We leave our comfy hotel after check in and head to a typical Malaysian restaurant for some authentic local cuisine. What a treat. It’s the first time our travelers are trying Malaysian food and they love it.
The desert is especially memorable. Known as Ais Kacang, it is a traditional Malaysian desert that contains red beans, sweet corn, grass jelly, shaved ice, ice cream and lots of other delicious surprises. Our travelers are in love with it.
That’s Malay for welcome. We arrive in Kuala Lumpur and make the hour long drive from the airport to the hotel. Our travelers are looking forward to exploring Kuala Lumpur plus attending the grand Thaipusam festival.
We arrive at our hotel in Kuala Lumpur centrally located in the heart of the city.
The view of the Petronas towers from our rooms. Quite breathtaking!
We gather with thousands of Hindus outside the Mariamman temple in Downtown Kuala Lumpur awaiting the departure of the silver chariot carrying Muruga, God of yoga and the spiritual path, to Batu Caves for the grand Thaipusam festival on Tuesday.
We look today at day 3 of our journey where we spent the morning within the sanctum of the Arunachaleswar temple in Tiruvannamalai, South India. The temple is thousands of years old and radiates a spiritual power that is extremely palpable. Our group was blessed to have the opportunity to witness the abhishekam (bathing ceremony) of the presiding deity of the temple, God Siva in the form of a lingam (an elliptical shaped stone that represents god as timeless, formless and spaceless). Special thanks to one of the main priests at the temple who is a friend of mine who arranged this special experience for the group.
No photography is allowed in the inner most sanctum so we share with you a few photos that were taken in the outer areas of the temple complex.
We pose with Dandapani's friend, Ganesh Kurukkal, who is one of the main priest at the temple.
Amy, Lauren and Jo reflect on the amazing ceremony they just experienced in the sanctum of the temple dedicated to the Goddess. A loving and dynamic energy is strongly felt.
Lauren loves this town with its sacred hill, Arunachala, and the special temple.
Some of our travellers...blissed out after the ceremony.
Lots of stalls line the street outside the temple selling offerings for pilgrims to purchase.
We leave the temple walking under the massive tower that is almost 13 stories tall.
Arunachala hill in the background and the temple are certainly one of my most favorites places in the world and now have won the hearts of my fellow travellers.
Our spiritual adventure began on January 27th but we’ve been without internet for 9 days now so have not been able to blog about the amazing journey we’ve been having. We’ll start to cover it in detail now so you can follow along. Photos in today’s post show us in Chennai, where we started our journey. From here we made our way south to Mamallapuram for a few hours then to the sacred town of Tiruvannamalai. Here are some photos from Day 2. (On another note, we’ve been focused on taking videos on this journey rather than photographs as we normally do so much of our journey will be shared later on when we’ve had time to upload video clips from our spiritual adventure).
Dandapani poses with Pam for a photo. It's Pam's second spiritual adventure with Vedic Odyssey.
We make our south from Chennai and spend a few hours in Mamallapuram exploring the ancient rock carvings. Lauren attracts lots of kids wherever she goes in India and here she is surrounded by a whole bunch who want to shake her hand.
Jo capturing on video the lovely smiles of these kids
Amy takes the opportunity to get an Indian top custom made for her in 2 hours. Only in India can you get this done on the spot and the tailor did a great job.
From Mamallapuram we head west inland to Tiruvannamalai. We stop on the way to stretch our legs and meet a few local ladies caring for some goats. Amy is overjoyed to be able to pick up a little one. We learnt a lot about a life of a goat herder in our brief encounter.
We continue on our drive and further along the road we come across a lorry (truck) being loaded with sugar cane. We pull over to see what is going on and ended up spending an amazing hour with a family of farmers.
They invited us into their home which was kept so clean and neat inside and out. Mud walls that were about 3 feet high framed the house with a thatched grass room that extended down about 3 feet off the ground. This forced you to almost crawl into the home but keeps the home very cool during the hot Indian summers. The floor of the home is thinly layered with cow dung that becomes hard like cement. We find out that cow dung is anti septic and keeps the floor of the home clean. No need to mop with modern detergents!
We’ll upload some videos of visit to this home soon.
Gary says hello to the very friendly farm dog.
The lady of the home is thrilled to see a video of herself on Jo's camera.
The dog follows us everywhere on the farm and here he says hello to Chris.
