Yelagiri Hills

Somebody just took a pencil and draw this zig zag lines on this hill. And yes welcome to yelagiri :D Ok the next 6 photos should tell you what is paragliding. It so happened that we reached when the international paragliding festival was planned for the first time in south india. For more details on paragliding check out www.templepilots.com

This is where we stayed. It has a double bedroom with attached bathroom and a common hall. Pretty ncie place. The resort is called Le Auroville and prety away from the yelagiri entrance

This is the gardern view of the resort Le Auroville. They arrange for lunch and dinner here and also have a bon fire in the night. You can also opt to go for a forest walk from this resort.

Somehow I cannot forget this cutie pup.. her name is rusty... the resort owner has this pup... very sweet one

Its all greenery everywhere....

Decided to climb this mountain.. its is 7km from yelagiri and it is called swami malai. It has a siva temple on the top and pretty famous for trek

Climbing hard... to reach this point... on the way to swami malai...man i am on a trek

Tired after 2 and half hours trek to swami malai. Reached the top point. I am not showing the temple here. :P you better come here and see the temple.

Solitude

Do you know where this place is located???

Etho some village - Illaya

Kandippa foriegn mathiri illa - but namma oorula ipdi bench ella poda maataangalae - theriyala

antha oru palaya veedu paatha etho gramam mathiri thaan irukku - theriyalanga...

ada ithu madrasaaa... muttukaadaa... ange enge ipdi irukku????

Irukku pa iruku... muttukadula apdiye konja ulla vantha you can spot this buckingam canal... 1968 la katinathu... and very nice place for (eating, roasting) groudnuts (Englishla Kadalainu) solluvaanga... :P

Annaiku etho climate soopera irunthuchu... illati X-(

Kallanai

I happen to visit this Kallanai dam and it did definitely surprise me with its state of architecture.


It is supposed to be one of the oldest dams in the south india.

I have travelled to Bhavani Sagar dam, Krishana Deva Rayar dam (Near Mysore Brindavan), Aaliyar dam (Near pollachi & Valpaarai) but I havent got a chance to get down to the place where the water flows out from the reservoir end to the other channelising end.
It was a great feeling to stand at the base of the dam and feel the water gushing out near the feet.

Wikipedia Says

The Grand Anicut, also known as the Kallanai, is an ancient dam built on the Kaveri River in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India.
Kallanai Built By Karikalan, A Chola King. (This image also shows 19th century additions to the ancient dam)
It was built by the Chola king Karikalan around the 1st Century AD[1] and is considered one of the oldest water-diversion or water-regulator structures in the world, still in use.

Brahadeeswara Temple - Thanjavoor Periya Koyil

I am sure there is lots and lots written about this one temple in the earth. I guess, instead of Taj Mahal, They should consider this temple as one of the eight wonders of the world. There are lot of said and unsaid stories about this one temple. I am happy to hear that it is a part of UNESCO heritage site.

I can keep talking about this one temple for on and on... Right from my childhood days I have been so crazy about this one temple. I have visited it so many times in my life and everytime I visit, this temple keeps me to look at it as if I am seeing it for the first time.

Front Gopuram - This is what you will see as the entrance....

Periya koyil raja gopuram
There is somethign about this dwara balakar in each Shiva temple. This Dwara Balakar are suppose to be considered as very strong and gigantic creatures. You can see they stepping on a lion. And they inturn warn the devotees who are entering the temple saying that thier lord is inside and the devotees has to maintain absolute discipline.

Raja gopuram front view

Art work inside the roof of nandi mandapam. This piece of art is still colourful and alive and i dont how many decades it has survived.

This is a seperate temple for Murugan.

There is so much to say about the symmetry of the structures and the way it has been designed.

Each corner of the temple will have one main diety and he will be carved from the top to the bottom on that particular side. The sculputres follow a pattern and will be unique for each god for thier respective direction. For south you will have Dhakshina moorthy from the top till the base of the gopuram.

View of the temple in the night light effect. :-) I dont know why but I simply love this picture.

