Tirupati

Hi everybody,

I am still alive and doing well. Mild stomach problems but that was going to happen sooner or later.

Over the weekend, we went to Tirupati to visit the 2nd richest Hindu temple in India. It is the 2nd most visited holy place after the Vatican.

When I think of temples I picture a quiet temple set in a forest with few people. However, this is not what i came across when i arrived at Tirupati. It was loud, dusty, and crowded. Pilgrims lined up for hours (8 + hours) to pay their respects to Lord Venkateswara (Wikipedia). There is a daily average of 60,000 visitors per day (i believe this - again cited from Wikipedia). Overall, this was a good India experience.


The market area. We just arrived, put our backpacks in our "cottage" accommodations and walked toward the temple.
Lord Venkateswara, i believe. (??)


At Tirupati, we had to visit the JEO's office to get a special VIP pass to visit the temple. This allowed us to use the VIP line, which means we cut the line really close to the temple, however, we still queued for 2 hours to get into the temple. We then lined up with thousands of pilgrims to pay their respects to Lord Venkateswara. I only got a glimpse, as people were pulling me along to keep the line moving (literally grabbing my arm and pulling me). There were no cameras allowed in the temple, but it's gorgeous inside, lots of gold!

After we ended up staying on the hill in "cottage" accommodations.

Our accommodations, 2 single beds for 6 people. It was an interesting set up.

The next day, we decided to hike 4 hours down the mountain. There are 7000 steps from the top of the mountain to the bottom, and with every step, the weather got hotter, and sweatier.


The fist hour was very scenic and actually quite relaxing. The air was cool (27 degrees Celsius - a nice retreat from the 35+ weather in Chennai and the air was clean and fresh (of course in India everything is relative - cleaner than where I'm staying (Chennai), this applies to food as well, relatively good or relatively better).


Climbing down the mountain.

People apparently like to stack stones. They're everywhere!


On our way down the mountain, we walked past this.
Halfway down (2 hour hike, still 2 hours to go). The bus station we need to get too is down there, really really far away!

Friends from IIT Madras (traveled together) and some new friends we met our way down the mountain.

Now back on campus and plugging away at work and recovering.

Awaiting my next adventure.

Miss you all.

Cheers

Robin

PS. Growing some serious facial hair. I'll post that next... maybe.