2011 - A year of travel for me

Year 2011 has been a year of travel for me. Though most of it was not planned, it just happened that I was traveling every month except for a couple of months.

January started with the drive to Chidambaram and Pichavaram about which I have blogged earlier.

 I visited Guruvayoor in February with my husband. That trip was a little different than my usual Guruvayoor trips as the time that we went was the Arattu festival and it was a 10 day festival that was happening and it was lot of fun watching the elephant race and other activities at the temple.

My husband’s friend was getting married in March and we had that as a reason to visit Hyderabad. One day went off in roaming around with friends. This trip again was special as I was visiting Hyderabad after a span of 9 years and that was the place where I started my career, which was the place where I met my husband first. Hence it was special traveling there and getting some nostalgia. So had fun during the wedding with friends and that was March

I guess I gave a break in April, before planning my May trip for a change with my mom and brother and that was to Goa. I have blogged about Goa earlier and this is just a mention of it here.

My husband was very much keen on going on a weekend trip especially driving. So after much contemplating on a place to drive, we chose Kolli hills which was different and thought would be a different experience for us. Kolli hills is also there on my blog page.

I guess I never went anywhere in July and August 2011. The next trip was again with family in September 2011 to couple of temples. We first visited Sankarankoil and then from there drove down to Tiruchendur. Both were very beautiful and that was also a different and nice trip though pretty tiresome.

October was an unplanned one though was not much a distance to travel. We drove to Thiruvannamalai during the anniversary of my in laws. Though its a pilgrim place, this place again offers some serenity.  The best part about this trip is the Girivalam or the walk around the hills which is 14 KMS. We started very early so that we could complete the same before it gets sunny and so did we finish it in about 3 hours.

Finally for the year to end I had a well planned vacation in Mumbai and Pune. I had to visit Mumbai for a wedding and clubbed my trip to Pune as well. This trip was also special to me. My birthday I spent at Lonavala and Khandala and I was visiting Mumbai after a span of 17 years. Mumbai is my birth place and once upon a time that was the place I used to vacation almost every year visiting my grandparents and other relatives. However, post my 10^th std I never got an opportunity though it was always on my mind that I should visit Mumbai sometime or the other. This was also a fun filled trip with meeting a lot of friends and a fun filled wedding too.

Finally came the end of year for me with lots of trips to remember.

New car's first road trip

This was our first road trip after we changed the car a month ago. We decided to choose a place that is worth a 2 day visit. Hence booked our hotel in Chidambaram "Hotel Grand Palace Stay", that looked and actually is the biggest hotel in Chidambaram and I should say decent as well. We left Chennai on 08/1/11 by Six'ish and without a stop drove to Pondy on the ECR. Finished our breakfast at AAB and visited the Ashram and did some shopping. After an hour and half started our journey through cuddalore and reached Chidambaram around noon. The road from Pondy to Cuddalore was a nightmare coz of the bad roads, nightmarish bus drivers. Beyond Cuddalore once again was a breeze on the national highway 45A.


After freshening up and post lunch we started to drive to "Gangaikondacholapuram", the capital of Rajendra Chola (Son of Rajarajacholan). It was an architectural marvel and since I have never visited Thanjavoor, I could least imagine how this place would look like. I was awed by the chola architecture. Had a good time at this place and after an hour's time drove back to Chidambaram where we halted for the night.

 Enroute to Gangaikondachozhapuram

 At the entrance of the temple "Replica of the big temple at Tanjavur"

Enroute to Pichavaram from Chidambaram


The next day visited the Chidambaram temple post breakfast. Though am religious, I did not enjoy this temple much because of the money looting by the so called Dikshithars. I couldn't find anyone without interest in making money there and hence I lost the interest of even looking at the god and praying.


After that we started our drive to "Pitchavaram". Pichavaram has the world's second largest natural mangroves after Sunderbans. The road from Chidambaram is ok kinds, and the interior drive of over 12 kms was kind of rugged. But the bliss was the natural beauty on either side of the road. The entire stretch had a huge canal flowing on the left and paddy fields to the right. So though a tough drive, it was a bliss for the vision.


We reached Pichavaram and decided to take a row boat for 2 hours. After we started the boat ride the boatman actually was trying to sell something to us. He was asking for money so that he could take us in a different route. Otherwise the boat ride would have been for 2 hours only on the outer area of the lake. Though I was hesitant on paying anything extra, my husband after much haggling freezed upon a rate with him and he agreed to take us deep inside the mangrove forest. I have to admit that I do not repend for that extra money that we paid the boatman.


Truly the sight was amazing and I am sure until you pay these guys some bucks you will never see such beauty. The boat ride through the mangroves, and deep inside is an experience that cannot be explained.


So there ended our ride and we decided to hit the highway soon as we wanted to reach Chennai before dark. Landed in Pondy for lunch and then on were cruising back on ECR.

 Pichavaram

 The natural mangroves

With the new baby it was an amazing drive during the weekend!!