Rameswaran (Tamil Nadu) - January 22nd, 2007

I was up early so I went to visit the Ramanathaswamy temple after breakfast. I joined the Hindu crowds of pilgrims wondering thru the various corridors filled with scultured pillars, and 22 sacred wells where people take ritual bathings and rushed thru each of the wells to receive a bucket of water over their heads and the healing benefits of each well. A guide asked me to join his group of 5 people, so I did.
The first bucket he poured on me, I thought I was going to drawn, and had no idea 21 more buckets were awaiting me. It was interesting the fact that before I went thru this bathing ritual, I watched the temple elephant for over 1 hour while she was getting her bath, and really enjoyed her ritual. It was a very sweet experience to observe how obedient and gentle she was. Actually, how domesticated such termendous animals become. She was chainned until bathing time started, then the guy removed the chanins from two of the legs and she was free and I was happy for her. And just like I watched her bathing and getting all wet, now I was getting my baths from the wells and getting all soak and wet and she was watching me as she was standing in one corner.
After that, a priest did a puja (purification) on me and put some mark on my forehead with color powders, and a flower necklace. It was quite an experience.
In the afternoon I joined Richard in going to the beach, located on a very long stretch of land that reaches towards Sri Lanka. We walked for over 2-1/2 hours on this incredibly gentle, clean and unending stretch of beach in one direction, I didn't even got to the end of what I thought was called Adams bridge. Some fishermen at the beach said that this bridge is buried under water. We returned to town without reaching the so called en-of-the-world protruding land.