Nantes – A City of Surprises

Place: Nantes, France (located 50 km from the coast immediately south of Brittany)

Region, Department: Pays de la Loire, Loire Atlantique

Airport: Nantes Airport (also served by Rennes Airport with train connections from the city of Rennes)

Railway Station: Nantes is a major railway station connected to most important destinations in France

Places and Things to see: Museum of the Machines of the Isles of Nante, Nante Cathedral and Castle, Guerande town and salt pans on the Britanny coast

Dates: 6th April 2012 to 9th April 2012

NOTE: Pardon the lack of accents in names – I wasn’t sure where they should go and rather than mix them up, thought I’d be fair and drop them all!

EPISODE 1 – NANTES

When my friend Marine invited me to visit her in Nantes, I had to look it up on Wikipedia. If there is one word to describe Nantes, it is unassuming. And if there were two, I’d go with unassuming and happening. It isn’t a ski resort, it isn’t Paris; it isn’t the Cote-de-Azure or the Rhone valley, but it is, nonetheless, full of pleasant surprises. The city made good on the slave trade before such things became passé. It now boasts a magnificent cathedral, some beautiful residential apartments and a quaint castle and city centre.

The evening I arrived, Marine and I took a lovely walk along the Loire river from the city centre towards Nantes University.

We were five of us the next day – Marine, Camille, Renin, Aurelie and me, and the plan was to tour the sights of the city. I had three and half days in France and as it turns out, there was a lot to do!

EPISODE 2 – THE MUSEUM OF THE MACHINES

The most remarkable attraction in Nantes is, by far, the Royal De Luxe theatre company’s Museum of the Machines of the Isles of Nantes. This museum is unlike any I have ever seen. The company, founded by Jean-Luc Courcoult, is a street theatre company that give performances world-wide. In fact they have just been performing in Liverpool to commemmorate 100 years of the Titanic. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-17806029 The museum is the brainchild of two inventors, François Delarozière and Pierre Orefice. It houses fantastic structures and automata (machinated animals and plants), such as the now world-famous wooden elephant. Built out of ‘tulip’ wood and as high as a three-storey building the elephant is actually fitted with gear that allows it to walk and run, eyes that open and shut, and a trunk that flexes itself, and even sprays water out its nozzle at unsuspecting passers-by!

The museum workshops are a fascinating journey into the world of gears and hydraulics, as the men and women there aim to replicate the natural world to the best of their ability using simple mechanical equipment and principles and some truly remarkable workmanship. Their current project  - called the Heron Tree project - involves a giant tree, 35 m in girth and 40 m tall, built of steel, with potted plants revegetating its branches. The tree will have mechanical ants, bugs and caterpillars that tourists can ride, and two giant herons nesting on the highest branches that periodically circle the tree, carrying passengers.

Yet another project is the Underwater Carousel - a giant carousel show-casing the creatures of the sea. The carousel when finished will have two levels – surface and deep sea, with different real and mythical creatures inhabiting each level and a bathyscape that will travel between the two!

We came out of the museum wonder-struck, marvelling at the creativity, ingenuity and effort that had gone into these projects. We took a walk back to the city centre, where my friends pointed out a wall on a small traffic island that seemed to have fallen from the sky. The wall, as it turns out, was part of a massive street theatre performance put on by the company last year where the history of Nantes was presented in the form of a story –  a young Mexican girl and her dog who came to Nantes during the slave trade years. The painting is a fascinating medley of characters and instances from real life and imagined stories. One can stare at it for hours and still find something new!

It was looking at this painting that I learnt that Nantes is the city of Jules Verne, the author of one of my all-time favourites – Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Little-known fact!

I later learnt that the Underwater Carousel in the Museum of the Machines was actually inspired by him.

We ended the day in slightly more sedate fashion as we made a short sortie to the very quaint erstwhile fishing village (but now posh arty settlement) of Trente Mille, one of the islands in the Loire river.

EPISODE 3 – CREPES AND A CARNIVAL

No write-up about France can be complete without a mention of the food. Despite my misgivings about vegetarian food in this meat and seafood-loving country, I had some very memorable meals in Nantes!

The night before the ‘day of the museums’ dessert at Renin’s flat was the very French course of bread and cheese with some excellent red wine (I assume the wine was excellent since it was selected and served by the French!).

The next day, dinner was at La Quimper, a creperie that my friends had promised me would be very special. It would be remiss of me to talk about food here without first giving a bit of the history that goes with it. In the days before World War II and the Vichy, Nantes was a part of the unofficial region of Brittany (Bretagne). In fact, a Duchess of Brittany who would later become Queen of France hailed from the city. However, Nantes was separated from Brittany and became part of the Pays de la Loire region during the War and has remained separate since then despite demands for reunification.

The point of this story is that the crepes of Brittany are different to those in the rest of France. Nantes, historically being of the same region, also lays claim to the ‘Bretagne’ crepes – and that was what we were going to try this evening. I have a weakness for pancakes – especially the savoury sort. I do not know if these were the genuine thing, but the crepes I had at the La Quimper restaurant in Nantes were oh-so-delicious, and come close to being the tastiest sort of pancakes I have ever had!

And there was more to come, for dessert!

It being Easter, we finished our dinner by ten and got out onto the streets in anticipation of the Nantes Easter Carnival. The events don’t stop in this city! The theme of the carnival this year was children’s folk and fairy tales, given an adolescent/teenage twist (a slightly weird Red Riding Hood in stockings, for instance). By my friends’ accounts, the carnival wasn’t as good as usual, but I had a marvelous night, keeping time to the chants and songs that welled up every time a float went by, and trying hard to keep my head and clothes confetti-free!

