Trichy - (Tiruchirappalli) - Population 866,354

HAPPY DIWALI!!!

We left Madurai behind and headed for the local bus stand. As we expected it was well organised chaos with street sellers and dwellers selling you something or begging from you, passengers heading back and forth trying to locate which stand their bus actually leaves from as it is never the one that it says it will be, drivers standing around chatting amongst themselves avoiding any eye contact with the frustrated travellers desperate to get an answer, and the stray dogs, crows, cows and goats wandering aimlessly trying to find their next meal and avoid becoming someone else's.

This was a new experience for us as it was the first time we had winged it without pre booking the tickets so it was exhilarating as the pulse raced, the heart rate and stress levels increased and we pushed our way through the crowds like a scene from The Matrix while carrying half our body weight heading in the direction of the conductor hanging of the back of something resembling a bus shouting "Trichy, Trichy, Trichy" Our chosen destination.

Now we weren't expecting a great mode of transport but we were pleasantly surprised with the bus we got. It hadn't got the padded comfy coach seats that we enjoyed on the long distance journey but it was modern and in a good state of repair (ie: it had the correct size wheels without deep crevices that look like they will explode any minute, the doors and windows were in tact and the seats were a step up from a bench so it was all good.) We have devised a routine based on teamwork for hauling our backpacks and stowing them away, there was no luggage hold or space for them below our feet on this particular bus so we were in full swing of piling them onto a seat when the conductor started bellowing at us from the other end of the bus.

"Under, Under, Under, There, There, There, No No No!!!" was all he kept repeating loudly.

We tried to explain that they wouldn't fit but he was having none of it and signaled for us to get off the bus while still shouting the bags had to go under the seat. You can imagine tempers were getting frayed as we were struggling with the weight of the bags in the heat, under a barrage of abuse but eventually we managed to squeeze the backpacks in with brute force and pig headedness as we were not getting off after all the palaver. As soon as they were in place calm was restored and the drama was over and this horrible little man became charm itself as he took our money and gave us our ticket. We sat back and just laughed it's all part of the experience and as we find ourselves saying constantly "Only in India" and you cannot expect first class service when you are paying 58p each for a three hour journey.

The journey itself was uneventful and we enjoyed travelling through the towns and villages taking photos and people watching as the time flew by.

We arrived in the area known as Trichy Junction or Cantonment where most of the hotels and restaurants are situated. We rang ahead for availability of a few hotels but we have learned that it's best to view them on arrival and shop around. We heaved our backpacks on (well we actually swapped backpacks and carried each others) and headed across the main road to view the first hotel. From the minute we arrived we did not like the feel of the place, the atmosphere was strange, we had just left a place full of life with a carnival atmosphere, friendly faces celebrating Diwali and disembarked into "Eerie Indiana" a place that said " keep to the paths, we don't like strangers round ere!" (said in a Leek/Farmer/League of gentlemen accent.)

This became even more apparent while trying to cross the road, now as we have said this is not easy at the best of times but in every other place the traffic swerves to avoid you, not here, the motorcyclists were driving right at us and not swerving, catching us both even though we were next to the central reservation which left them nowhere to go. We made it across to the other side very disgruntled and into Hotel Meega.

We were greeted well grunted at by a man behind the reception desk. We asked about a room and he pushed a key over the desk and waved us to go and look not really bothered whether we stayed there or not. It was not what it said on the tin. The book described it as Clean, bright and more mid range than budget standard when it reality it was dirty, depressing and scraping the barrel but the price reflected this and after walking half a mile around Trichy checking out other options (which were way too expensive or didn't take backpackers) it was where we ended up, thoroughly disheartened and wanting to get on the next bus out of there especially after the vile attitude we again received on check in when we queried the price and cross referenced it with the book and were told "That is what it is ... It's the tourists fault." It was a toss up as to which one of us was going to blow up first, but we remained calm and controlled even if we couldn't just laugh this one off.

