GURUVAYUR - The Temple Town of Kerala

24th May, by Morning 6 O'Clock, we started from our Anamalai Guest house.

Guruvayur is just 116 kms from our guest house. We happily started our journey through --

Anamalai --to-- Aambarampalayam --to-- Meenakshipuram --to-- Mangalapalam --to-- Kollengode --to-- Nemmara --to-- Mudapallur --to-- Vadakkencherry --to-- Mannuthy --to-- Thrissur --to-- Punkunnam --to-- Choondal --to-- Guruvayur.


When we are about to pass Nemmara, suddenly two persons, stopped our car and asked us to park in the side of the road, till 6 pm and from their angry voice and body language ( even though we could not follow their Malayalam, as they spoke very fast ), we could guess that there might be Local Bandh of Kerala Government. We were worried to halt in an unknown place & also we could not go back, as we have already entered Kerala. Dad quickly thought about it and proceeded further hurriedly. But Mom was a bit tensed up althrough her journey till Guruvayur.

No hotels, shops were open on our way. We reached Guruvayur by around 8 O'Clock and to our relief, Indian Coffee House and Hotel Saravana Bhavan were open and flooding with crowd. We prefered Indian Coffee House and some how managed to get chairs. Had our breakfast and the Hotel Incharge informed us that there wont be any hotels for Lunch and asked us whether we need parcel. We ordered him to pack Pooris for lunch.

We kept all our belongings in the car, as the camera, mobile phones were not allowed inside the Temple premises. The Shops on both the sides were closed.... But there was a huge crowd, inspite of the Bandh.

We joined the queue by 9.10 am and the queue slowly moved forward. We finished our Darshan by 10.20 am. We sat there and watched people for sometime and came out of the temple by around 11.30 am.

We then planned to go to Thrissur Zoo and Art Museum and also the Mural Museum on our way.  Even we planned to visit the Palace. But due to Bandh, the Palace was closed.

We first went to the Zoo and Art Museum, as both are located in the same premises.

There were number of animals, like different varieties of Deer , Himalayan Bear, different varieties of Bisons ( A Real Big Scary Bisons), Lion, Tiger & Tiger cubs, lots and lots of Monkeys, different Birds ranging from Storks to Scary Owls. 

Asian Open Bill Stork

Woolly-necked Stork / White necked stork

Painted Stork

Owls

Deer

Relaxing

Only this could be photographed. Inside the photographing is Prohibited.

In the Art Museum, we could see old artifacts, weapons, ornaments, vessels, paintings, sculptures and so many other things. It was quite interesting.

Inspite of all these, it is very obvious that THRISSUR ZOO and MUSEUM need MAINTENANCE. Most of the zoo area is unused and many cages are empty and dirty. These are common and seen everywhere in India.

Inspite of my observation, I enjoyed this visit to the zoo and musuem.

After having our lunch in the car, that has been parked outside the zoo, we took rest for sometime. Around 2.15 pm, we started to Anamalai. We thought of purchasing 'Kerala Special Nenthirankkai Chips ' at Mangalapalam. It was 3.45 pm, we reached Mangalapalam. No chips shops were open by that time. So we proceeded further and reached Anamalai by 4.30 pm.

We straight went to the Resort site. Appa went to look after his work and I started to photograph what ever comes by.

Busy Talking in Guruvayur Costumes

Watchman Thatha-- in deep thoughts 

Men at work

Thatha Poo ( Tridax procumbens)-- A variety of Daisy

 Inspite of bandh tensions, its a real great day. We planned to start in the early hours to Pondy the next day.