During my recent visit to India (12/2010) I got a chance to visit Guruvayoor first time in my life. I decided to blog my travel & experience so for future visitors (first timers like myself) this might help. For history and other facts visit official sites. It is a great temple with great history. My total stay was 36 hours.
Reaching by air
I flew from Delhi to Cochi airport and took an arranged cab. I stayed at Gokulam resorts in west nada, Guruvayoor. I called resort people for arranging the cab ride. It is around 80Km from Cochi to Guruvayoor. Ride was bumpy and slow, but got a chance to see some Kerala. It is a bit different compared to other states in India. City spreaded uniformly, not really congested housing. But you won't find much empty land. Cab ride cost me Rs 1400. Felt I could have done some homework here. If you have patience take govt bus, that would be extremely cheap and drops you right across temple. I booked a suite at Gokulam resorts. On good side, it is clean, hot water available all time, very close to temple (10mins walk), and staff is very helpful. On down side, I realized I should have booked a double bed room, because instead of giving an extra room for suite, they converted same double bed room into two rooms making it very small and a bit irritating for us. As usual all bath/rest rooms are small and you can't get out of it without getting your feet wet. And resort doesn't have any in house restaurant, so even for coffee/tea you need to step out. They serve some machine coffee/tea but as you know it sucks. I didn't find any good hotels near by.
We landed at 1:00 pm. Cab driver was good and responsible, followed up with me couple of times, to confirm arrival time and promptly picked us. By 4:00 pm reached Guruvayoor. For lunch, better have something at airport or on the way, as not many restaurants you can find in Guruvayoor. (considerable number of small, dingy ones exists). By 6:00 pm we went to temple. As we don't know if storage facility exists, we walked barefoot and didn't take any cameras or cell phones(cell phones & cameras are NOT allowed inside temple). But there are 2 places adjacent to temple for storing shoes and other valuable stuff. It looks very rudimentary, but they were doing great job. They note down what you intend to store and will keep in their own bags and give you a token. So don't plan on taking big purses or luggage etc. I am not sure they store luggage etc as it looks small. Make sure to buy a dhothi (pancha/white lungi). There are several shops on the way to temple on west side,(and for sure east side too) where you can buy. Dhothi cost me Rs 200 and white shall (pi pancha) cost me Rs100. I didn't bargain. I don't have a six-pack body..-:) so, I need something to cover on top too. For men it is only dhothi, no shirt, of course no shoes/sandals. For women, salwar is also OK. Saree, of course preferred. But at Mammiyur temple(Siva temple, at 1 Km from Guruvayoor temple), they didn't allowed salwar either, only saree, so only my self and my daughter went inside. I am not sure about dress code of children. But better be prepared as I have seen small boys (may be 3 yrs) wearing dhothi.
We went to see Seeveli (taking Lord Krishna on elephant around temple). Seeveli happens in side temple compound, so if you want to see you must enter temple with dress code. So entered into temple from west side (if you want to have Darshan you need to go in a line from East side) and spent time watching elephants, architecture and temple workers preparing lights etc. And you will be enthralled by that meticulous process of Seeveli that has been going on for few hundred years. I am sure it is same scene with same music, dress code, elephants even 500 years ago too. For a moment I felt I went back in time. As we decided to go for darshan following day, we weren't in a hurry. Temple walls are adorned with beautiful paintings depicting several scenes from our itihasas (like Maha Bharatham)
Best to start early morning before 7:00 am for darshan
Following day, I alone woke up at 2:30 am and took a shower and went to temple on bare foot with dhothi. As it was December month, you will find lot of Ayyappa devotees among people waiting to see God. It might be less crowded other times, I guess. After 2.5 hours in line, I got my chance to see the Lord Krishna and it was really beautiful and great experience.
By 6:30 am I returned and again along with my family went to temple around 9:30 am. It is a mistake to start that late. By the time we got into line and reach close to darshan, time is reaching 12:30 pm and temple closes by 12:30 pm. By the time even if you are inside temple compound they will not allow you to have darshan and you have to wait till 4:30 pm when they reopen. So it is always BEST to go early in the morning. While waiting in line my daughter has go to bathroom and I have to jump steel bars and there is a rest room facility with in 200 feet, next to queue. But you have to be barefoot. Good part is you can wash your feet before you step out of bathrooms and start walking with barefoot again...-:) Luckily we had our darshan before 12:30 pm. While during morning darshan devotees are allowed a bit closer to God, now, queue was moving at faster pace and also redirected from even the farther point from Deity.There are several options to do different poojas. I didn't explore any of those or for express darshan.
Elephant sanctuary
After that we had a lunch(Rs 50/meal) in a restaurant on east side. Food was OK, not so great. But I felt it is healthy. After that we took an auto rickshaw and went to the 'Punnathur Kotta' place where they keep all temple elephants (65 of them). You need to buy a ticket and additional ticket for camera. It is good and they are maintaining OK. But somehow my heart felt sad for those animals and I couldn't stop comparing luxury of animals in typical Zoo we visit in US, or Animals in Disney world where they hire professional care takers and also find people who are passionate about animals than just an employee. But I am sure, compared to lot other places in India, these people are doing great job. Even police at temple and other workers are considerate and doing great job. Compared to temple managements in my state (Andhra) Kerala is lot better, I felt.One thing I didn't like is non-Hindus are not allowed. If someone comes effort and comes to visit our temple we should invite them cordially. We should allow them to experience the greatness of Hindu (Vedic religion is more appropriate) religion. Not shut them.
 |
| Bathing an elephant |
Boat ride
From there we took an auto rickshaw for a round trip (Rs 300) and went to Rajah resorts (around 7Km) for a boat ride in back waters. It cost us Rs 1200 for one hour ride (I guess they charge per group, we were only 3 people). Boat was spacious, with roof and couple of chairs. Ride was very very good and pleasant except motor noise. It was horrible noise. We enjoyed nature and ride. Definitely good experience. On boat, I read a note saying 'no smoking or alcohol is allowed'. There is a restaurant at resort office and we went to have an early dinner and I was expecting some fish and prawns and disappointed to know that they serve Chinese and North Indian food. Menu was banal. They stop rides before sunset (6 pm) so, plan accordingly.
Same night I have a train to catch at Trissur which is around 30 Km. We used same cab service. That's it.
It is a bit garrulous but I am sure helpful to first timers.Look for my other blogs about my other visits.
Key words: visiting India visiting south India; visiting kerala; best temple to visit in Kerala;
చాలా చక్కగా వివరించారు. ధన్యవాదాలు !!
ReplyDelete