After a ten minute rant we devised a plan to get some food and sleep and decided everything would look better in the morning. We headed back out onto the street to find that a lot of the restaurants were closed due to it being Diwali and a public holiday. We finally found a locals place next to a bakery that was open after being followed, stared at and mocked repeatedly. We settled down for some much needed food and were given a menu to look at. When we tried to order from this menu we were told that they didn't have anything on that menu all they had was Masala Dosa, poori and idli. Now we had come across this is in Madurai and we just thought it must be because of Diwali so we settled for Masala dosa again, glad of anything resembling food.

The food was great and it made us feel a bit better but we still required more of a boost so we headed into the bakery to check out the cakes. After salivating for about ten minutes over the colourful array of treats on offer we chose a strawberry cup cake and a fruit slice and a pastry/fruit/jam affair to share everything seems better after a sugar fix of cake. Well almost everything. After sitting in the room for half an hour we decided we couldn't take it anymore.

We had come to trichy to see the Rock Fort Temple and the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple (apparently one of, if not the biggest in India.) So we had a rethink, checked out the opening times in the book and decided it was still early and light enough to check them out that night and leave first thing. Now we know this was kind of defeatist as Trichy is a large place and not all the areas would be the same but after our first couple of hours and the dive of a hotel we were willing to miss out.

We jumped into an autorickshaw after bartering the price and headed toward the Rock Fort temple. The further we got from the junction the better we felt. The atmosphere improved ten fold and worshippers lined the streets, celebrating as a community, all eating and drinking together and letting off fireworks ( a few of which narrowly missed us or exploded beside us leaving us temporarily deafened,) reveling in festivities.

The streets surrounding the temple transformed into a bazaar and stalls selling temple tat appeared. Brightly coloured trinkets and mini models of the various temples, Gaudy pictures of various gods and goddesses, plastic bangles and costume jewellery in abundance along with party blowers, balloons and whistles all making a fabulous scene.

The entrance to the Rock fort is an abrupt greeting as a huge hulking great rock stands in front of you at 83m high, said to be one of the oldest in the world at 3,800 million years. The sheer size is a thrill in itself and we removed our shoes and followed the long line of people in a daze as the rock swallowed us up and drew us to the summit. The air was electric and the squeals and joy in the chatter floated down the many steps and incited a real buzz. We climbed higher and higher up 437 stone cut steps passing small cut out caves containing various life size statues and stone carved sculptures of deities and bought to life by the bats flying and hanging inside with a sonar soundtrack straight from Animal Planet.

There are two main temples Sri Thayumanaswamy temple and Vinayaka Temple. Sri Thayumanaswamy is half way up and ornately decorated with offerings to the gods, As non Hindu's we weren't allowed to enter but we observed as the pilgrims said their prayers and followed traditions of worship. All amazing and interesting to watch.

We continued our climb and finally emerged into dusk at the top level of the Rock Fort. The sight was breathtaking! We had a full panoramic view of the city lit up and twinkling like a little fairy kingdom, we watched the tiny people dancing through the streets and all the traffic like toy cars zooming in and out. It was magical. As the sun set and the blanket of darkness engulfed us we were treated to the largest and grandest firework display we have ever witnessed. We watched cuddled up at the summit of a temple as the city sky literally erupted into colour. Huge rockets exploding into a rainbow, a full spectrum of every firework imaginable was relentlessly fired into the air or laid on the ground creating 3-D kaleidoscopic fragments of colour and light. It was magical, romantic and made all the more special by a constant stream of people shaking our hands and wishing us Happy Diwali and inviting us into their private celebrations. We had our photo taken with all the families that had travelled from far and wide and joined them in making our way up the final few steps to the Vinayaka Temple dedicated to Ganesh at the summit. Normally we wouldn't be allowed into this Temple but due to the jovial atmosphere we were welcomed inside and shown how to address the shrine correctly. This gave us another magnificent vantage point to view the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple with its vast Gopurams towering above the city. It seemed like a larger version of the Temple we had enjoyed in madurai so we decided that we would view its splendor from afar and stay at the Rock Fort and continue to be part of the celebrations.

We headed back to our hotel with huge smiles and restored faith. The day had ended on a high and we had achieved the main part of what we set out to do and we were happy to head off early the next day without feeling like we had missed out on something.