Exclusive South India
Duration: 5 Nights / 6 Days
Places Covered: Chennai - Covelong - Pondicherry
- Tanjore - Trichy - Madurai - Periyar
Day 1: 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.
Day 2: Covelong
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.
Thereafter join the Spice of Kerala Tour.
