More Temples in Trichy

My next stop was another temple town called Trichy, or Tiruchirappalli if you want to say it's full name! Here I splashed out on an 'expensive' hotel. And for what was probably less than 15 pounds I got a lovely room with a telephone and big Tv, eat as much as you can buffet breakfast (so a good opportunity to sample some South Indian dishes which I had no idea what they were), an amazingly posh lobby with shiney floors and fish in huge tanks, and a swimming pool.

I'd heard that you could hire a bicycle and my plan was to get one and cycle to the temples. After asking many people and searching in many places however, I decided that no, you could not hire a bicycle in Trichy. So instead I got the bus, which considering the confusing and very busy roads, was probably a good thing.

One of the temples was part of a rock fort. There were many, many steps to get up to the top, but once there the views across the colourful buildings, rivers, churches and temples in the city below were amazing. So were the soaring buzzards who flew by all around us.

The second temple I went to is called Sri Ranganathaswamy and is apparently one of the biggest temples in India. Here I obediently handed in my flip flops to the shoe looker afterer and then wondered through. Part of what I would have thought was the temple didn't seem to count as the temple, as here there were all sorts of shops and stalls and people walking around with their shoes still on. Inside what really was the temple were lots of intricate carvings and I even accidentally found myself in a line to prey to one of the Hindu gods. Too late to turn back I apologised and then I received some sort of blessing so I guess it was ok that I was there after all. I'm not sure which god it was that I was supposed to be preying to though.