The Tirunelveli Diaries - Tirunelveli

 Tirunelveli is apparently divided into the old and traditional part of the town which is called Tirunelveli and the other part of town called Palayamkottai is across the river Thamirabarani. Palayamkottai is also called the Oxford of the East because it has many schools and colleges and I saw one of them - Schaeffer school - which looked like it was from a British era. The town was ruled by the Pandyas, Cholas, Cheras, the Vijayanagara empire and the British over the years.

The river Thamirabarani

The western ghats

Tirunelveli is also called Nellai and has a massive Nellaiappar temple which we visited twice. Loved it. Apart from the temple there is always this talk of Tirunelveli halwa which we tasted and gave up - I never really liked it very much. Our hotel was well placed - five minute walk from the bus stand, a seven minute walk from the railway station. A wonderful place for lovely filter coffee and an evening snack of appam or idiappam at Hotel Maruti down the road, the nice fruit stall where we would buy bananas and pineapples and apples, the murukku shops with that unbeatable murukku. 

The Nelliappar temple

Corridors

The temple elephant

Jyo and I walked one day to the river which was not far from where we stayed. The western ghats loom in the background and there is an abundance of green, the skies are bluer, the winds hustle. 

Chariots

Corridors again

One rest day we visited the Nellaiappar temple (Lord Shiva, Parvathi and also Lord Vishnu), Jyo, Chattu and I. Chattu can speak decent Tamil so we went in early and were trying to figure our way about when a man who looked like he owned one of the pooja shops told us where to keep our shoes and then when we went back, took us into the temple and gave us a guided tour and some special darshans. The temple is massive with large corridors, many idols, a huge tank, intricate sculptures. It was an amazing one hour that we spent in the temple before we came out.

On another day Jyo and I visited the Uthista Ganapati temple which was being decked up for the Ganesh festival which was coming up. It was a much simpler and smaller place but since there was some activity going on we did not spend much time. 

Uthista Ganapathy temple

I am sure there must have been a lot more to Tirunelveli which i would have liked to explore but I managed only so much. What I saw I liked. 

Fruit Shop

Old Shoe Mart

The hospitality of the staff at RR Inn - Madan who was so friendly and helpful, Sanju Khan who was ever smiling and helpful in the restaurant, the lady at the reception who had a big smile and boundless energy, the coffee and appam an idiappam at Maruti Restaurant, the fruit stall guy who would slice pineapples and give us, the crispy murukkus. It all helped.