Kerala
& South India Tour
Duration : 6 Days
Places to Visit
: Chennai - Covelong - Pondicherry - Tanjore - Trichy - Madurai -
Periyar
Day 1 - 2 : Abroad - Chennai - Covelong Arrive Madras International
airport.
On arrival, the guest will be met by our representative
and directly proceed to Covelong (43 kms/1 hr)
Upon arrival at
hotel the guests will be provided with the traditional Indian welcome
consisting of aarti-tikka and garlands with non-alcoholic welcome drink.
Overnight at hotel.
Fullday sightseeing tour of
Kanchipuram and Mahabalipuram.
Kanchipuram - known as the Golden
City of a Thousand Temples, is one of the oldest towns in India. It is
famous for both its temples, many of them remarkably well preserved and for
its hand-woven silks. Kanchipuram is one of the seven sacred cities of India
and it is the only one associated with both Shiva and Vishnu. Visit
Ekambareshwar Temple, Kailashnath Temple, Kamakshi Temple, the
Vaikunthaperumal Temple, all built in the 7th and 8th centuries. With a
weaving tradition dating back to the Pallava era (when silk was the royal
cloth), Kanchipuram is justly famous for its particularly fine silk saris,
embellished with stunning patterns. Visit the local homes of the weavers and
watch them create magic out of silk thread into saris.
Mahabalipuram - This is a small, quiet seaside resort with a unique
7th-century Shore Temple, a lovely beach and some of the most beautiful
rock-cut temples in the world. Situated on the shore of the Bay of Bengal,
Mahabalipuram was already a famous seaport in the 1st century AD. This, town
was a workshop for temple building. Visit the seven pagoda-style shore
temples, lashed by the waves of the sea and the seven rathas or temple
chariots, a group of monolithic monuments & animal figures carved out of
solid rock, the earliest known examples of Dravidian architecture. They were
constructed in a single century-long burst of creative enthusiasm, starting
in the reign of Narasimhavarman 1 (AD 630-68). End the visit by photography
of the beautiful Shore temples at sunset.
Dinner and overnight
at hotel.
Day 3: Covelong - Pondicherry After
breakfast drive to Pondicherry (162 kms/4 hrs)
Pondicherry, which was up until the 1950s, a far-flung outpost of the French
maritime empire. It is so different from the rest of Tamil Nadu that one
feels that one has entered another country! This busy coastal town is
divided roughly into two: the old White Town of elegant French houses,
restaurants & administrative buildings and the Black Town west of the
canal where India takes over again.
Tour of Pondicherry -
visiting Botanical garden, Eglise De Sacre Coeur De Jesus and Sri Aurobindo
Ashram. Later visit township of Auroville or the city of Dawn. Designed by a
French architect Roger Arger, it is an entirely new concept in education and
urban living. Dinner and overnight at hotel.
Day 4:
Pondicherry - Tanjore After breakfast drive to Tanjore (177 kms/4 ½
hrs)
Upon arrival at Tanjore - check into hotel.
Afternoon sightseeing tour of Tanjore - was the capital of the Chola Empire
from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. A Chola king, Raja Raja Chola,
who held the throne from 985 to 1016, built the greatest of the empire's 74
temples, the Brahadeeswarar, with its soaring tower over the inner sanctum.
This tower rises more than 62 meters (200 feet). On its dome rests a single
block of granite weighing 80 tons.
Dinner and overnight at
hotel.
Day 5: Tanjore - Trichy - Madurai After breakfast drive to
Madurai (190 kms/5½ hrs) enroute visiting Trichy
City tour
of Trichy - visit the 'Rock Fort Temple' which rises abruptly to a height of
273 ft. A steep staircase cut into the rock leads upto the Fort. At the
first level are the remnants of a huge hall blasted into ruins in 1772. The
next storey is the Mathrubhuteshwarer Shrine dedicated to Shiva. Finally at
the top of the hill, the 'Uchhi Pillayar Koil' - a Ganesh Temple offering a
commanding view of the city.
Thereafter continue drive to
Madurai
Upon arrival at Madurai - check into hotel.
Evening visit of the Meenakshi temple - Leave the hotel for the temple by
cycle rickshaws. At 9 PM, attend the night ceremony at the temple. This is a
ceremony that takes place every evening when the temple bronze of Lord Shiva
is carried to the bed chamber of Parvati. The procession is accompanied by
religious prayer and temple music.
Dinner and overnight at hotel.
Day 6: Madurai - Periyar
Morning city tour of Madurai visit the Meenakshi temple one of the
biggest temple complexes in India - 46 ft. long by 790 ft broad built in the
17th Century. It is a rectangular twin shrine: the southern temple dedicated
to Meenakshi (the consort of Shiva) and the other to Shiva. It is Madurai's
greatest landmark - a file city within a city: the complex includes a bazaar
that bustles from dawn to nightfall. The high point of the Meenakshi temple
is Hall of a "Thousand Pillars", built in the 16th C which is as
great a work of structural engineering as it is of art. Also visit the
palace of Tirumala Nayak which is an example of the architectural mastery of
the Nayaks - a blend of Hindu and Saracen architecture. It's enormous roofed
arcade supported by 48 foot high stoned pillar still stands.
After breakfast drive to Periyar (177 kms/5 hrs)
Upon arrival at
Periyar - check into hotel
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