EPISODE 4 – THE COAST AND EASTER CHOCOLATES!

The next morning we piled into our cars and made our way to the medieval town of Guerande on the French Atlantic coast. Well, the town used to be on the coast and indeed prospered while it was there, until falling sea-levels due to the retreat of the ice age meant that it gradually kept moving away from the coast! The town and its walls were however preserved in almost pristine condition and remain a must-see sight today.

Close-by are the salt-pans of Guerande, where salt is collected ‘organically’ adhering to traditions that are centuries old, refined with the help of modern science and technology. The guided tour of the salt-pans was in French, but my friends Camille, Renin and Aurelie very helpfully translated all the interesting bits for me, giving me a fascinating picture of good old-fashioned salt-making!

We headed back to Renin's flat where we had been hosted very kindly the past two nights, and were treated to some delicious home-made tartiflette and, as it was Easter, fruit and chocolate fondue!

Before I knew it, it was Monday morning and time to leave. It had been a short weekend but a whirlwind tour and it couldn’t have been any fuller! Having made plans to meet again in France, we said our good-byes. My Easter was made complete at the Rennes Airport with a complimentary Easter egg at the check-in counter! 


Before I close off this post, here are some pictures of the people that made this trip so great :)

Until next time… Au revoir!

TN Road Trip Chapter 4–Days 5,6,7: Rameswaram, Dhanushkodi and back to Chennai

Summary

Stay: Hotel Sunrise View, Rameswaram

Nearest Railway Station: Rameswaram

Nearest Airport: Madurai (~170 km)

Places Visited: Dhanushkodi, Pamban Rail Journey

Temples Visited: Thirupullani, Rameswaram and surrounding temples

Link to Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=212985503433779843671.0004b7e3434283774e98a&ie=UTF8&t=m&vpsrc=6&ll=11.609193,78.881836&spn=5.841001,10.821533&z=7

This last chapter on the Tamil Nadu road trip is going to be as much about names, as about the places they belong to.

At last…we were on our way to the ancient island city of Rameswaram whose eastern tip Dhanushkodi is just 20 km from Sri Lanka. This is where the Ramar Sethu (meaning “Rama’s bridge”, though known to the modern world as Adam’s Bridge) is said to have been built by King Rama and his army so they could cross over to Lanka to fight the demon king Ravana. This is also the place of the relatively new-born structural wonders of the Pamban road and rail bridges, spanning nearly 2.5 km across the sea, that connect the island to the Indian mainland. This is a place full of ancient legends and modern stories, and we were understandably quite excited as we set off from Karaikal on the last leg of our Tamil Nadu road trip.

Knowing we would be taking the East Coast Road all the way down from Karaikal, I once again took the wheel. It was, unsurprisingly, a delightful road and a delightful ride! Wonderful scenes of water-filled paddy fields with peacocks, kingfishers, storks, cranes and egrets, that we sped past; quaintly named sea-side villages; and the not-infrequent fauna on the road that we slowed down for!

The most delightful name we had come across on our trip so far was a few days before between Chidambaram and Karaikal, called Shang-oli-kuppam which translates roughly to “the town of the sound-of-a-conch.” We didn’t stop there, though we did stop this time in the equally delightfully named Manal-mel-kudi (Settlement – on – Sand) for a mid-day cup of chai. Stratford-upon-Avon, take that!

The road kept darting in and out of sight of the sea and we had a very smooth ride right up until the temple town of Thiru-pull-ani, where we visited the temple of Lord Vishnu in the form of Rama, resting before the launch of his final assault on Lanka. By the time we reached the road bridge across to the island the sky had darkened with lashing rain and gale-force winds, and we kept imagining the choppy sea that lay 80 m beneath our feet as we made our way across the 2.5 km long bridge. By the time we reached our hotel, Hotel Sunrise View, in Rameswaram however, the rain and wind had died down though we did hear that train services had remained cancelled that day due to the strong winds. We made sure there were no cyclones in the offing and booked, conditional on the weather, a jeep ride to the ruined settlement of Dhanushkodi at the tip of the island.

After a good night’s rest we got up the next morning to be greeted - as promised by the name of our hotel, by a sunrise over the sea! The sea was flat as a board with scores upon scores of fishing boats gently rocking away, waiting to go out into the waters of the Palk Strait.

The name Dhanushkodi literally means “bow-tip” for that is exactly what it looks like when viewed from the air. Until a morning in the spring of 1964 this was a thriving town on the trade route between India and Sri Lanka. If you wished to travel to Colombo from Chennai in those days before air-travel you would take the Boat Mail. This train service ran from Chennai to Dhanushkodi, where, as the name suggests, you would transfer onto a ferry that would take you to Talai-mannar in the Jaffna Peninsula in Sri Lanka, where another train would take you all the way down to the capital city Colombo. On that morning in 1964 a cyclone, generated locally in the region struck the town with no warning. Normally sheltered by Lanka, this was a region that had never seen a cyclone before in living memory. That morning the two seas on either side of the town churned, and rose in fury devouring the town, and its beach, giving the inhabitants no chance of escape.

Needless to say, the railway line was destroyed and the service halted. The ferry and train services though restored were soon discontinued due to the separatist movement in Sri Lanka in the 70s. All that remains there now is the ruins of old English buildings built during the Raj.

