Read the caveats here before proceeding.

The following are events that took place on 10th July 2009 and covers Tanjavur-Tiruvaiyaru-Tanjavur-Tiruchi route. Read about the previous day here.

After a long hiatus (like 1.3 years!), I managed to write about day 7 of our journey (just thinking about  writing on the next 20-days to go gives me a headache!).

OK, here we go: We woke up quite early (around 6am) but our driver didn’t!We took the chance to take photos around the hotel.  The hotel listed useful info such as places of interest and distance. Quite useful if you snap a photo of it for reference.

The garden

Still use old style padlock!

Ended up leaving the hotel around 7.10am for our first destination, the famed UN World Heritage Site-listed Brihadeeswarar Temple aka Tanjavur Periya Koyil (Big temple). The temple is huge due to the large ground area. The main deity is Lord Shiva in his lingam form (4 metres high!). The temple looks similar to Airavateswar Temple (which we visited on Day 6). The parking cost Rs10. The crowd was less, and we were blessed to witness the abishegam ceremony for Lord Shiva. Left the temple at 9.30am for breakfast.

Had breakfast at nearby Abirami Restaurant, and then followed by trip to Tanjavur Palace which houses the museum.

The museum houses many artefacts from early as 7th century AD. A must visit for history and archeology fans. Spent about an hour here (10 to 11am).

The whale bone from 1955

Next stop, the Saraswati Mahal (a library) which is just next to the Tanjavur Palace (they share the same compound). There’s also a shopping gallery called the Tanjore Collections on the upper floor, under the auspices of Tanjore Handicrafts Workers Co-op Cottage Industry Society. Spent about 30 minutes here.

We proceeded to Saint Tyagaraja Samadhi in Tiruvayaru. He was a renowned poet and musician who lived in the 18th century.  He was born in Tiruvarur (not to be confused with Tiruvayaru which is close tho each other) and was named in honor of Lord Tyagaraja of Tiruvarur (The Tiruvarur chariot comes to mind).

The Samadhi is located on the banks of Kaveri river. Around middle of the year, Kaveri looks like desert!

Kaveri looks like this after rainy season starts:

We then stopped by the Arkondan Big Temple but since it was noon time, the temple was closed. We walked around and got kind of chased away since they didn’t like us snooping around.

Unique feature: Two Vinayagars

Left at 2.30pm to our next destination, shopping at Poompuhar Handcidraf Centre next to our hotel. We spent about 1.5 hours there and then check-out from hotel to proceed to Sivaganga Park.

Sivaganga Park is just like our playground or parks, except that its quite run down and simple-looking. There’s a diesel powered train that runs through the park, which takes about 10 minutes. The diesel smell is overwhelming, so skip it if can. You can walk the entire park within 20 minutes actually. Nothing much to see except some animals in cages. You can also view the gopuram of Brihadeeswarar Temple from the park. The park houses Sivaganga Teppakulam (water tank). All in all, we spent about 30 minutes here.

We left Tanjavur town at around 5pm and moved on to Tiruchi. Took about 2.5 hours. We checked into Hotel Mathura near the Tiruchi bus station. Had our dinner at the Sri Krishna garden/open air restaurant nearby. The meal was delicious.

That’s about it for Day 7. We had good day overall as we managed to cover our itinerary.

Photo of the day:

I would say that a visit to the Periya Koyil to view the abishegam is a must do!

Read the next day (Day 8) here (to be updated).