Friday, August 29, 2008

Up Tiruvannamali's Arunachala Hill, Waiting at the Pumps

After a quick snack, some of the group ascended up Arunachala Hill (the “Red Mountain”) to see the caves where Sri Rama Maharishi, a 21st century saint, spent 23 years in meditation. Along the way we stopped to enjoy the view of the city below, the main temple still looking quite large. Although less humid, the steep climb marked only by small white arrows was still rather difficult. Every so often I had to stop to drink and take a moment’s rest. Happy that I made it to the top cave, I opted not to go up to the “pond” at the top – even though it was only 7 minutes up according to the local person. The two colleagues that did go up said it was disappointing and they definitely didn’t drink from it as our guide suggested. Carefully descending the sheer rocks, we were finally down to the bottom. A bit overcome with the heat and exercise-induced exhaustion, I was glad I was close to the van.

Along the way back to Chennai, our van driver informed us that he didn’t have enough diesel fuel to get us back. He checked at a few gas stations, but they either had no diesel or the lines were so long that it would have taken at least an hour wait. He even called for another van to pick us up in case ours ran out of fuel. Luckily we found one on the other side of the highway. Making a U-turn, we joined the line but somehow wedged our way near the front. After about a 20 minute wait, we were back on the road. Nearly 5 hours later, we were back in Chennai, our trip now completed.

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