Tiruchirapalli Experience: Tiruchirapalli is a nice city situated at the bank of River Kaveri, the holy river of South India. I went to this place for a business trip. As usual, I always try to mix business trips with pleasure. So, I did not miss any opportunity to utilize my trip. Tiruchirapalli is a temple town and there are various temples, which can be reached easily for this city. The most famous is the SriRanganathswamy temple in Srirangam. However, the Rockfort temple, which is situated in the city, is one of the great wonder. The temple is atop a huge rock and it is at the height of about 80 mts. The architecture is quite unique, as the temple is cut from the rock. In fact, it is difficult to get the idea of the uniqueness of this architecture from the entrance of the temple. To see this in totality, you have to see it from the city. The top of the temple can be reached through the stairs. Once you start climbing the stairs, you can realize how old the temple is. Once you reach near the top, you can see the breathtaking view of the city and Kaveri. During the daytime the city looks like the jungle of brick-and-morter. However, the best time to see the view is during the dusk. If you wait there, you will see that the city is changing slowly from the brick-and-morter jungle to a magnificent city, with the lights glitters in the dark. The experience of this half-an-hour time during the dusk and evening can be a memorable experience itself. During the evening, you can also see the train coming from the side of Madurai and crossing the bridge on river Kavery. The light of the train in the dark river creates a surrealistic picture. Next day, the meeting was over at late afternoon. Sufficient time was not available to go to Srirangam. Another option was to go to the great old city of Thanjavur (Tanjore). The main attraction of this city is Brahadeeswara Temple. The temple was made during 11th Century, by Rajaraja Chola. Unlike the other temples, the Gopuram is smaller in this temple, but it is intrically designed. This is not only a temple, but this is also a great piece of architecture. The architecture is preserved nicely. The evening becomes beautiful with the sound of the puja offerings. It is a great feeling to be in such a place, where the puja is continuing for last 1000 years – with the evening is approaching the same way. It is in such places, where the history and the present get intermixed.

Food, sight-seeing and shopping: In Tiruchirapalli, we were staying in Hotel Sangam. The hotel was near to the bus stand. Hence, we decided not to eat in the hotel, as there is no point eating Chinese or Continental food, when you are in a place where the best South Indian food is available. This was a great decision. The Chettinad style of Chicken curry was great. If you are not accustomed with this delicacy, you need to inform the waiter to make it less spicy. Also, most of the restaurants are situated near the bus stand. In other portion of the city, there are limited option of restaurants. Eating out is still not the preferred option in smaller cities.

Activities & things to do: Tiruchirapalli is famous for the temples. Generally this city caters to the tourists, who usually come hear due to religious reasons. Apart from this, there is not much option. Tiruchirapalli is a great hub to visit the greatest and the best temples of Chola dynasty.

Travel tips, How to reach, travel warnings etc: We traveled during the month of November. The weather was pleasant and the evenings were excellent. We traveled by air from Delhi to Chennai and then from Chennai to Trichy.