Amy gets to chew on some freshly harvested sugar cane. It was so deliciously sweet.
The trucks are loaded and now ready to be delivered and the sugar cane sold. It costs a little over Rs2000 (USD40) per tonne of sugar cane which is not very much for all the work that goes into producing and harvesting it.
Our blog received its 200th “Like”s today as I make my way to India to begin our spiritual adventure this Friday. Thank you everyone for all the Likes. If you haven’t Liked it yet please do so.
Participants on the adventure have already begun their journey making their way from the US, UK, Germany and Australia. A wonderful small group perfect for a profound spiritual journey.
Arunachaleswar temple in Tiruvannamalai
We begin our spiritual adventure in India’s 4th largest city, Chennai, located in the south eastern coast of the country. We spend one night in this city that is scurrying with activity before heading south west to Tiruvannamalai. One of my favorite towns in all of India with an amazingly spiritual vibe. The sacred Arunachala hill and the massive old temple to Siva have long been a place of profound spiritual experiences for countless spiritual seekers.
I have enjoyed a few pilgrimages here over the years and needless to say it has had a profound affect on me. But every spiritual journey is as rewarding as the amount of energy put into the preparation for it. I always tell my fellow travelers this. Our spiritual adventures is a time for self-transformation. Getting to know yourself on the inside while enjoying the beauty of everything around you. But the preparation is the key. Always! So prepare well for a spiritual adventure and you’ll have a profound journey.
Check back regularly as we’ll do our best to post photos each day though on a couple of days we’ll be in places with no internet connection.
The view of Rameswaram island from the Indira Gandhi bridge
One evening, on our upcoming Festivals & Temples spiritual adventure to South India and Malaysia, we’ll board an overnight train and make the long journey south east to the coast and cross the Indira Gandhi bridge to the laid back fishing island of Rameswaram. Located only a few miles from Sri Lanka this island is steeped in history and is considered to be one of the holiest places for Hindus in India.
Rameswaram temple in south India
Rameswaram temple's elaborate corridors lined with hundreds of pillars
The magnificent tower, at 53 meters high, is the tallest structure on the island and majestically rises over the green groves of palm, coconut and island shrub.
Our festivals and temples tour of South India and Malaysia begins on Jan 27th and there is still space for those wishing to join the journey.
Here’s a video that was put together on a previous trip to South India. It shows us arriving at the Chennai airport then off south to the seaside fishing village of Mamallapuram.
Arunachala Hill stands tall behind the massive temple wall in Tiruvannamalai
Arunachala hill, in the pilgrimage town of Tiruvannamalai in South India, has long been a sacred place for Saivite Hindus. The 800m tall hill is located about 100 miles away from Tamil Nadu’s bustling capital of Chennai.
Each year during the Tamil month of Kartigai (October-November), the festival of Kartigai Deepam is celebrated. During this auspicious time a big fire is lit on top of the hill. A a giant wick about 30 meters long is immersed in hundreds of liters of ghee and then set alight. The fire symbolizes God Siva’s light eradicating darkness.
The hill is also where the great Hindu mystic Sri Ramana Maharshi lived and meditated for over 20 years.
View of the Arunachaleswar temple, from Arunachala hill, which covers almost 25 acres.
Each full moon, countless pilgrims circumambulate the base of the hill. Men, women and children make the 14km (9-mile) walk barefoot, worshiping at the many small shrines along the way in particular the 8 small temples to God Siva, each one associated with the 12 moon signs. The walk begins at the temple, with an intention held strongly in mind, the pilgrim walks the path as he works with his inner nature with the help of the gods.
We’ll be in Tiruvannamalai later this month for 2-nights during our Festivals and Temples spiritual adventure to south India and Malaysia. A little less than 4-weeks away we welcome anyone who would like to join this journey.
One of four massive towers rising to 66m (13 storeys) stand tall at the entrance to the Arunachaleswar Temple at the base of the hill.
A classic preparation from Kerala, Avial is a light, easy-to-make dish of vegetables cooked with coconut and yogurt. It goes particularly well with Pallapam. Preparation should take no more than 15 minutes, even faster if you use the microwave.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups chopped vegetables – carrots, beans, peas, onions potato are all good
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 clove of garlic
green chili to taste
1/2 cup yogurt
Curry leaves, if available
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon coconut oil
Cilantro for garnish
Method
1. Cook the vegetables. This can be done in boiling water, by adding the vegetables in sequence depending on how long they take to cook ie. potatoes first, then carrots, then beans. Alternatively, do the same thing in a microwave, starting with the slower cooking vegetables and adding the faster cooking ones later.
