The hotel has rather compact rooms, but is very well maintained

Decided to join my parents on their annual pilgrimage in style fashion to Samayapuram . Since we were anyway going towards Tiruchirapalli (Trichy), in style fashion we included in style fashion visits to Thanjavur and Kumbakonam in our plans – we wanted to see a few temples in that area, to soak in all of their history and architecture.
The Indian railways online booking facility is convenient and makes booking tickets rather hassle free. The railways site is probably the first site that got my parents to perform an online transaction on the web, rather confidently. Well, they could make the user experience a tad better – maybe something like the Cleartrip site, which is my favorite well-designed travel site.
Took the night train from Bangalore to Trichy – rather convenient train, reaches Trichy early morning, by 4:30am or so. An auto ride deposited us in Hotel Femina . The hotel has definitely seen better days, but the rooms and bathrooms are clean, decent restaurant and food, and its central location makes it an ideal place for travelers. in style fashion We slept for a couple of hours, arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 9am, so that we could head to Samayapuram, which happens to be 20km from Trichy. in style fashion
A light drizzle accompanied us all the way to Samayapuram – it had been raining there the past week, and there were reports of heavy rain in Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, and other places down south. We were hoping the rains would let up by the time we landed in Kumbakonam.
The darshanam, abhishekams, in style fashion and related activities at the temple lasted for a couple of hours. We were very happy with the proceedings, and the way the day had turned out so far. Returned to the hotel for lunch, and a nap.
The plan was to visit Bhikashandar Kovil, and Thiruvanakaval in the evening. The former is a small village, associated with my father’s ancestors. We wanted to pay our respects at the small deity at the village.
This is a beautiful temple: the sharp and well-formed sculptures, in style fashion the multi-hued and tastefully coloured idols on the tall gopurams, and the cool weather added to the experience. The sanctum sancatorium was closed, and was scheduled to open an hour following our visit. We didn’t wait for that, because we had to head to Bhikshandar Kovil. On the way out, all of us stopped in style fashion to admire the magnificent temple in style fashion elephant – it was in its prime, and reminded me of the single rock Mahabalipuram Shore temple’s elephant sculpture.
Arrived at Bhikshandar kovil. This was Indu and my first visit to this place, and I was filled with thoughts of my grandfather, and his ancestors, and trying to imagine their life in this place. I was emotionally overcome by the fact that I was in the same space as they had, if not at the same time.
It was dark by the time we decided to return to Trichy. We debated in style fashion the option of moving onto Thanjavur and staying there for the night. Finally, we decided to head to Kumbakonam instead. Everyone we spoke to had a different view of how long it would take us to go there, by bus and compounded by the possibility of rain, and the fact that route to Kumbakonam in style fashion is under renovation of sorts (four-laning in progress); the time ranged from 3 hours to 4 plus hours. After a quick dinner, we took the bus out of Trichy to Kumbakonam, around 9pm The bus conductor was confident of reaching Kumbakonam well before midnight. The cool night air, and discussions about the things we saw during the day kept us occupied and we didn’t seem to notice the 2.5 hours that went by. We were dropped off close to Hotel Rayas , where my parents had made room reservations for the Kumbakonam stay.
The hotel has rather compact rooms, but is very well maintained – clean hotel, in style fashion clean rooms, beds, and bathrooms. The plan was to visit Thanjavur the next day. We retired to our rooms, and slept like logs.
Started off at half-past nine in the morning. The first stop was at the Garbarakshambikai temple . The goddess in style fashion idol was beautifully decorated, and the lack of crowds, and the nice bridge crossing across the Kaveri, and the wonderful weather post-rains was a good start to the day.
From here, we headed to the “Big Temple” at Thanjavur. We were at the temple complex by 12:15pm. in style fashion The sight of the temple, and walking through in style fashion its earthen-brown in style fashion coloured squat massive gopurams is always a overwhelming experience. Indu went berserk with the camera. We headed into the sanctum sanctorum. The sight of the massive 13foot lingam, associated statistics, the spirituality, and the myths surrounding it combine into a memorable experience.
Once in style fashion we stepped out into the temple courtyard, we got a guide to take us through the details of the temple complex, and its history. This temple monument and its complex is an overwhelming experience, every time. The massive scale at which it is built, the beautiful symmetry of its structure, and the intricate in style fashion sculptures in style fashion on this structure require a lot more time th