All about my travel experiences: January 2014

02-Jan-2014 at 7:30 am we reached Madurai. After coming out from the station, we had to Google to find the bus stand from where we can get direct bus to Rameshwaram. Runai found that it is Mattuthavani Bus Stand which is 8 km away. Got a auto for 120 rs. Though he was trying to push us in private bus because he will get a good commission, but we insisted and he went toward where we wanted. The bus chared us Rs. 200 to rameshwaram from 8 am to 12 pm. From bus stand stop in Rameshwaram, we got in local bus to reach temple. Got a hotel for rs 1500 just near to the temple. Freshen up and went a round to the temple and had lunch. Then went to book a cab for next day with advance Rs 500 and then went to Agni Theertham and sat there for some time and then with curiosity we went straight to a jetty. It was for sea ride for Rs. 120. Entire traffic is in middle street. It's a small island, so don't expect traffic and signal and police. It just have one junction point that I could find and police manage with on going traffic by talking with them and directs them to proceed.
We parceled egg dhosa, chicken kuttu parota, pepper fry chicken and omlet for dinner.

03-Jan-2014 6:00 am, we went to the travel shop and then he told me to walk back to the hotel where cab will be waiting for us. At 7:30 am, we started for Dhanuskudi, it was a half an hour journey and from there we got in mini truck for Rs. 200 to take us to the ruins. Mind you no other vehicles can go except jeep and these mini trucks. It takes 30 min going, watching the place for 30 min and coming back another 30 min. Next we went to Kothandaramar Temple. Then ram temple and nearby was krishna temple. Then hanuman temple with floating stone. Then laksman temple and sita temple then opposite is another krishna temple plus hotel plus restaurant. Next we went to ramapadam which is the highest point in rameshwaram. While returning we went to Satchi Hunuman Temple. One has to cross the tv tower which is the highest in India. On top of this temple we can see entire rameshwaram in an aerial view. After that he dropped us in front of our hotel. We paid him 700 rs and we went in and kept our bag. We came out again for breakfast at 12 am, but it was more like brunch. Next we didn't do any thing other than I bringing in dinner.

04-Jan-2014, at 7 am, we kept everything in hotel even shoe and mobile, basically only cloths and room key did we take and went walking to the Sri Ramanathaswamy Temple. We entered through West Gate where police searched us and then had to go through metal detector. First went to a room in North East corner, after praying there came out and went inside the main temple which is at the center. The entrance faces the east entrance of the premises. The East entrance is always crowded because people take bath from agni dham and come here which is the nearest gate. There are suppose to be lot of people who will guide you through all 22 ghats and I think all of them are found in east gate. The corridor of this temple is suppose to be the longest one. After the temple visit, we came out and went for breakfast. It turned out to be another brunch. Next we went to hotel and packed up our luggage and checked out the hotel. We went walking to the Rameshwaram Railway Station which is 1.5 km. We got the ticket for rs. 60 for Madurai. The train is suppose to leave Rameshwaram at 11:30 am but came here at 10:30 am. We got in and took our preferred seats. It did couple of back and forth and finally came to the departing platform. It was very crowded train and practically stops in every station.
We got down at Madurai at 3: 30 pm and went to a restaurant which we liked when we came 3 years back. It is in the east side of Menakshi Temple. It is new manorama annex hotel. We like Mushroom Biryani. Its more like mushroom rice with masala and we love the taste which we tried last time we were in Madurai which may be 3 to 4 years back. We had a parota and shared a plate of mushroom biryani and asked him to parcel 2 more plate for our dinner. It was already 4:45 pm so we were hurrying up, but on our back we got some sweet from Krishna sweet. Came back to station and found that the train is running late by 20 minutes.
We got a AC waiting room in the station and we freshned up there which charges Rs 10 / hour / person. Our train to Bangalore came at 6:00 pm

05-Jan-2014, we reached Bangalore at 5:00 am and got a bus which dropped us home at 6:00 am.