A recurring theme with temples in Tamil Nadu was their exclusivity to non-members of the Hindu faith. Usually, as is the case in most cultural sites we’ve visited thus far, foreigners are charged a higher rate than Indian nationals, but typically, are given equal access to all the sites within the grounds. For the temples in Tamil Nadu, this was not the case. Most of the shrines and inner sanctuaries within the temple grounds were restricted to Non-Hindus. How they prove that you’re not Hindu, besides looking at the colour of your skin, is beyond me. It’s just one of those things that although it may not be kosher in the society we’ve been raised, it’s fruitless to object, and best to simply go with the flow.
The further south in Tamil Nadu we went, the spicier the food got, and the more vegetarian. Trichy, being further North, had a few Western-themed restaurants. One of which advertised having burgers and pizza. To dangerously incite my senses, the pictures chosen to advertise the burgers were a precise copy of the Big Mac, golden arches and all. I was salivating the moment I sat down (we haven’t had beef once since arriving in Mumbai). I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. What arrived was a vegetarian burger with mayonnaise… no other toppings; thwarted by false advertising. I felt like I was the unknowing participant of a sick joke. It took almost all of my will power not to fall to my knees and scream to all-heaven: “Why ME?!”
Teg - Trichy was nothing special, yet there were definitely a few memorable moments in the city. We arrived by train at almost 12am and headed straight to a semi-decent hotel where we then crashed for the night. Our main attractions here were the Rock Fort Temple and the Sir Jambukeshwara Temple. These two were our next morning plans.
We thought both places would take up most of the day, however, the fort was way smaller than what we had anticipated – disappointing – so the visit was quick. Next we ventured further north of the city to the temple. It didn’t seem much different than the ones we had just recently visited in Madurai, the only difference in the experience was that we were able to – for a foreigners price – go on to the roof of part of the temple; hot tiles but some amazing views! That was easily the temple's highlight. What we thought would be a long day ended at noon. Mike's burger story soon followed!
Fort from below
On the rooftop!We were in Trichy for Obama’s speech. We watched the entire thing in the hotel room, yet outside, there was no trace of people watching it anywhere! Definitely surprising because as we watched it, his speech seemed to have captured the country. I just assumed all of India would be watching, so it was quite the shock when we didn’t see a single TV anywhere or whisper of the event anywhere.
Trichy is the place where we discovered that we must book train tickets well in advance. We had booked some tickets to get us up right around Chennai but we had only made the waitlist. We were 3 and 4 on the waitlist so we just assumed we would get on since we've been further down the waitlist before on other trains and still gotten on. Thirty minutes before train time (11:00pm) and we haven't moved on the list, what are we suppose to do?
We end up waiting it out, hoping that we could get on somewhere and move up class if possible. No luck. So now, at almost midnight, we trek back to the bus station where we jump on the first bus we see that says Chennai. This bus experience would soon enough be the ride that confirms our need to book in advance lol.
Mike trying to negotiate to get us on the train.
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