Being an Indian who was born and brought up outside of the country I have always been very curious about the temples and the traditions of India. Plus my mother had always been saying how she wanted to visit Mahabalipuram with me. So I looked online for the best South India Tour that would give us a temple tour which would include good, architecturally designed temples and other monuments, and teach me about the traditions that I have missed for the past 25 years.
Our tour began with us landing at the Mumbai airport, the Hollywood of India. Me and my mother are Bollywood buffs and so we had to visit the city. The day started with visiting the Gateway of India which was built during the colonial era, then we moved toward The Prince of Wales museum, the hanging garden, the Gandhi memorial and the very important Siddhi Vinayak temple in Mumbai. My mother was impressed with how the city has changed through the years and yet its seaport climate always remained the same.
Next we boarded the flight to Chennai and begin with the tour of Parthasarathy temple, kapileshwar temple and Adweeswar temple. In the evening we drove to the Marina Beach and relaxed watching the many families that flock over there each day. Our next destination was Kanchipuram, known worldwide because of its hand-woven silk sarees that has had me and mother drooling over them for many years. So we picked out a few for ourselves and our friends. This city is also blessed with enormously beautiful temples like Ekambareshwar Temple, Kamakshi Amman, and Varadharaja Perumal Temple.
Next was the destination that my mother had been waiting for excitedly, known for its great monuments, cave sanctuaries, and sculptures, Mahabalipuram also has vast beaches and temples along them. Here we toured the Sakkiswara Temple, Vaikuntha Perumal temple, Arjuna Penance, Shore Temple, and Mardini Cave. The temples in this city were unlike any other temples that I had ever seen on a Luxury India Tour. The shore temple literally stands facing the sea, and they say that there were more than five structures in it once where now only stands two of them. Legend has it that gods were envious of its beauty and so they unleashed the sea upon it because of which some of the structure submerged and the beauty of this place is that you can actually see some of those structures, which kind of made me feel like the story was true.
Next destination was the former French colony, Pondicherry which is known for its iconic architectural style and the Great Auroville which houses the matrimandir. We also visited the Auroville ashram since my mum is a fan of yoga, and the French war memorial and Promenade beach which is one of the cleanest beaches India Tour Packages will take you to.
On our way to Tanjore, we visited the Nataraja temple which is dedicated to Shiva and took a guided tour across the complex. In Tanjore, we visited the Brihadeshwar Temple that is also known for the collection of centuries-old paintings, that Tanjore is famous for worldwide. At Trichy, we explored the marvelous architecture of Ranganathswamy temple, Rock Fort Temple and Tiruvanaikkaval Temple.
our last destination was Madurai, which is famous for the 14 colorful gopurams of Meenakshi Amman Temple. In the day we also visited the Thirumalai Nayak temple and called it a day, after we witnessed the evening aarti at Meenakshi temple, which is said to be one of the best things to do in India and with enough reason. The sight of the beautiful temple in the evening as a thousand diyas lit up in the water was difficult to forget.
