Indian Experience Part 2: Tirvannamalai

After spending the working week in Delhi, I hoped on a plane to Chennai. My close friend Harriet has been living in a rural town called Tirvannamalai for the past ten years. Tiruvannamalai is a pilgrimage town in the state of Tamil Nadu and is quite the spiritual destination due to the famous Annamalaiyar Temple located at the foot of the Annamalai hill. Tiruvannamalai has long been associated with many yogis and siddhars, and more recently the 20th century guru Ramana Maharshi, making it a very spiritually auspicious place. Basically it is in the middle of fucking nowhere but there is the odd crusty that pops by to notch one up on their sandal wool bedpost of hippy traveler credentials. Clearly I had packed all wrong and soon realised that my 4 inch glittery black stilettos were to have no part in my adventure but was proud to reveal my 1998 Miu Miu gemstone sandals which I had been saving for the last 12 years for just such an eventuality as finding myself in the hippy arse end of nowhere.

Tiruvannamalai

And this was what I pondered as I sped out of Chennai and drove the 3 and half hours to Tiru. How could a girl as obsessed with packing as I am have got it so wrong? However I soon reached into a karmic place and redirected my channel of thinking towards my chakras which was a stroke of luck because fashion felt a long way from home.