I had just purchased my All-new-Honda-city Automatic and Map-My-India GPS and put both to good use in this trip. we set off in the early morning - this time over the newly built flyover from Silk board to Electronic city . It's sheer pleasure to drive over this well built long flyover - i was warned that there were cameras to hunt speeding folks and so i was well within my speed limit . we continue straight onto Hosur.
Some time over we get a A2B - Adyar Anand Bhavan . This is right next to where a road takes a turn , so be careful to look for a petrol bunk and a board on the left . You miss breakfast here and god save you - you will never get anything on the road . You will be forced to go inside the towns , so best to fill the tank in advance :-)
Take the left at Krishnagiri and continue onto the Vellore-Chennai route . It's a well built road and we can drive at good speeds. After Vellore and before chennai , we will see a diversion to the right and this takes us to Kanchi. ~280 Kms and close to 6 hour drive from Bangalore.
we directly went to the Kanchi Kamakshi Temple first - to pay our obeisance to the Goddess . This is an excellent temple - a very old one and quite remarkable . They also let you inside the level-one , provided men take off the shirt and pay extra to the priests/temple . It's worth the effort . The goddess is adorned and decorated and it's a humbling experience.
We had decided the trip late and hence could not get a room in advance. we got one room in the Jaya-Bala - the lodge next to the famous Saravana Bhavan on the Gandhi Road. The costlier one is just next to it : GRT regency and as expected rooms were full .
There are various Saree shops suggested : Prakash silks on Gandhi Road , just opposite to the Saravana Bhavan , which folks ended up not liking . There's also the A.S Babu Sha on Nadu street where people line up even before they open . There were also other numerous small ones but finally upon a suggestion from our relatives, we ended up finally in an excellent place : Sri Kumaran Weavers on Nadu Street. An excellent shop with AC ( a prime requirement since it's hours of effort ) and a selection of vivid colors and patterns.
Nachu and Niharika in the shop :
I squeezed out for 30 minutes along with the kids to the only other temple i could take time out to - the EkambarNath temple in the Siva Kanchi . This is the largest temple in Kanchi and was mainly built in the 16'th and 17'th centuries.
It's got a Pushkarni in the front and a Nandi facing the Shiva.
This leads us to the 1000 pillar hall . The pillars are intricately carved . The afternoon sunlight pierces the pillars to make for a gorgeous sight .
The Huge Lingam is the Prithvi Lingam and is one of the 5 elemental lingas of south india.Surrounding this are 1008 small lingas - it's certainly a "huge" temple complex .
Behind this is the famous Mango tree under which Parvathi meditated and it's believed that a woman seeking a child should worship here for fulfilling her desire .
Came back and found a place in hotel just opposite the Saree shop on Nadu street . Our food joint was always "back to the Saravana Bhavan" !
The next day we hunted for the cotton Sarees and ended up buying them in MVMP on Gandhi Road. In the retrospect, this was not a good thing to do . The shop we should have gone was actually "Raja Manick Mudaliar company" - specifically known for cotton sarees and cotton clothes - this is situated in a small road just off Gandhi Road . Anyone in for this , please take our advice ....
For the Cotton Dhotis and Cotton shirts , we shopped in the V.K.T.K on Gandhi Road. They were actually closed since it was Sunday Noon , so we actually had to go their godown in the bylane parallel to Gandhi Road. The choice of clothes is stupendous and i was thrilled to buy some for myself !
Again , the GPS helped me to get out of the town and onto the highway back home. we stopped en-route again in A2B and made it back in Bangalore before 8 pm .
It was an extremely short weekend trip this time. Hopefully , i will get to go to Kanchi specifically as a pilgrimage trip next time to visit the Kanchi mutt and also the Vishnu-kanchi part of the town for other magnificient temples. I presume the shop tips will be useful to the folks who will encounter similar wants sometime - and make sure you finish all your shopping before Sunday 11 am since all the good guys take a well deserved rest after that !
