Largest temple in India

  Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India Friday, August 15, 2014

We had an early start for this one but not a long journey just 2 1/2 hours and we arrived at 9am. We had no accommodation booked here thinking that as we were so early we had all day to find somewhere. Then after the 3rd hotel we had tried had said 'sorry we are full' the panic was setting in a little bit. Jody left Bryan with the bags as the streets were quite dirty here and set off at a quicker pace as the heat was also beginning to soar. Eventually she was pointed in the direction of a nice hotel and although it was double our budget - a whole £20 a night, the AC was a real clincher and we took the room. By now the temperature outside had reached a searing 40 degrees so we were both glad to escape it. The room also had a fabulous bathroom with an amazing hot power shower to get the train dirt and dust off us. That extra £10 was well worth it! The hotel arranged a car for us (an AC car no less) to drive us to the temples which were situated a way outside the town, for £5.50. So at 3.30pm as the day starts to cool down we set off. Now the purpose of the visit to this temple was a little bit unclear. We believed we had seen the temple of Bryan's Blue Peter show at Madurai. However when we had arrived home after travelling last time and researched where he thought it was, google came up with this temple here. So we were here just to make absolutely sure we had seen the right one as neither of us wanted to come back here again. For those of you who followed us last time may remember that the lonely planet had the wrong location for this temple and we ended up at Mysore some 1,000km away at a temple with the same name so we really did need to make sure we had it right this time. As we drove to the Temples, we could see them from a long way away. Most buildings in most of India don't rise above 2/3 storeys. So these temples towered above just about everything else around including trees. Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple was first built in the 9th Century. Since then, many rulers have built around it, each one building a new perimeter wall now making a total of 7 prakaras or enclosures, in rings outwards like an onion. Each enclosure has its own huge gateway or "gopura". The temple complex is now enormous in size at 156 acres in total making it the largest working temple anywhere. The original temple now sits at the heart of the complex but is only accessible for Hindus. As we were walking around, we kept bumping into this family who had 3 little boys, who were so cheeky but quite sweet, wanting to shake our hands and talk to us.  Bryan put his hat on the cheekiest of them in the gold tunic and took his photo. They all thought it was very funny and loved looking at the photo afterwards. Then, the second little lad in the purple teeshirt wanted to wear it so we did the same with him. They all walked off laughing but then one of the mums came back with the smallest of the 3 the one in the blue teeshirt. he had been too shy to ask but had obviously pestered her to bring him back. So Bryan did the same with him too and he loved it. They all went off smiling and laughing you can see the photos in the album and see how just the smallest things make them really happyIt put a smile on our faces too :-) It is really good to see this temple working as it has done for over 1000 years. It is full of colour, life, smells - of flowers and incense Verdict: This was not the temple Bryan saw on Blue Peter. The one at Madurai was! [gallery columns="4" ids="7911,7913,7917,7919,7923,7928,7937,7939,7945,7952,7957,7961,7968,7979,7981,7986,7991,7995,8002,8007,8015,8022,8026,8030,8034,8043,8047,8051,8055"]