Srirangam and Indian Treats

We started our Sunday morning off very early with a trip to Srirangam Temple. This temple is the largest temple in India. It took us about 2 hours to walk through, if that tells you how big it is. We were not able to see all of the temple because many areas were for Hindus only. This got a little frustrating at times since all we wanted to do was respect their practices and see their gods. In some places we were told not to take pictures, so we respected their wishes.

 

Yelling a prayer to the gods in this corner is supposed to bring a lot of wealth to your home.

The ceilings were very intricate whether they were painted or stone. 

All around the temple there were these stone carvings. This one in particular is supposed to have all of their gods on it.

We saw many of these "Only Hindus Are Allowed" signs.

One of the many bodies of water inside the temple.

We were told this is similar to a Sunday School room where they come to learn about their gods.

 

Right outside of the temple were a ton of shops where we could get cute little knick knacks. We’re still learning how to barter to get lower prices, but I’d say we were pretty successful today.

After the temple our driver took us to two supermarkets. We kept telling everyone we wanted to buy some Indian foods to take home, so it was wonderful to finally make a trip there. Indian supermarkets are very much like supermarkets in the US. Surprisingly, there are not a ton of products that are strictly Indian. We noticed a lot of brands that we see in the US and products that were made in other parts of the world. My goal was to find some good Indian candy to bring home, but it seemed like most of it was made elsewhere. Thailand candy seemed to be pretty popular. Although there wasn’t a huge new variety, I managed to find a good amount of Indian goodies to bring home!