DAY 4 - Our South tour Begins

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Everyone got up early due to Jet lag and were ready by 6:00am. Had Idly, Dosa, Egg-Dosa (Johns staple diet) some French toast and tea for breakfast. Our van driver Balu arrived sharp at 6:30AM. Said goodbye to the family and started our South India trip. Our trip route was Coimbatore-Trichy-Chidambaram-Tanjore-Madurai-Kodaikanal-Thekkady-Kumarakom-TopSlip-Coimbatore.

Our first stop was Karur for some Tea and snacks. John tried to buy "The Hindu" newspaper (his favorite one in India) but couldn't find one. The gang tried fresh Pamogranite no one liked except Heather and Becca. We continued our Journey to Trichy. We went straight to Chidambaram temple. I wore Dotti to maintain my local looks! We hired a guide from the Archeology department office in the temple and it was well worth it. We paid him about 300RS for his service. He was a nice guy and showed us around the temple. He took us up in a staircase to get an aerial view of temple Gopura's. I have been to the temple multiple times but this was the first time that I saw the temple from the terrace. The temple was so beautiful from the terrace. We took tons of pictures in the temple complex.

We were hungry after the temple tour and headed out for Lunch. The first hotel that came to my mind was Hotel Femina but Sr.Yoda recommended Hotel Maya's that was close to where we were and on our route to Tanjore. The food was Vegetarian and everyone except Dan tried the south Indian Thali. Dan had Chappati, Chilly Gobi (his favorite comfort food) and Panner butter masala. The staff were nice to make us the extras since they were serving only Thali for lunch. After the lunch we continued our Journey to Tanjore!

Reached Tanjore around 4:30PM and headed straight to Hotel Gnanam. This is one of the best hotels that we have stayed on the trip. It was so clean and well maintained and it had tons of foreign guests. The staff were very courteous and helpful. We checked in cleaned up and headed straight to the Tajore Palace. The Palace was not that great and they close pretty early. After the palace we headed straight to the famous Bragadishwara temple.

As usual we hired a guide and had a wonderful tour of the temple complex. The temple was so beautiful in the evening with special lightings that enhanced the view. After the temple tour we headed back to the hotel and decided to check out the bar. The bar was full and we had to wait for about 30 minutes to get a special table setup for gang. The bar also server food and it worked out pretty well.

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