The temples of Madurai and a few other stops

The previous post in this series is here..

We had reached our nice hotel in Madurai the previous night from Rameshwaram after a few extra stops by car. FIL had requested that the same driver take us around Madurai the entire day. We got 6 hours of sleep and had to get ready at 5AM. It was going to be a busy day. 

We started by visiting the Madurai Meenakshi temple. I have an interesting blogging history with this temple. You can check out my very first ever post where it starts off as an angry man venting.. have become a lot calmer now, at least on the blog!

This is my visit to this temple after 2005! It was a much better experience. Had sworn never to go near this temple again.. but guess there is always some fate or destiny..

We entered the temple at 6AM and were out in 45 minutes. Then it was time to visit two more temples. First one was Koodal Azhagar temple. There was a wedding party there and we had to rush past the crowd from the wedding to finish seeing the temple and getting darshan.

Then we were to go to Thirupparankundram Murugan temple. Given we were ahead of schedule, we talked to our driver and decided to go Pazhamudhir solai. We went up to the Noopura gangai (MIL decided to stay back given the climb to the top of the hill was steep) and me, San and FIL made a trip to the top and came back. Then we got to see Pazhamudhir solai. The priest was friendly and he was telling us about his cousins in Mumbai and US. 

We made a stop at the Kal azhagar temple which I believe is part of the 108 divya desams. It was a beautiful temple. By now we were cutting it close. 

some of the stuff is in ruins.. but looks like folks are working on preserving these few hundred year old temples. The temples older than these seem to be doing fine!

Once we came out, we drove to the other side of Madurai to Thirupparankundram. We drove past this beautiful church on the way.

The Murugan temple closes at 1PM and we made it to see the deity and deepa aaradhanai at 12:55. It was touch and go. We were also very hungry after that visit. 

We had a quick bite to eat at one of the local Vegetarian hotels. The ladies in their infinite wisdom decided that they will shop for Saris. They had seen the Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal (palace) and were not impressed. I had never seen it. So my FIL said he will take me there after we drop the ladies at a Sari store. While they shopped we walked through this massive building and its hallways and took pictures. There is usually a light show in the evening which is the rave, but we were going to miss that anyways.

We drove past the city center and saw the amman temple tank during the day.. our driver was nice enough to park, so I could go get some pics.

We also stopped to get some Madurai famous Jigarthanda.. a sweet drink that has 3850% of your daily required fat and 80000% of the daily required sugar levels. 

After that we decided to change plans.. more on that later..

Navarathri 2024

Last year's Navarathri post is here..

We do not have the concept of Golu(Kolu) in our house. My blog readers and friends know that. However we do Saraswathi pooja and celebrate Vijayadasami. 

This year, we do not have any celebration as my oldest cousin (who is only 5 years younger than my dad and who is like a brother to my dad) passed away. To honor him there is no poojas this year.

We did go do the rounds to meet friends and participate in their golu's. Even got to sing in a few houses we visited. My guru had taught me enough small songs that I could sing without going into complicated territory. 

Here is a slide show of the Golus

and a slide show of the unique dolls.. 

the ayodhya temple replica that was built with a Ram Lalla inside probably will stay in our minds for a long time .. as was a creative mom who didn't know about Chitchen Itza but managed to realized that the Muruga doll perfectly fit on a souvenir as a base! there were many other new dolls that we saw that were not seen in past years golus. they are all in this slidshow.

As is now the new tradition, managed to match San's sarees to the best of my ability, given my diverse shirt collection.  

She definitely keeps going back to some of the sarees every year..and there were some very unique colors this year!

Here is to new beginnings!

Nature trip in Arizona Part 2 : Upper Antelope Canyon

The previous post on this series is here..

After reaching Page, Arizona and having a good nights rest, we were ready to see the main attraction.

We reached the tour company office and checked in. There were going to be half a dozen full open vehicles that were going to leave at the same time. 

They started promptly. My promise to make this trip a safe one for San's already bad back was broken within the first 10 minutes of this open vehicle ride to the canyon entrance. It was so bumpy that folks with normal backs would get back problems! She just tightened her belt. There wasn't much we could do.

We see a small crack in the mountain side and it is hard to believe that this crack winds around for a good 1/2 a mile through some breathtaking formations! 

The tour guide was wonderful. We told her that we were to be on time finishing as there was another tour we had to be on and she understood. She told us it would be touch and go. Usually people book the Lower and upper canyon tours on two separate days as there is no chance for. a lunch break between.

Given this post is going up after 4th of July when it happened during Memorial day, a lot of things slip my mind. A few things I remember are that the rocks looked orange to yellow to red depending on the reflecting sun from the top. I didn't want to adjust the white balance. So what you see is mostly what it looked like.. including the red glow on our faces inside the canyon!

The walk is leisurely but watch for your head. All of us bumped our head in some point or another during the walk and it was painful. 

First the video highlights..

Here are some people pictures.. 

The entrance to the canyon..

As soon as we entered.. 

The rest of the canyon photos need a large gallery.. there were 2000 photos from the iPhone and SLR that needed some curating..

The photos below were courtesy of our tourguide... 

 

Saw a little cave and thought it would be a good idea to take a photo in a meditative pose.. bad idea. those things next to me .. tumbleweed full of thorns.. sat on some that were burried in the sand and got my fingers bloodied trying to move them away. End up being a real meditative photo where I tried to forget the sharp pain for the photo! Shit we do for a good picture.. sometimes these moments teach us great lessons!

another gallery with pictures in portrait format..

There may be a few photos from lower antelope that are mixed in (very few).. My sincere apologies.. if you go visit Antelope canyon, you should visit both the upper and lower antelope canyonsa and budget enough time.

You can skip the lunch, start with upper canyon, rush to tour company place and drive immediately to the lower canyon tour starting point. Give yourself 20 minutes. You can also call the lower canyon tour folks while driving to just wait a minute or two.. That helps! Then you can do the two tours back to back and have a late lunch at 2 PM or later!

Please note that the two tours are operated by two different companies and they don't care about the other schedule. If you want to do this peacefully, budget two different days for these two tours!

Will write a separate post for the lower canyon..