We started off our journey from Chennai via Train on Friday evening 14 th feb 2020( Valentines Day hehe) and we were closing in on Rameshwaram on Saturday morning. It's a 12 hour journey by train, you can alternatively take a car ..or a flight up until Madurai and bus or car from there on. Now Mainland Rameshwaram is connected to rest of Tamil Nadu by a very famous bridge called as Pamban Bridge. This was the very first thing we noticed from our train . This is the only way to enter or exit Rameshwaram. The water was so blue, clear and sparkling and we were surprised to see spectacular view from our train.
We reached The station in some time and checked into our rooms. We stayed at A Hotel Called Raghavendra which is located aptly near the main temple (Rameshwaram Templ) and Other Tourist Attractions. The rooms were spacious, clean and the food was good too. We took some rest and one of my friends joined us from Bangalore. We were 4 from Chennai. We got ready and hired a car (3000 rs) for sightseeing .
We went to Danushkodi first (ghost town), it's a small coastal village which was destroyed by a Cyclone and the remaints of the town became a tourist attraction. The land is covered by the Bay of Bengal on one side And the Arabian sea on the other. It was such a wonderful experience visiting this town and experiencing the wonderful town that once was. The waters again we're so clear , you could literally see the underbed of the ocean. We clicked lot of pictures and I flew my drone too. Only downside was we reached the spot at 12 noon. So it was very hot and also lot of tourists. So I suggest you reach the place early in the morning.
Moving on from there we went to a place where we found the floating rocks made of limestone which were used in Ramayan for building the famous bridger used by Ram to Crossover to Sri Lanka. Was a holy moment for us.
We then went to a couple of smaller temples and by the time we finished it was 4 pm and we had to go to Aryaman Beach before 6 or else it would be closed. So skipping our lunch we went to the beach which is 25 kms from the main city and boy it was totally worth it. The sands were silver, and the water again so blue and clear. I flew my drone secretly to avoid attentions as my friends crashed the waves and we're enjoying the cool sea breeze. I took some impromptu photos of the sunset and we all sat down and chatted for a while. And we left back to the main city .
We were dying of hunger and we found a hotel called Rameshwaram Grand for our dinner. We ordered all we can as we were very hungry. We had soups n starters and rice , chappati and to top it off Ice cream for dessert. After filling up our tummies we reached our hotel by 9 by a auto rickshaw ride .
I wil continue our journey on day 2. Ciao
The thing is after getting back home around 9. We couldn't sleep much. Because two of my friends wanted to do the special darshan at the main temple which was to take a dip in the ocean and then entering the temple premises which had 22 wells . One needed to bath in all the 22 wells and then change their clothes and only then could enter the main Santorum Sanctum of the God. This is part of a belief where taking a dip in all the wells meant you washed away all your sins. Hence lot of people who are of old age visit Rameshwaram . To complete the circle of life.
Coming back to our journey , the sunday which we planned to visit this temple there was one small issue ie the main dirty would be shifted to another temple at 6 am and won't be in the main temple until Monday. The time allocated was early morning 2:30 am - 6 am. Hence our shortened sleep. We sleep of a couple of hours , woke up at 2 am and took our bath sleepishly. One of my friend did not come to the temple. So we 4 started off. 2 girls who wanted to perform the holy dip went in a seperate queue and me and my friend Dinesh planned to visit the Main diety directly. All of us completed our darshan in 2 hours and reached our hotel room around 7
We went straight for the buffet breakfast and ate as much as we can. we then headed out for sightseeing, we went to the Amman temple which is famous for blessing people with health and children birth issues. We had a good darshan and then we're roaming around the temple clicking photos. We witnessed a century old Banyan tree which had all the cradle offerings tied to it. It was a great photo op.. We then went back to our rooms because we had covered all the places . On the way we muched in some fresh watermelons, cucumbers, raw mango with masala and it tasted yum.
We then had our lunch at our hotel and rested till 6 . We had our buses at 7. We vacated our rooms and went to the busstand and boarded our buses to Chennai and we were back on Monday morning and headed back to work.
Overall when we planned this trip, we had no expectations as Rameshwaram was targeted as a pilgrimage place which is frequented by People of Old Age, which it was . But that didmt stop us from exploring the place, having great food, visiting the holy shrines , witnessing a ghost town and sharing a great time amongst friends.
What else could be better?
Untill next trip ......Adios
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