Trip to Rameshwaram and Madurai From Bangalore

**Checkout the 6 HD videos embedded in the blog for visuals of Rameshwaram, Dhanushkodi and Madurai Meenakshi Temple**

After a rather stressful week, I decided to unwind by taking a weekend trip to Madurai and Rameshwaram. Getting train tickets at short notice is impossible so I booked a Volvo bus (Train{runs daily} is the best option {irctc.co.in} but one has to plan at least 3 weeks in advance). There are plenty of private buses plying on this route, fares vary from Rs 500-900. Expect mismanagement and lack of punctuality on these buses and only select the buses from top 3 travel companies. Its a overnight journey, takes around 8 hours and covers around 450 kms. My bus started at 11 PM and dropped me at 7 am near Periyar bus stand in Madurai.  

My itinary: (I wont change it for repeat visit as well)

Sat Morning: Reach Madurai in the morning and start immediately for Rameshwaram

Sat Evening: Overnight stay at Rameshwaram

Sun Afternoon: Leave for Madurai

Sun Evening: Visit Meenakshi Temple

Sun Night: Board the bus to Bangalore

A normal Indian traveler is interested in sightseeing and tries to cover as many places and as fast as possible. I don't like this idea, and I am more interested in soaking the place, taking in the ambiance and really relaxing and that means selected site visits only.

On reaching Madurai, I found out that the best mode of travel to Rameshwaram is train at 5 am and I missed that. They told me that govt bus stand is 8 kms away, so I opted for private bus to Rameshwaram-which is around 170 kms from Madurai. 

The auto rickshaw took me for a 1/2 km ride to a tour and travels company for private mini bus travel,  Rs 50/- snatched. The travel company was complete unorganized and mismanaged. One person taking bookings for over 20 people. He charged Rs 350/- for travel to Rameshwaram (Govt express buses charge somewhere around Rs200/-) . The old, filthy and uncomfortable minibus started at 9 am, 2 precious hour completely wasted; I wont repeat that experience. The travel company(unfortunately I forgot the name) was a cheat, I heard lot of people complaining about various tours that they mismanaged. And most of these people were from northern and eastern part of the country, traveling several thousand kms and have spent thousands of rupees and they were from lower middle class. Somebody should stop this rampant cheating. 

First Tip: The Madurai private bus stand is near the railway station (1/2 km) and Madurai govt bus stand is some 8 kms away. Always book the bus from Bangalore which claims to reach before 5 am. Never miss the local train to Rameshwaram, this is the best and hassle free mode of transport. Try to avoid private buses and private tours operators wherever possible.

                                            Rameshwaram

I reached Rameshwaram around 1 PM after 4 hours of journey. I had already booked a hotel, so I checked in. The town is really simple, laid back and completely reliant on the temple for its survival, the place has a religious feel to it. Most of the tourist do a day tour from Madurai to this place.

Took a cold bath and lunch and slept for 3 hours, somehow bus travel stresses me out. In evening I went to the sea shore to have a stroll. Pleasant breeze and beautiful view of the ocean, spent several hours there taking videos and enjoying all kind of eatables being sold. The town sleeps early as it rises early. I followed their routing.

I woke up at 4 am in the morning to do several things- a) Visit Ramanathaswamy Temple b) Take sunrise videos
Its really amazing to see how many people visit early mornings. There was 100s of vehicle lined up at the sea shore and town was abuzz with thousands of pilgrims. The sunrise is really breathtaking. It becomes even more beautiful with religious chants, buzz of pilgrims and people worshiping to the sun while taking the holy bath at the sea.

I took bath in the Kunds, took a dip in the sea and offered my prayer at the Ramanathaswamy temple. I opted express darshan for Rs 50/-.  One get a lot of time to see the idol at the temple, a welcome change from other religious places. 

At 8 am I decided to visit the confluence of Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean en route the ghost town Dhanushkodi. Dhanuskodi is a town/village at the southern tip of the Rameswaram island, at the eastern coast of the Tamil Nadu state of India. Hindu scriptures says that at the request of Vibeeshana, brother of Ravan and ally of Ram, Rama broke the Sethu with one end of his bow and hence the name Dhanushkodi, Dhanush meaning Bow and Kodi meaning end.