We soon realised why we needed a four-wheel drive Jeep to take us to the tip – the road pretty much vanished as soon as we reached the ruins and no other vehicle would be able to make it across the sand!

Our jeep plodded along until we reached, verily, the tip of India, the meeting point of the waters of the Bay of Bengal to the north and the Palk Strait to the south; and one end of Adam’s Bridge, a strip of sand reefs, rocks and stones that formed a shallow, under-water ridge connecting India and Sri Lanka. The waters were a sparkling blue and the sands white, looking for all the world like the islands of the Maldives.

I will take a short dip into India’s great epic Ramayana, to give context to the next picture. Legend has it, that Lord Vishnu, came down to earth as King Rama to rid the people of the menace of the demon king Ravana. Ravana being proud and vain, kidnapped Sita, the wife of King Rama and held her hostage in Lanka. To rescue her and vanquish Ravana, Rama journeyed all the way from the kingdom of Ayodhya (near present-day Delhi) to Dhanushkodi where he built a bridge to cross over to Lanka. One of king Rama’s greatest devotees and advisors was the monkey god, Hanuman (also known in Tamil as Anjaneya, or the son of Anjana). He not only journeyed to Lanka as Rama’s messenger, to convey a warning to Ravana and a message of hope to Sita, but also advised Rama on matters of warfare and strategy. As this was the place from where Rama, his brother Laxmana, Hanuman, and their army left for Lanka a temple was built here for Hanuman in the erstwhile town of Dhanushkodi. The temple stood right on the tip of the peninsula with the idol of Hanuman facing toward Lanka, praying and waiting for the successful return of Rama, Laxmana, Sita and their army. During the cyclone of ‘64 this temple was washed away with the rest of the town. However, by a miracle the idol of Hanuman was left intact in the sands, right where he stood looking towards Lanka in prayer. Known simply as the '”Dhanushkodi Anjaneya”, he stands there to this day, an idol no more than 2 feet in height, open to the elements and with a single shroud of cloth as protection, more than 40 years since the cyclone!

We spent a good half an hour at the beach, wading in the warm waters and drinking in the expanse before us, all the time wondering how it would have to those living here, to see a cyclone appear out of nowhere! We finally tore ourselves away and headed back to Rameswaram, for the next item on our agenda – a rail journey across the famous Pamban Rail Bridge. When we got to the station, we were pleasantly shocked to find that the ticket from Rameswaram to Mandapam by train cost us all of two rupees. We selected our window seats and awaited departure. The train left on time and after a couple of stops, trundled on to the approach to the bridge.

I am now going to let the pictures do the talking…

This is what we saw below us, standing at the door!

And these piers in the water are the remnants of the old bridge, built by the British, that was also destroyed in the 1964 cyclone.

 

It was an exhilarating 15 minutes, and I was reminded once again why I love the Indian railways.

Still on a high after that journey we came back to Rameswaram by bus and went to the main Siva temple that gives the town its name. The story goes that Ravana, despite being a demon was a great devotee of Lord Siva. Thus, Rama after killing him, installed a temple to Lord Siva once he got back to India and prayed for his forgiveness. Thus the town gets its name, Rameswaram (meaning the abode of the Lord Rama prayed to). The temple, like most other famous temples in Tamil Nadu is a massive granite-structured complex, with long, wide corridors all around, adorned by majestic pillars with marvellous stone carvings on all sides. It is one of the holiest sites in India for devotees of Siva and Vishnu alike and is the centre of a thriving, bustling pilgrimage town. The temple houses 24 different wells, with waters from several underground rivers, and pilgrims bathe in the water from each of these wells, to cleanse themselves of their sins.

After praying to the main deities in the temple, we headed back to the hotel for dinner and a night’s rest, before starting our journey back to Chennai via Karaikal.

We were glad that we had decided on Karaikal as our night-halt as the resort was very comfortable and nice, and it was a good stop strategically, being almost exactly mid-way between Chennai and Rameswaram. On our way back from Karaikal we stopped off for a couple of hours at the Danish fort in the seaside town of Tranquebar. The Tamil name for this town, Tharangam-padi means “Singing waves”. We wandered around this wonderful 800 year old fort, along its ramparts, and inside its rooms, enjoying the rhythmic pounding of the waves, and learning a bit about the adventures of the Danes in pre-British India.

We could picture the cannons firing away as the Danes spotted other European colonialists trying to take over their patch of land!

Our trip almost at an end, we headed back to Chennai barring a brief stop-over in the town of Pondicherry for a sea-side cup of coffee. It had been an absolutely wonderful trip, exceeding every expectation we had and throwing up quite a few surprises in terms of places and experiences along the way. We felt happy and recharged with our holiday, and happy to get back home – as there were so many more places to travel to, see and write about!

General Information

1. Hotel Review: Hotel Sunrise View, Rameswaram

• Tariff – Rs. 1300/- per day for an AC double room
• Location – Rameswaram town, very close to the east gate of the Temple.
• The hotel is well-maintained with decent, clean rooms – and insisting that we get a room with a good view worked, as we were given a room with a sea-view! The hotel did not accept card payments.
• Eating – there is no kitchen / restaurant, though they do offer a catering service with food from the restaurants nearby.
• We found a good vegetarian restaurant called Shanmuga Bhavan, around 15 minutes walk from our hotel.
• The hotel organises jeep tours to Dhanushkodi at Rs. 1000/- per trip. These tours include a tour of the main temples between Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi

2. We were told that very early morning (3.30-4 am) and anytime after 5 pm in the evening were the best times to visit the temple during the festive season in December-January.

