I started my five days trip to Tamil Nadu from Chennai on 7th Oct 2010. We reached Chennai at about 10, o’ clock in the morning. Our cab driver was waiting for us with a play card in hand, written my name on it. He kept my luggage in the dickey and we got in. We went out of the city to visit Mahabali Puram. On the way we visited a temple devoted to ‘Devi’. The specialty of the temple was that all the Goddess statues were big in size which people of Delhi even couldn’t imagine. We also took ‘Darshan’ of Goddesses. Most of the devotees were coming with a lemon. They put lemon on the ground near the main gate and squeezed it with their feet. It was the scene that I saw first time in any temple.
Before reaching the Mahabali Puram there was a beautiful garden called ‘Tiger Rocks Cave’. We stopped there to see it as the name was quite attractive. From out side of the garden I took an ice cream, meanwhile a man came near me and offered his services as a guide. I accepted his offer and went inside to see the garden. He showed us a rock, carved with the faces of about eleven lions in circle and in the center there was a rectangular plane rock. He told us that it was made of a single piece of the rock and was constructed by a Pallav king. The king used to come in the morning and sit there for meditation.
After that he took us to another rock which he described as a tower though it was not very high. He said it was used to keep watch over enemies if they might invade the kingdom through sea. He said, ‘On the day of Sunami I was at this place; when Sunami appeared here I Climbed on the rock and stayed there for eight hours. In this way I saved my life.’ In the last he showed us a Shiv Ling situated there. Near it there was a stone board upon which some thing was written in some language. He told me it was written in ‘Pali’ language. Hearing it I captured it in my camera. Then we proceeded to Mahabali Puram.
At Mahabali Puram I bought the entry tickets and went inside. The temple was fully in a ruined state. There were three statues one after another in different chambers and the iron bar doors were locked so people could see them through the locked door. Behind the temple there was a sea beach but to go there you have to come out of the temple. At the side of the temple there was a market where different types of souvenirs were being sold and the way also goes to the sea beach. We also went there as Mira insisted me to go there. A hawker told us that three guys were drowned there yesterday so the beach is not safe to go inside.
Coming back from there we went to a restaurant to take lunch. Then we took about turn to Chennai. On the way we went to crocodile bank where many varieties of crocodiles were present. They were about three thousand in numbers. It is really worth to see. Inside it there were many types of tortoises which I had not seen before. There was also snake pavilion. A man standing there was describing about them. They were also 400 in numbers. I saw such type of bank first. When I narrated the same to Abhishek, my nephew he said, ‘The similar type of park is also present in either China as I remember now or he mentioned the place in Hongkong. In that crocodile park the number of crocodiles are in many folds than the park which I mentioned. In that park there is a restaurant where crocodile flesh is used to prepare some dishes to eat.’
We went to one more temple dedicated to ‘Devi’. Near that temple there was a beach named ‘Beasant’ as I think so; we sat there about an hour and did some fun also. Then we went to Marina beach that time, the sun had set completely and the beach was illuminated with lights. We enjoyed some snacks there. After about an hour we went to the railway station to catch the night train to go to Rameshwaram.