PADMANABHAPURAM PALACE

(Say that ten times fast, or… once.)

** This post (as well as the next two planned posts) is a bit of a “back-tracking” post. **

While down in the deep south for the wedding, I had the pleasure of joining my friends for a little sight-seeing. I will keep the commentary brief on these posts as they will mostly be photos. Keep an eye out for the photo captions to get a little more in-sight regarding the commentary.

What I do want to mention briefly is the mode of travel during our sight-seeing adventures. Samson, Ashwin, Noble and I borrowed Sunil’s car for all our cross-country travels. This little steed was quite a trooper! With small wheels and a small, but resilient engine that little car faithfully took us over vale and hill and down roads that made the American farmyard driveway look like a high-speed raceway! There were a few occasions that I thought we would have to get out and carry that poor little car up the hill, but she staunchly trudged on at Samon’s gentle prodding. Only once did she give out and threw up her throttle cable in disgust as if to demand a rest break. Again, with Samon’s coercion we were back on the road within mins. I would also like to commend Samon for his ability to complete u-turns in spaces that I didn’t think a mosquito could make a u-turn in… and trust me when I say he had plenty of opportunity to practice. (I do believe that is, without a doubt, the most u-turns I have ever experience in a three-day period!) Thanks to Google maps for guiding us to almost everywhere we wanted to go, and to Noble for being fairly accurate in his ability to read Google maps in time to direct Samson’s driving.

Our adventures started out Sunday morning, shortly after arriving in Sunil’s home town. After a quick freshening up and breakfast at Sunil’s house, we headed out to our first destination: Padmanabhapuram Palace in Tamil Nadu. The only thing I really know about this palace is that it is one of the oldest palaces in India. I will let the photos tell the rest of the story.

Part of the palace entrance courtyard. The main entrance is to the left. 

The main entrance and courtyard. 

35 rupees for an Indian Adult. 300 rupees for a foreign adult. Nope... no discrimination here! 

An interior courtyard. People, the palace was a ridiculous maze of buildings, walkways, interior passages, and courtyards! I wish I had been issued a map for reference. 

The view of another interior courtyard from the two-story banquet hall which was built to feed 2,000 people at a time. 

Interior passage leading to goodness knows where! 

I wasn't given much information on what this particular building was. We did not have access to all the buildings. 

This is the foreigners guesthouse. 

A detail from inside the banquet hall. 

Yet another courtyard. 

A detail looking through a palace wall. 

The king's bed. I hope he at least got a mattress to go with it! 

This is a reception hall where the maharajahs  met to conduct meetings. 

So much intricate detailing on all the wood work. This is from the ceiling. 

The four amigos. (L to R: myself, Noble, Samson, Ashwin)