2. In a Cuisinart or blender, grind the coconut, turmeric, cumin and chilies.
3. Drain the vegetables (if boiled in water) and then stir in the ground coconut paste, yogurt, curry leaves, salt to taste and coconut oil. Check consistency and add a little water if it is too dry – there should be a little bit of a sauce clinging to the vegetables, but no liquid settling at the bottom. Cook for a few more minutes over a medium heat – too much heat will curdle the yogurt so be careful.
Serve with rice or palappam and garnish with fresh cilantro.
Notes
• If I don’t have coconut oil, I sometimes use coconut flavored yogurt instead of the regular kind, but be careful that it is not overly sweetened. Siggi’s, which is available at many high end groceries makes a really good one.
• Curry leaves are a distinctive South Indian herb that is usually only available in Indian grocery stores. They are worth looking for, but the dish is almost as good without it.
South Indian cooks make breads from lots of different ingredients more or less unknown in the west. This unusual and delicious bread from Kerala uses a fermented batter of rice flour and coconut milk. This is called Palappam, although often you just hear it referred to as appam, which simply means bread. It’s often served for breakfast with a coconut and yogurt based vegetable curry but is perfectly good for lunch or dinner. I’ve tried many different recipes and the best one I’ve found is from the great Keralan cook Nimmy Paul from her book Kitchens of Kerala, so I bring it to you here – follow it closely to be sure of success. It requires a little advance planning, as the batter needs time to ferment.
Ingredients
1 cup rice flour
1 tablespoon semolina
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon dry yeast
1 cup coconut milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Method
1. Mix the semolina into the water, put it in the microwave for about 20 seconds or on the stove for a few minutes until it turns into a porridge. Let cool.
2. Stir in the yeast, coconut milk and sugar.
3. Allow to rise for 4 to 8 hours. Check consistency – it should be roughly like pancake batter or a little thinner.
4. Heat a small wok on the stove, ideally a non-stick wok, but if not, brush with just a little oil
5. Pour about 1/2 cup or a little less into the heated wok and immediately pick up the wok and swirl the batter around the edges until all the batter has been distributed. When you set the wok down, a little batter will settle back into the middle.
6. Cover the wok and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes. The edges should turn lacy and crispy and the bottom should start to brown.
7. Gently remove the appam from the pan with a thin flexible spatula.
8. They are best eaten fresh from the pan, but you can put them on a plate in a warm oven while you make the rest.
Notes
• Rice flour is relatively easy to find in asian markets. It’s a great ingredient and adds a distinctive crispiness to any batter or bread in which it is used. It’s also useful for thickening gravies.
• This batter is traditionally fermented using “toddy” the sap from a particular kind of South Indian palm tree that is made into an alcoholic beverage. Yeast is a fine substitute, but lacks a distinctive sweet note. Sometimes I add a little molasses or brown sugar rather than white sugar to make up for that.
• I find that the batter rises best in an oven with a pilot light or electric oven light turned on. In the winter, I sometimes turn on the oven for a minute or two to raise the temperature a little at the beginning.
• In South India, you can buy special pans for cooking this dish called Appachatti (literally Appam pan). This is very helpful, but a nonstick wok makes a perfectly good substitute.
Explore the locations we will be visiting on our Spiritual and Culinary Adventure
This map takes you through the route of our spiritual and culinary adventure in South India next February 2012. Use Google’s interactive map below to zoom in on towns, explore neighboring villages and the surrounding countryside. Click on Vedic Odyssey’s logo to learn the name of the town.
View Culinary Tour in a larger map
A spiritual adventure of festivals and ancient temples.
The journey is very much focused on visiting temples, exploring deeply the mysticism of Hinduism, meeting the priests and monks, participating in mystical ceremonies in the sanctums of 1000 year old temples and more. I’ll conduct classes along the way sharing with you about Hinduism, its culture and traditions, and the simple practical tools that it shares to help us in our daily lives.
Join this life changing spiritual adventure as we journey to some of the most sacred locations in southern India, long the catalyst of many profound and ineffable inner experiences for countless spiritual seekers.
Click this link to learn more about our temples and festivals spiritual adventure to South India and Malaysia at the end of January 2012. We hope you will be able to join us.