3. The rail journey is a must-do for those visiting Rameswaram – even if you are travelling by bus or car!

4. There is a Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere tourist centre on the mainland in Mandapam, just by the start of the road bridge. They organise glass-bottom boat trips, for coral and sea-life viewing in the Palk Strait from April – September. They do normal boat trips upto the rail-bridge and back in other months, though there is no coral viewing then as the waters are too muddy. The charges for the coral viewing trips are around Rs. 600 - 800/- per group of 8 people.

TN Road Trip Chapter 3– Days 3 and 4: Karaikal and some delightful roads

Summary

Stay: Holidays Farms and Resorts, Akkaraivattam, Karaikal

Nearest Railway Station: Nagapattinam (~20 km) (the Karaikal Railway station was in fact inaugurated when we were there, and it should be possible to get there by train via Nagapattinam)

Nearest Airport: Trichy (~ 164 km)

Places Visited: Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary, Vedaranyam (see post Wetland, Wonderland)

Temples Visited: Thirukkanapuram, Nagapattinam, Mannargudi, Vaduvur

Link to Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=212985503433779843671.0004b7e3434283774e98a&ie=UTF8&t=m&vpsrc=6&ll=11.609193,78.881836&spn=5.841001,10.821533&z=7

This time, I am going to let the pictures do the talking. Well, some of it. It was dark by the time we reached the town of Karaikal – our second night-halt on our Tamil Nadu road trip. Our resort, the Holidays Farms and Resorts, was in a place called Akkarai vattam, on the outskirts of the town. The signposting for the resort, as our luck would have it, was only for tourists coming from further south, which meant we missed our turn-off on the first go! We reached the place however, and were delighted with what we saw. After a very warm reception, we were led to our room – I call it that, though it was more the size of a house – on the first floor of a stand-alone block. It was clean, brightly lit, and best of all we had balconies on two sides! The place was so nice, and the beds so comfortable after a day’s driving, it took us a while to convince ourselves to get up at 4.30 am the next morning for our trip to the Pt. Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary. Our excitement at the prospect of going there prevailed however, and after a pleasant dinner, we were mentally prepared for our early start the next day! The trip to the sanctuary was wonderful – in fact so good, there is a separate post about it on this blog (Wetland, Wonderland)!

The next morning, having finished our visit to the wildlife sanctuary by 10 am and feeling very pleased with ourselves, we proceeded to drop in at a few of Lord Vishnu’s abodes in the vicinity. Time being a luxury we had, we decided to take the rural road from Vedaranyam to the junction-town of Thiru-thurai-poondi, a town that was so central to our trip we must have crossed it atleast five times! Those roads – for the next two hours, were by far the best stretch of driving we had in our trip. Delightful, meandering, narrow country roads that wound their way through small villages, across paddy fields, around mango and coconut orchards, occasionally crossing a delightful brook…and all along, the quiet of the countryside! We had by then seen for ourselves the beauty of the Tamil Nadu countryside, and yet, however much we saw, we kept thirsting for more!

In the next two days at Karaikal, when we weren’t lazing around in our room or taking in the breeze on the balconies, we were standing on the road, outside the car, drinking in the fresh air and the lovely greenery around us. For a city-boy like me, the paddy fields seemed to jump straight out of the movies! In fact, on our way to a majestic temple in the quaint town of Thiru-kanna-puram, we were treated to a glorious sunset over the fields.

And when the sun wasn’t setting over them, this is how they looked!

We also passed a number of lovely lotus and lily-filled village tanks that were an absolute treat to the eye after the hyacinth-filled lakes of Chennai…and they had pond-herons hopping about!

To cut a short story even shorter – those two days of driving around the towns and villages, visiting the various temples, were a wonderful, and rather unexpected, treat! I’ll close off this post with a relaxing close-up of a paddy field…for the next chapter takes us to our final destination on our trip -the breath-taking views of Rameswaram and Dhanushkodi. Stay tuned!

General Information

1. Hotel Review: Holidays Farms and Resorts, Karaikal
• Location – Akkaraivattam, Karaikal – the turn-off is just opposite the ONGC complex
• This was easily the best hotel we stayed at on this trip, and we were glad we had booked a night here for our halt on the way back – both in terms of the hotel and also because it was more or less half-way between Chennai and Rameswaram.
• Tariff – Rs. 3000/- per day for an AC family room that accommodates 3.
• Staff – very friendly and responsive
• Eating – the restaurant is a multi-cuisine restaurant with a good selection. The food however is very spicy, even for Indians, though they tone it down on request!
• We learnt that the resort is very popular for official (political) do’s and functions – so book early to make sure you get a room.
• The people in charge are helpful – so if you have any questions about local sight-seeing, ask! It was on their advice that we decided to make an early start for the Pt. Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary.
2. Road tip – do not expect to find toilet facilities! We often found ourselves on long stretches of road that alternated between paddy fields and tiny villages, with no restaurants / hotels / dhabas in between.

TN Road Trip Chapter 2 – Days 1 and 2: Chidambaram, Sri Mushnam, Veeranam Lake

 

Summary

 

Stay: Hotel Grand Palace Stays, Chidambaram (near the Chidambaram Railway Station)

Nearest Airport: Salem, Trichy (~ 170 km)

Places Visited: Pichavaram Mangrove Swamps, Veeranam Lake

Link to Google Maps:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=212985503433779843671.0004b7e3434283774e98a&ie=UTF8&t=m&vpsrc=6&ll=11.609193,78.881836&spn=5.841001,10.821533&z=7

 

Speeding down NH 45 in the rain, we were happy to have had such an easy exit from Chennai. Though we still had houses and the occasional industrial building alongside, it became very scenic, very fast. My dad gave me the wheel at Chengalpet, just between the oh-so-beautiful Chengalpet and Madurantakam Lakes.

