I visited chennai last week, it was totally changed my opinion about chennai. Some peoples might think that chennai is a crowed city, with concrete buildings and smoky industries. From my experience i can say that , you should plan a tour to this capital city , a lot of attractive places are waiting for you.
First we guided to Chennai port , which is the second largest port in India. It is more than 125 years old. The economical growth of tamilnadu strongly depends on this port . It was so amazing and attractive.
Next we went to St.George Fort. It gave us the remembrance of the ancient days. Today, the Fort serves as the administrative headquarters for the legislative assembly of Tamil Nadu state. We visited the museum which is one of the oldest surviving buildings built within the fort. All the monuments, statues and all the things present there was fascinating the visitors.
Our next destination was Vivekananda house. It is also known as Ice House, is a shrine and target of pilgrimage for the admirers of Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda stayed here for six weeks in 1900. This two-story house is a masterpiece of Victorian architecture with its characteristic designs of sunburst and gabled roof. The bedroom where Vivekananda stayed, is now a safe haven for meditation. We can jaunt through all the places there. Then we went for shopping in city centre. It , is one of the landmarks of the modern Chennai. A lot of stores are there with goods of all the brands major brands as well as local brands. A major entertainment place in city centre is the INOX theatres is Present there.
Then we visited Santhome church which is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Santhome. It was built in 19th century. It is built over the tomb of Apostle St.Thomas. There are only three basilicas built over the tomb of an apostle. So we were very excited. we also visited the underground tomb chapel below the Basilica and the museum associated with it. Then we went to Santhome beach which is the southern part of the Marina beach. We spent our evening there. Light houe present there is the major attraction of the beach.
Then we returned to our resting place. On the way we visited Kapaleeshwarar temple which is one of the most important temples in the world and it is very close to Sea. It was the time of arthi when we reached there. It was built in 19th century and it has statues of all the Gods and Goddesses of the Hindu Religion. It is said Shiva with the bowl of skull [Kapalam] during the time of creation of present ‘Yuga’ ,hence the name Kapaleeswarar.
Next day we went to Government Museum, which is located at Egmore. It has 6 independent buildings and 46 galleries. This museum cover a variety of objects from diverse fields including Archaeology, zoology, botany,geology,anthropology. National art gallery, contemporary art gallery,childrens museum are also present there.
Then we went for shopping to spencer plaza which is one of the biggest shopping malls in South Asia. After shopping we went to Valluvar Kottam. It was built memory of Thiruvalluvar, who was a classical Tamil poet and saint. The auditorium present here is largest auditorium in Asia, which can accommodate about 4000 people and it has no pillars for support. ‘Thirukkurals’ the famous writing of Thiruvalluvar is inscribed on the granite pillars which surround the auditorium.
Then we went to Birla planetarium. Sky shows are there every day at different timings in different languages. The shows include the Solar System, eclipses, Moon, Earth, comets, sky and seasons, shooting meteoroids, deep sky , and the stellar cycle. We went for sky show and we had a virtual tour to sky. It was my first experience to see sky in a different view. And it caught the mind of all the tourists present there.
Then we went to Marina beach. Even though bathing and swimming at this Beach are legally prohibited because of the dangers, a large crowd was there at the evening. The statues and monuments present there gave a different appearance to the beach. We enjoyed our evening there and we returned to our rest place. That day evening we went back to our home town. Of course it was a different experience to all people in our group. And we enjoyed a lot.
Also there are a lot of beautiful places to visit St.Thomas Mount, which is a small hill rock in chennai. is associated with St. Thomas, the apostle of Christ. A beautiful church is there on the top of the hill rock.
Another place is Vandalur zoo, which is a zoological garden located in Vandalur. A different ecosystem is present there. It will be a different experience .