May 23, 2005

A hot day- out

It was a long time we went for a trip and hence we decided to go for Thiruvannamalai and Gingee fort on 21st of May, 2005.

The day started wonderfully as we started @ 7 am in the morning towards thiruvannamalai. We reached a town called oothankarai at 9 am. We landed at Shankar cafe after a long search(25 mins) for a pure veg restaurant. The food was excellent and we saddled up for the journey again.

The temple @ t'malai was really a massive construction with 3 parakarams and 9 gopurams. As we got out of the taxi with our bare foots we jumped as if we landed on a tandoor grate. Literally we ran into the temple. We had a good dharsan of Lord Arunachaleswarar and Unnamulai. The temperature there would be easily touching 40-42* C. The shopkeeper who sells lime soda had a good business with us.

We started for Gingee fort as the temples we enquired will be closed between 12:30 p.m - 4:00 p.m.

At Gingee, there are two forts and the localites call them Raja Fort and Rani fort. We decided to visit Raja fort first then to Rani fort. The parking lot keeper grinned at us sarcastically. We really felt sorry for choosing this as one of the place of visit. Its really really hot.. machi. All of us dehydrated before we reach the hilltop. It took nearly 2 hours for us to reach there. The fort was ruined mostly but it shows the architectural stature they had gained during those periods.

After Gingee, we visited "MelMalayanoor" amman temple and started back to Bangalore.

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