 

It was great fun driving along the NH 45 while being battered by intermittent, but very heavy showers. It was great fun…while it lasted. We had planned a road trip of Tamil Nadu - little did we know that this would include a trip to Mars. The stretch of state highway between Panruti and Cuddalore was (and probably still is) the worst road I have ever come across. In fact, one wouldn’t want to even call it a road. It was a multiple-choice stretch of potholes. All the meteorites that should have been deepening the Atlantic had instead been resurfacing this 20 km strip of land with an accuracy that would have put American UAVs to shame. Never before have I had a back-ache from driving a Hyundai Santro! The poor car behaved brilliantly though, quietly putting up with all the torture – and this was only the first day of an 8 day trip… God knew what lay ahead! 

 

We pulled through however, and after a minor adventure (we got lost) at a temple en-route, we reached our hotel in Chidambaram at a decent 9pm. Our hotel, the Hotel Grand Palace Stays, was functional and clean. The staff were friendly though the kitchen had only the most basic food and we had to fight to get our share of free water bottles! On the whole however, it was a good option – convenient to get to and well-suited for a two-day stay. In fact, situated right outside the city station, the hotel is perfect if you’re going to Chidambaram by train. The next morning, we decided to take it easy and started out at 10 am. Our first halt was the Pichavaram mangrove swamps, half an hour’s drive away.

 

We reached there without trouble, and booked ourselves on a 1-hr tour of the mangrove swamps. The ticket office there tried tempting us with the slightly longer and more expensive ‘Dasavatharam Fame Canal Tour’ – a tour of the parts of the mangrove swamp that had been made famous by the blockbuster Tamil movie, Dasavatharam, but we resisted the temptation! We learnt a lot of fascinating facts about these wonderful plants and how they survive and even thrive in the harshest of conditions. Our initial misgivings about the boat, and the fact that none of us were great swimmers were rapidly allayed when the boatman told us that this vast swamp, with its mangrove-lined canals and islands didn’t get deeper than a few metres! We were told that the Pichavaram mangroves had protected the villages and cities behind by taking on the worst of the tsunami in 2004. In fact, in the cyclone that hit them, a week after we left, a lot of the mangroves were destroyed, and the swamps clogged up.

 

 

Half-way into the trip however, we realized that making a late start had been a big mistake. The mangroves and the swamp were wonderful, tranquil, and it was great being able to go right up to the trees….but it was hot. The sun was blazing down on us, and we were mighty glad we had our caps on. It would have been a lovely tour, beach included, if the day had been less sunny, or if we had started out at 6 am!

 

That evening, we went to the Chidambaram Nataraja (Siva as the god of dance) temple – a massive, awe-inspiring granite structure. Like most other temples built during the Chozha times, this temple is more than a 1000 years old. As soon as we walked through the towering entrance gopuram, we saw a giant idol of his steed Nandi, the white bull – a statue that is said to be second only to the Nandi at Tanjore. The idols of Natarajar and Krishna in the sanctum are beautiful –one can stand there for hours, just looking at them!

 

The next day we were to drive to our next halt in the erstwhile French port town of Karaikal. As this was a short journey, we decided to include a detour to the temple in the town of SriMushnam – a temple for Lord Vishnu, when he appeared as a boar, to rescue Mother Earth from the demons that had kidnapped her! We then planned to head back to our route along the famous, yet little-known, Veeranam Lake, lying just west of Chidambaram.

 

I still remember the feeling of thrilled excitement, when my father said we should include the Veeranam Lake on our itinerary. It sounds innocuous, but to a Chennaiite, especially to someone who lives close to the city’s main water-works, that name has a special significance - for this is the reservoir that supplies this big, thirsty city with more than half its water.

 

Lying within the basin of the great Cauvery river, on one of its northern branches called the Vada-varu (literally meaning North River), the lake fills up every year during the monsoon season. Originally called the Veera-narayana-puram Lake, it was built by the Chozha prince, Rajadithar, around 1000 years ago. The lake is said to have 74 sluices and legend has it they were the inspiration for the 74 ashrams of Sri Vaishnavism (a branch of Hinduism) that now exist.

 

 

 

We drove along the lake bund for a good half hour, stopping on the way for a stretch and a snack-halt. It was lunch-time. There was a cool breeze and the sun kept playing hide and seek behind the clouds. The only sounds we could hear apart from the occasional car, were the gurgling waters of the canal, the cries of lunching birds and the whispered conversations of a few people dotted along the bund, having their packed lunches.

 

It was shortly after, on this drive, that we saw The Tree.

 

THE TREE

How rare it us, especially for us city-folk, to see in its undiluted maturity and majesty, something that has had its full share of space, air, water, nutrition and time to grow! This tree stood there on the canal bank, its arms spread out wide like a fantastic space-ship, yet looking like it had been there by that canal since the beginning of time, and would stay there until the end. One of its arms reached low to the canal, its leaves almost brushing the surface of the water, as if reassuring itself that a drink was available when it wanted one. I could picture school children swinging from its branches and jumping into the water in its shade during the summer vacations. I could hear the cuckoos and parrots that would nest there in spring. I could feel the breeze as it made its way through the leaves and around the branches. Yellow flowered bushes had grown around it, like kids gathering around their beloved grandmother for treats. I could picture the waters in the canal flowing gently into the lake, before being forced through sluices, into pipes that would take it on its long journey through northern Tamil Nadu to thirsty Chennai. I took my picture and then just stood back for a while, relishing every moment of this idyllic scene – the lone tree, the canal, the bund and the road with gravel strewn on the side, village folk strolling alongside a cart in the distance, and in a strangely harmonious contre-temps, a four-wheel drive vehicle speeding across the stillness. Oh, to drive in India!