                  A severe cyclone in 1964 completely destroyed the flourishing town killing over 1000 people. Since then it has been declared a ghost town. 


Just before start of Journey in sand to Dhanushkodi, 8 kms from town (Rs 5/- bus), is a long and pristine beach. Travelers usually enjoy this beach and spend more time here. One can really spend hours and hours , amazing view of wide expanse of ocean and crisp sound of relentless crashing waves. Beautiful!

I hired a Mahindra Jeep (1970s model) for Rs 1000/- for the tour. Total distance to the confluence of oceans in Gulf of Mannar is around 18 kms, 10kms in land and 8kms in sand. The land part of the distance was covered in no time, one can even reach till this point through buses, fare Rs 5/-. The journey in sand is bit troublesome, normal vehicles will get stuck here and are not allowed.

One can see the remnant of Dhanuskodi town enroute-platform, church, school, railway tracks.

The beach at the confluence of ocean is really wide, pristine and breathtaking. Its a pity that mostly religious tourist come here and is still virgin for others. One can spend hours and hours here-place completely devoid of crowds and is very beautiful.


         The two oceans are very different in character. The Bay of Bengal is really aggressive with really strong waves crashing the shores, while the Indian Ocean is very silent almost like a river. The beach here can put world's top tourist destinations to shame (Pattaya beach is 100 times worse). I spent two hours here and felt like spending some more. Amazing place, its pity people take it as another sightseeing place. One should keep aside at least 6 hours for the Dhanuskodi and beaches around it and that won't be possible in a day tour.

The deal with the Jeep driver was to show me some other sightseeing places as well, but the time constraint of 4 hrs meant that I have to skip those. The sea beach is breathtaking and its deserves that 4 hrs and more.

I went back to my hotel and checked out. Took a auto (town bus also available every 10 mts, Rs 5/-)  for the city bus stand(Rs 50/-) and boarded an express govt bus for Madurai at 1 PM. The fare was around Rs 200/-. The unclean bus running at 60 kmph took 4hrs to cover 170 kms to reach Madurai bus stand at outskirts of city.

The people in the town speak fluent Hindi. There are lot of hotels for stay and restaurants serving authentic south Indian food. There is even a cyber cafe near the temple.

Rameshwaram Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rameswaram
Dhaushkodi Wiki/Cyclone Story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhanushkodi

                                                      Madurai
Meenakshi temple is around 8 kms from the Madurai Govt Bus Stand. I paid Rs 60/- for an auto rickshaw to reach there. There are lot of lodges and hotels in and around Meenakshi temple. I checked into one and negotiated the tariff for 4 hours stay, cost me Rs 500/-. I think there is locker at the temple as well for keeping the luggage.

Meenakshi Sundareshwar temple is really huge, ideal for huge number of pilgrims who visit here. All Indian temples should match at least this scale keeping the huge hindu population in the country in mind. I took ticket for entrance and for photography (Rs 50/- for still and Rs 500/- for video). Guards at the temple do ask for camera tickets so one shouldn't cheat to avoid embarrassment but one can sure take videos using normal digital cameras (paying Rs 50/-) which I did.

You will be greeted by temple elephant at the entrance and one can see people even taking blessings from the animal. I formed the queue and took the darshan of the deity, completely hasslefree. Bought the prasad by paying Rs 100/-, really unadulterated and made using pure ghee, and extremely tasty. I spend lot of time appreciating and taking videos of hallways, stone sculptures, various deities and temple architecture in general.

There is 'Hall of Thousand Pillars' within the temple premises and is a must visit. There is separate entrance and photography ticket ( I used the same photography ticket bought before and it worked). The hall has 985 stone pillars and lot of engineering and artistic sculptures and statues. The hall also has a small museum displaying the 1200 years of temple history.

It took me over two hours to cover everything in the temple and the experience was really very good. At 8.30 pm (temple open till 10.30 pm), I went back to my hotel room, checked out , had dinner and boarded my bus for Bangalore at 10.30 pm. There was mayhem at the Periyar private bus stand and my journey back was very troublesome. I will plan in advance and take train for all my future journeys.

[Foreigners are not allowed beyond a certain point in Meenakshi temple]

Meenakshi Temple Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple