Puneethar Kota

Elephant lovers rejoice! If you wish to see lot of elephants, albeit in captivity but being treated in the most apt manner head to Puneethar Kota, 3 km away from the Guruvayoor temple. Here nearly 80 elephants in the service of Lord Guruvayoorappan reside, and for the princely sum of Rs 5.00 you can see them being fed, bathed or just doing thier routine chores. Its good fun to watch them splashing in the pond! a word of caution though, do not approach any beast without permission from the venerable mahout!

Guruvayoor

Guruvayoor, about 40 minutes ride north west of the cultural capital of Kerala, Thrissur, is best reached by bus. But I took the train from Ernakulam which was coming from Chennai Egmore and as the flashy LCD screen at the station said, 122 minutes late. The D4 was packed like a II compartment and after wading through masses of humans and baggage I moved to claim my seat which had been usurped by an old man whose english vocabulary seemed to consist of just two words: 'Next Station'. Well, he did get off at the next station and I moved quickly to occupy the seat. The scenery outside was typical Kerala, rural but not quite so, with the almost incessant row of houses. After two and half hours the train reached its terminating station, Guruvayoor, where yet another LCD screen diligently showed the delay at 133 minutes. Its nor difficult to find the temple, just follow the unending stream of people and you will hit the East Nada of the temple. What is difficult is finding where the queu begins. I noticed that in the entire 1.5 km length of the queu, no male was wearing a trouser (all were wearing mundus, lest you jump to some other conclusion) and precisely one person was wearing slippers. Which presented me my first problem, buying amundu and finding a reasonably safe place to keep my stuff. I found the first shop selling mundus and kept my stuff with him. By now the line had grown nearly 2 km long and I was told by someone who had apparently done this many times that it will take minimum three hours. He was being optimistic to say the least, it took me nearly 5. In the meantime, the people immediately preceding me and after me, gave up. The darshan after the wait was really worthwhile as it is a stunningly beautiful temple. Next: the temple elephants.

Ettumannur

What do you do when you are in god's own land and have an afternoon free? You open the rough guide to india (three years old bought second hand) close your eyes and place you index finger somewhere on the map of kerala ... and lo .. Ettumannur! You head to the KSRTC bus stand try deciphering the noodles like script and sit in the right bus on the third try ... survive the 2 hour bus journey to just short of Kottayam and get down in front of the Ettumannur Mahadevar temple which is upposed to have some exquisite paintings. Well it has four big murals which albeit in poor state are impressive. What is more impressive is the temple ofcourse, ie, if you religious! You have a snack right in front of the temple which is strangely called ABBA and written like the way the band like to write it, but no music though! You board a bus driven by a maniac and rally feel blessed by the god when you make it tto Ernakulom in one piece