Idle Strolls

This is part 3 of my guruvayur trip series. Read part 1, about the train journey here and part 2, about the guruvayur temple here . In this part, i continue about the rest of our day in guruvayur after completing the morning darshan. Once outside after our first darshan, we proceed to have lunch, and decide to make use of the afternoon time when all temples are closed, by making another stop nearby. Around 2.5 kms from the temple is the Punnathur Kotta, the camping grounds for the guruvayur temple elephants, and is managed by the guruvayur devaswom (temple administration). Elephants form an important part of kerala temple rituals and festivals, and about 30-40 elephants (i’m not sure of the exact number) belonging to the guruvayur temple are housed, bathed and fed in these extensive grounds and brought to the temple as and when necessary. There is a small admission fee and camera fee, and then you can walk about and see the elephants eating or splashing water around. The local ...

I had written about the train journey and the beautiful early morning scenery on the route to thrissur in my earlier post . That was the first part of a suddenly decided trip to Guruvayur, and in this post, i continue about Guruvayur itself.  On getting down at Thrissur railway station, there are a few different options to get to Guruvayur, which is about 25 kms away from thrissur. One is to wait for the passenger train which stops at guruvayur station, which would be the cheapest option but depends on when your long distance train reaches thrissur and when the next available passenger is. The more common option is by bus, of which there are lots from thrissur to guruvayur. The other option is to take a cab/taxi right outside the station, and there are many who surround you the moment you come out. Although expensive, it is also quick and easy after a long journey. I also checked that cab aggregators like ola charged outstation rates to guruvayur though distance-wise it is...

There are some things which you keep mulling over for a long time, and then suddenly things come together quickly and it all happens. My trip to Guruvayur was one such. I had wanted to go to guruvayur, as well as kerala in general, for a long time, and it suddenly got finalised in a matter of days. My only prior trip to kerala was a quick one day visit to the trivandrum temple a couple of decades ago, of which i barely remember anything. So i’ll start an account of this trip to guruvayur right from the journey itself. We went from chennai, so thats the route i’ll be writing about here. The best way to reach guruvayur from chennai is to take a train to Thrissur, and though there are multiple trains on this route, the most conveniently timed ones are the chennai-trivandrum mail and chennai-alappuzha express. We got tickets on the latter, and it starts from chennai central station at 9.05 PM. After travelling through tamilnadu during the night, the train enters the kerala bor...