 – Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
I took a bus to the suburb of Adyar. Here, I walked to the beach (my first time seeing one this trip) and the grounds of the Theosophical Society. The hours were strange however. Closed from 10AM-2PM and I arrived at 10AM. There is the Adyar Library and Research Institute there where I wanted to …