 

 

It had been a magical day so far… and we looked forward to much more of the same, as we headed on to our next halt – Karaikal!

 

ERI – KATHA RAMAR TEMPLE

As an aside here – for those interested in temples – the temple of Eri-Katha Ramar (the Ramar who protected the bund) on the banks of the Madurantakam lake is a must-visit for anyone with a day to spare in Chennai. Apart from having one of the most beautiful statues of Rama (an avatar of Vishnu) and Lakshmana (his brother) that I have seen, the temple has the distinction of being one of very few temples where Rama and his consort Sita are actually seen holding hands. The story, behind his name and the temple is equally fascinating.   The temple was built during the Pallava Era and is estimated to be more than 1500 years old. The story goes thus: during the British times, the collector of the region, a Colonel Lionel Blaze, was worried when two parts of the tank bund started giving way during the monsoon. The tank was immense – 13 sq-km, and a complete breach would devastate the town. The Colonel noticed that the temple nearby had a pile of granite stones, and he instructed his men to use those stones to repair the breach temporarily. The priests protested however, saying the stones were meant for the construction of a new shrine for the residing goddess, Janakavalli Thayar (another name for Sita, as the daughter of king Janaka). The Colonel, furious, asked the priests why their gods did not save the bunds themselves, and walked away. That night, it poured, and it poured. The waters kept rising and the Colonel went out in the torrential rain, to inspect the lake bund. He was shocked by the force of the rain and the wind, and the choppy waters in the lake that soon threatened to reach the level of the breach and flood the town. Just as he had given up all hope, and was turning back, he saw something very strange – he saw two tall, fair warrior princes, each with a bow and arrow, pacing up and down the far side of the lake. He stared, blinked, pinched himself and stared again – and they were still there. Confused, he dismissed them as eccentric, foolhardy wayfarers, and went back home, sure that he would wake up in neck-deep water the next morning. Morning dawned, and lo and behold! The town was still safe! Dazed and disbelieving, the Colonel ran up to the bund and couldn’t contain his joy when he saw that the waters had stopped just short of the breach… Madurantakam had been saved by a miracle. Feeling magnanimous in his joy, he ran into the temple to apologise to the priests for his rudeness and tell them what had happened. He was asked to wait, as the priests were performing their daily pooja to the deity. They finished their pooja and whipped open the curtains…and Colonel Lionel Blaze almost fainted in shock. The priests asked him what was wrong, and he told them – he told them that the idols he was seeing before him, were the very picture of the two men he saw on the lake last night, pacing up and down with their bow and arrows… The priests went ecstatic with joy and told him that these two idols were none other than Rama and Laxmana! They cried out “Oh, you lucky soul, we are delighted for you! Priests and sages spend decades upon decades, doing penance in the forests and the mountains, for a single glimpse of Him, and you see Him, in all his glory, not just in a vision, but protecting you and your village! Glory be to Him, and to you!” And thus, did the Rama of that temple attain the name Eri – Katha Ramar, while Colonel Lionel Blaze, of good fortune, also had his name immortalized in the stones that tell the story of the temple. (To learn about how Madurantakam got its name, visit - http://kshetrapuranas.wordpress.com/2009/04/04/the-english-miracle-madhuranthakam/ )

 

General Information

1. Hotel Booking Tip: When contacting a hotel to book a room (not just in India, but anywhere), always insist on a room with a good view – you have nothing to lose, and in my experience, it often gets a much better room than you would have got otherwise!
2. Hotel Review for the Grand Palace Stays, Chidambaram:
• Location – Next to Chidambaram Railway Station;
• Tariff – Rs. 2250/- per day for an AC double room, inclusive of a very decent complimentary breakfast (as of 15 Dec 2011).
• Rooms – small, but clean and functional.
• Staff – very friendly, though they do expect you to buy mineral water bottles!
• Eating - There is room service, though the restaurant has a limited selection for vegetarians and more or less closes down after 7 pm.
• We did find a very good vegetarian restaurant within 15 min walking distance, called Sharada Ram, behind the petrol bunk near the main bus-stand.
3. If you’re going to the Pichavaram mangrove swamps, aim to be there by 6.30 am, as the sun is out and blazing by 9 am! Regular bus services run from Chidambaram to the Pichavaram Boating Centre. The boat trip costs Rs. 140/- per boat per hour, for up to four people, + Rs. 30/- per still camera
4. Pichavaram can also be done as a day trip from Pondicherry (70 km away).
5. There are no toll-fees on the East Coast Road beyond Pondicherry up to Tuticorin. Except for the Panruti – Cuddalore stretch of roads, all the roads we drove on were excellent and an absolute treat to drive on.

