Page 20 - Seniors Toady - September Issue 2020
P. 20
a must-see for its sheer detail. Not many enough to give you an idea of the diversity
people know very much about it but a good of this old and historic city. The National
tourist taxi driver will know it. Art Gallery houses a rich repository of
One of the best things to do in Mysore is Dravidian art and culture. The Nataraja
actually to visit the many excellent places for statue is absolutely one of the finest you can
Mysore food – for example, Hotel Mylari, a see in all of India.
tiny little place, gives you the best Dosas and Chennai has many good hotels but
Idli, absolutely yummy! the newly built ITC Grand Chola is fast
The iconic Lalitha Mahal Palace is still the becoming a landmark with its majestic
most attractive hotel building in Mysore; building. The Taj Coromandel and the Park
unfortunately with poor management it Hyatt are good hotels but the Raintree at
is no longer the most sought-after place as Annasalai is a perfect hotel, recommended
there are many more great hotels. The Royal for its location and high quality of services.
Orchid Metropole, The Radisson Blu, The From Chennai we took a hired car as that
Grand Mercure and the Windflower Spa is the best way to tour Tamil Nadu. The
Resort are some excellent places to stay. road network is excellent and it gave us an
The above programme in Karnataka opportunity to see the countryside. The first
which we covered was 6 nights and 7 days place was the holy city of Kancheepuram.
(including the two overnight train journeys). This was the capital city of the Pallava
It gave us enough time to cover the best of dynasty and Adi Sankara himself was the
Bangalore, Hampi / Hospet and Mysore. founder of the “Peeth”. While everyone
knows of this place as of the most important
French Connection centres of Hindu religion, this temple town
TAMIL NADU. From Mysore we boarded has three outstanding temples (amongst
the Shatabdi express for Chennai (8.30 more than 150!) – the Kamakshi Amma
hours). Chennai is a bustling city just like temple is dedicated to Goddess Parvati as
Bangalore and is fast losing its original Shakti and is of course the most well known.
character, and so frankly if you have no work The temple complex is in 5 acres and has
there it is best to get out of town as soon as four main gates with the central temple
possible. A half-day tour covering the St having a Gold Gopuram. It is a belief that
Thome Church and Kapaleshwar Temple is the visit to this city has to start with this
temple. Later visit the Sri Ekambareswarar
temple – an important Shiva temple (one
of the five main Shiva temples) dedicated
to Lord Shiva, the unique thing being that
the Shivling here is made of sand. Finally
we visited the Kailashanath temple which
is about 2 km away from the Kamakshi
Amman and Ekambareswarar temples and
is under the Archaeological Survey of India
(ASI). The sheer beauty of the sculptures
and carvings in this temple is absolutely
Meenakshi Temple outstanding and unique. The depth in the
20
