Its 4am. Man, so early..!! Aawwwwaaahhh..
Reached temple a.s.a.p. and got to know that we have to shell out money to see God. Around Rs.65. On the entry it was written, it is for special entry, but I could not see any other queue apart from ours. What is this now?
Had darshan, bought ‘paid’ parshad, clicked few pics, though they were prohibited inside the temple. And yes,non-hindus are also prohibited. This makes me sick about ancient temples. This is the 2nd time I saw such prohibition. Last time it was in my previous trip to another temple in outskirts of Chennai.
Apart from this temple, the other must-see place is Dhanushkodi according to the story where Lord Rama get the bridge built to Lanka. This place is merely 14kms from Sri Lanka, as claimed by local fisherman.
From Rameshwaram, Dhanushkodi is 25kms, but non-4 wheel drives could only reach a point where road ends and barren land starts up to the end of land where Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal meets. That land has pure sand beach and little rock.
One needs to hire local mini buses or trucks to reach the Dhanushkodi end as only 4WD vehicles could only get pass through more than 10 inches of sand. We saw Scorpio and an exception, 2 wheeler bike with big tyres, to reach.
Normal shared charge is Rs.100, but mini truck or vehicle goes only when vehicle is full. Else you take a jeep for Rs.1000 or Rs.1300 from your hotel itself.
It was 9am when we reached there and waited for other passengers. We got free by 12pm.
The Dhanushkodi land is simply majestic. I had not seen such a beautiful beach like this. The water is crystal clear, beach glowing in the sun. While reaching the end, on my right side was Indian Ocean which was making waves as any other beaches, but on my left side, was a calmer Bay of Bengal, with no waves. Very calm. The view was serene to watch a boat silently floating on it. Simply awesome. Though the sun was scorching hot and we were deep in sweats, but words are less to describe the beauty of this place.
Left Dhaunshkodi, and Rameshwaram and headed straight for our next destination Kodaikanal via Madurai. And a small stop at Meenakshi Temple.
Couldn’t visit the Meenakshi Temple as some festival was going on and it was too much rush around the temple. Moreover we were running late due to slow and economical driver of ours and we had to cover hilly area in daylight as much as possible.
Reached Kodaikanal, found the govt. hotel but was expensive, with the help of local tout looked for other hotels which didn’t help and at end without anyone’s help found a hotel at reasonable price (without taxes). 1850 per night and one complimentary bed + 250 extra per bed.
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