Tamil Nadu Road Trip– Chapter 1: All the Leg-work

 

Road Trip Summary

 

Dates: 15 December 2011 – 22 December 2011

 

Route: Chennai – Chidambaram – Karaikal – Rameswaram (NH 45, East Coast Road, State Highways, Rural Roads);  (see map at <http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=212985503433779843671.0004b7e3434283774e98a&ie=UTF8&t=m&vpsrc=6&ll=11.609193,78.881836&spn=5.841001,10.821533&z=7> )

 

Chapter 2: Chidambaram; Stay - Hotel Grand Palace Stays; Places we Saw – Chidambaram Town and Temple, Pichavaram, SriMushnam, Veeranam Lake (hotel reviews and other local info at end of each chapter)

Chapter 3: Karaikal; Stay - Holidays Farms and Resorts; Places we Saw – Vedaranyam, Point Calimere (see post Wetland, Wonderland), Rural roads (Vedaranyam – Thiruthuraipoondi); Tranquebar (on the way back)

Chapter 4: Rameswaram; Stay – Hotel Sunrise View; Places we Saw – Thirupullani, Rameswaram Town and Temple, Dhanushkodi, train across Pamban Bridge

 

And for those of you who are interested, here is a list of the temples we visited: Thiruvahindrapuram, Sri Mushnam, Chidambaram, Sirkazhi, Vedaranyam Ramar Padam, Thirukannapuram, Nagapattinam Mannargudi, Vaduvur, Thirupullani, Rameswaram

 

 

All three of us were excited. Finally, we were planning, for real, our trip of southern Tamil Nadu, and loving every moment of it. Ever since I had hung up that map of Tamil Nadu in my bedroom, I had been itching to drive along its highways, to see the vast expanses of ripe paddy fields, and groves of coconut and sugarcane, the marvellous temples tucked away in tiny villages, and in the midst of all these cultural beauties, the pockets of wildlife – both birds and beasts, that still thrived, protected by national laws and local law-enforcers.

 

All these places had until now only been names on maps, in the news or as stories from my parents, aunts and uncles… finally I’d get to see them for myself! It was after we bought an Eicher road atlas, that the actual fun started – my father and I started poring over the maps, listing out ‘must-do’ temples, the cities we wanted to stay at and all the places whose names caught our fancy!

 

We decided on Chidambaram as our first night-halt, the plan being to visit two Vishnu temples close by and of course the main Siva temple in Chidambaram itself. After some research on the internet, we picked the Grand Palace Stays Hotel. We called them up and booked a room (with a good view, please) for two nights. For our next halt along the coast, we had initially intended to stop at Nagapattinam, but based on feedback from people who had been there we decided that the French town of Karaikal was a better place to stay the night. Without much trouble we settled on the Holidays Farms and Resorts, called them up and reserved our rooms. In fact we liked their website so much we decided to stay there on our way back from Rameswaram – a decision we would be very happy with later on. For Rameswaram itself, things were not as simple. We were adamant on getting a hotel with rooms facing the sea, and the only place that seemed to offer that was the guest house of the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation. We went to their Chennai office in Egmore to book a room, but found that we should have come at least ten days in advance! Disappointed, we returned to the internet and the telephone and finally settled on Hotel Sunrise View who promised us a room with a sea-view.

 

Room bookings done, we felt like we had already left! We purchased all the essentials for our trip (mainly snacks), made sure the car was serviced, had all its wheels in place, and set about waiting for the 15^th of December to dawn.

 

We started off at around 9 am on the 15^th (an early start by our standards!) and made our way out of Chennai via the Chennai bypass to the west. We had heard that the coastal roads south of Pondicherry had been badly damaged by the rains in November, so the plan was to head south down the NH 45, staying parallel to the coastal road until just after Vizhippuram, and then turn east to join the coastal road somewhere between Pondicherry and Cuddalore (incidentally, this would also work out cheaper as the tolls on the coastal roads up till Pondicherry are almost twice as expensive). Soon after we hit the NH, near my undergraduate college, SRM, it started raining – a truly auspicious start! A cool day, lovely hill-station-like weather, a lovely road and a promising trip lay ahead of us, as we put the pedal to the floor – Tamil Nadu, here we come!

 

(to be continued…)

 

 

General Information

1. The Eicher Road Atlas of Tamil Nadu proved very useful during our trip . It’s available at book-stores in Chennai (Odyssey, Landmark, Higginbothams) and costs around Rs. 150.
2. Make sure you have enough cash with you as you might not always find an ATM.
3. Most petrol stations outside the major cities (only Chennai and Chidambaram on this trip!) only accept cash. Also, petrol stations can be few and far between, depending on where you are going – so make sure you have enough to get to the next major city.
4. If you hear news of an approaching cyclone when on a coastal road trip (assuming you are not an inveterate trouble/thrill-seeker) – make to the nearest, big inland town/city and weather out the storm! Roads can become awfully bad and in many cases completely blocked by uprooted trees, etc. and rail lines are also affected during the more severe cyclones.
5. As always, when on a road trip in India – if you think you have missed a turn-off, stop and ask! Signposting is good…but not consistent!

At the top of Africa, and around - Part 1

As a first storytelling (hei, it's Richard here), I decided to use my trip to Tanzania and mainly Kilimanjaro in april 2011. As always, we need to choose a destination (or destinations) from the almost endless possibilities, then plan when to go, what to do, how to do it, how much time to spend for each part of the trip; the last point going against people that take things as they come and are not so strict regarding time frames, but I'm sure that for some trips, a proper planning is essential.