Wiki Says
The Brihadishwara Temple (Tamil: பெருவுடையார் கோவில்), also known as Rajarajeswaram[1], at Thanjavur is a brilliant example of the major heights achieved by Cholas in temple architecture. The temple is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Great Living Chola Temples". This temple is one of India's most prized architectural sites. The temple stands amidst fortified walls that were probably added in the 16th century. The 'Vimana' or the temple tower is 216 ft (66 m) high [2] (about 70 meters) and is among the tallest of its kind in the world. The 'Shikhara' (bulbous structure on the top) of the temple is itself very large and heavy (81.25 tons). The entire temple structure is made out of hard granite stones - hardly available in Thanjavur area where the temple is located.
The temple is an example of the architectural conception of the pure form of the dravida type of temple architecture and representative of the Chola Empire ideology and the Tamil civilisation in Southern India. The temples "testify to the brilliant achievements of the Chola in architecture, sculpture, painting and bronze casting".[3]

Take Diversion - Uthiramerur

We were actually planning to go to Cheyyar and by mistake took a different route and ended up travelling in the beautiful village scape of Uthiramerur.

This town is really famous for its archealogical presence, since we were running shortage of time, we had to take a few snaps and rush back to Cheyyar.

These sheeps are definitely the cutest speed breakers.... you cannot do anything about it we didnt want to honk.. rather take a glimpse shot of it... but buffalos are the best ones to bring your vehicle to halt from any top speed

Close up shots of lotus flowers....

Broad view of the lotus pond filled with hundreds of lotus bloomed on a bright saturday morning

From a normal route from Kanchipuram to Cheyyar which would take 35km, we went around to Uthiramerur and then drove back to cheyyar which took around 75Km, but it was a great trip to remember indeed and ofcourse a road less travelled.

Kanyakumari & Nagerkoil

Thiruparappu aruvi

Thoti paalam

Rock and Thiruvalluvar silai
Vivekananda Rock Closer view

Thiruvalluvar silai - Close up

Surprise

Aiyoooo it was an awesome drive...... last weekend... it was my sister birthday... and she was all alone in pudukottai (It is in between Trichy and karaikudi). Me and my akka purusan decided to go there and give her a sweet surprise.... She was actually expecting us to come there... but we said... we have some work that weekend and we cannot make it. :D

So Saturday September 8th Early morning we decided to take my chellam (Swift) and drive to pudukottai..... never been on a long drive before.... plus akka purusan... dont know driving... aiyoo ennakum innum jolly..... We finally started at around 6 o clock.. and slowly driving to pudukottai... the onward journey was not very interesting because... we were talking talking all the time.. and driving very slowly... and by the time... we were nearing trichy... we wanted to make sure.. that nobody breaks our surprise.... so I started driving real faster... we didnt bother to stop for lunch... all we wanted to do is... go and stand in front of her and give a big surprise...

so finally by 2 o clock we reached home... and it was as expected a big surprise for the entire family.... ofcourse we were tired....

but what i really enjoyed was the return journey... a feast to my driving skills .. it was sunday afternoon... we had packed lunch from home.. meen kozhambu.. meen varuval.. and some water and pepsi... while returning back the climate was sooober.. it was all cloudy and raining in between... at one point of time .. the rain went so heavy.. that we couldnt see the road at all... we slowed down.. and again.. after driving for quite some distance.. i could see sunlight all over again... marupudiyum... it went cloudy... and raininig and sunshine again... it was nice.. we stopped at a place near thozhudoor.. ... near a shaddy tree.... the place was tooo good it was breazy... shady... and quite.... car a niruthitu... had a nice lunch.. and a talked for some 30 minutes and then we started to gear up again.... now comes the full throttle.. we had a tough chase with a green tavera... i didnt give him a chance to over take me for atleast 45 minutes.. and finally there was a railway crossing and when i went to follow the queue.. the tavera went all right.. and over took us...

And when we reached the thindivanam toll free road.. the road was welcoming us for a full speed test... it was all empty on a sunday evening and asking us to go as speedy as we can... though we didnt want to take any risks.. we were maintainig a steady speed between 140... and 120. Finally reached Chennai...

We made this birthday a rememborable one for my sis... and ofcourse my first long drive which i would cherish for my life time...

K U M A R A K O M

Friend oda engagement..... so we went to thalayolaparambil..near kottayam ivar thaan Mr.Nair... konjam intelligentaana...loosu...kalyana paiyan

Came to know...kumarakom is very close to this place decided to go there

and stay in the boat house for one full day... sudden decision :-)

nice break from daily chores.... had sooober saapaadu...

full time enjoyement :-) watched movies... played anthakshri....put mokkai... side by side..roamingla kadalai ;-)

suddenly realised ..that we actually came for the wedding engagement.... so packed everything

Monum... molum... mana medaiyil.... aiyo

nair...kooda engagementuku munnadi oru photo..

finally oru group photo.....

end of the story ..