It was february 2011 and I had just started in a new job. In 2 months time there would be Easter holidays and of course I wanted to use the opportunity to travel for some days. I tried talking to a few friends trying to motivate them for a road trip somewhere in UK. I had seen a nice post about one in Ireland which gave me some ideas, namely http://www.xbhp.com/gier/travelogue/ . Unfortunately, at the time at least I thought so, no one was really interested in it. Talking to a friend from work, Stian, I mentioned my plan and he came with a better suggestion, Kilimanjaro!

Yes, I had wanted to go to Kilimanjaro for some time, and I don't know how it didn't come up in my mind before. I had heard stories, seen pictures, and thought that it would be an amazing place to go. On that same day he told me that he was really interested in going there, we talked and decided to go together there. We started looking for tour companies, flight tickets, other places to go after Kili, etc. There are too many companies offering hikes to Kili, and it is time consuming finding a good and not so expensive one. Also many of them don't have the prices on their website, and/or do not say what is covered in the price, and therefore you have to send an email asking for a quotation and what is included; it is really important to be certain about what you are paying for.

As important as finding a good company is to decide which route to take to reach the top. There are 6 possible routes, each with its own characteristics. There are enough descriptions around, so I will not say much about them. What I can say is, don't go for a short route, or at least try to get some extra days for acclimatization to avoid the symptoms of altitude sickness. Routes which take 5 or 6 days have lower success rate than longer routes. Pay attention that when companies says 7 days, for example, the first of those could be just your arrival at Arusha or Moshi, before starting the hike on the next day.

Image from http://www.tanzaniasafaristz.com/kili-route.htm

When we were researching the routes we saw that Rongai is a route that starts on the opposite side of all the other routes, and closer to the Kenyan border. While checking for flights our best option was to fly to Nairobi and take a bus from there to Tanzania, so that route sounded a good option. We still considered the Machame route which is one of the famous ones, and by reading a bit more we grew fond of the Lemosho route. Talking about reading, we got ourselves a really good reference book about kilimanjaro by Henry Stedman, where he covers a lot of useful and interesting information, including some nice route charts with elevation gain and drop.

So, the plan was to go in the middle of April, during the rainy and therefore low season. We were worried that it might be difficult with the rain to hike for so many days, and reduce our chances of summiting. The Lemosho route was said to be one of the wettest ones, and Rongai the driest one, but we were already quite happy with what we had read about Lemosho and we kind of wanted to risk it. In any case, we were sending questions about those 2 routes, and Machame, to a great number of tour operators, in Nairobi, Arusha and Moshi, but our preference was Moshi, which is much closer to Kili. To cut a long story short, by the middle of march, we decided on a company apparently from Nairobi (called Adventure Kenya Safaris), which had offered us a good amount of service and the Lemosho route on 8 days (6.5 days up and 1.5 days down), for a really good price. They would pick us up from the airport in Nairobi, give us the hotel for that night, give bus tickets to Moshi, the hotel before and after the trek, and a bus ticket to Dar Es Salaam. And we were supposed to be just the 2 of us, so it would be quite an exclusive trip, thanks to the low season :).... but then we found out that an american couple would join, which was completely fine with us.

Ok, we had that arranged and by that time we knew we were going Trondheim → Oslo → Brussels → Nairobi → Moshi → Kilimanjaro → Moshi → Dar Es Salaam → Zanzibar → Nairobi → Brussels → Oslo → Trondheim. With accommodation secured up to Dar Es Salaam, I decided to look for a couchsurfer in Zanzibar, and by my surprise I found one! He replied me quite quickly and was ok with hosting us for 4 nights, and we were really happy about it!. Meanwhile we had to take care of some vaccinations (Hepatitis A - Diphtheria / tetanus - Yellow fever), medicine against malaria (Malarone vs Lariam), arrange some dollars to pay the outstanding amount for the trek, check for proper clothes, go up and down some hills to get in better shape...

Finally on the 14^th of april we started our trip. Already in Oslo the first happening: We were suspected of stealing a guidebook !? Yes, we spent quite some time checking some guidebooks about Tanzania, and also Kenya, but ended up not buying any. A few minutes after leaving the bookshop, we were stopped by a policeman who started asking questions, and we explained that all was just a misunderstanding, so all was ok then.

Reaching Belgium, we had a whole afternoon in Brussels. We both had been there before, so we just wanted to walk around in the center taking a few pictures and drink some good belgium beer. I had stopped drinking beer 1 month before since I somehow thought it could be good for my preparations for Kilimanjaro (go figure...), but being there I couldn't miss that chance. At a pizza place I got a cherry beer called Kriek, which as far as I remember was quite ok.

Afterwards we went to 2 places Stian had reccommended, Delirium Cafe and Rhumbar, both with a great selection of beers. At Delirium I got a traditional Delirium Tremens, one of my favorites, and at Rhumbar I tried Hopus, which was served in a special way: with a yeast shot on the side (on the picture below, already gone). That shot was strange, don't know exactly how to describe it... but the beer itself was well worth it. Another new trial for the night was a Bersalis Tripel, but that was just so so.

Then it was time to head back to the airport to spend the night (the flight to Nairobi was scheduled for 10:30 the next morning). We were so tired that we almost missed the stop for the airport.. we had fallen asleep and the driver didn't see us; luckily we woke up just in time before he left the final stop.

At a starbucks in the airport, such a coincidence: there was a waiter, Bari, from Guinea that had lived in Norway for some time and he was really happy to meet people from Norway, or living there, as is my case. He even offered me a discount on a packet with 2 stroopwafels, which I like a lot! It's rare to meet people that have connections to Norway so randomly like this, so that was cool :)

On the next part the real adventure begins!