With Debbie feeling dodgy as hell after her food poisoning at The Bangala in Chettinad, we got to Thanjavur by taxi as quickly as possible (well, after some very brief sightseeing stops) and went straight to the hotel.

Nothing had really inspired Debbie in her accommodation search for Thanjavur – most of the well rated places were a few miles out of the city, but the attractions and railway station were in the centre, so we opted for the best of what was available near the sights. Hotel Gnanam was a large & quite dated place that probably hosted a lot of tour buses and conferences – unremarkable but also inoffensive, a decent bed, OK aircon, a fridge, laundry service and booze on room service. We used both the laundry and booze service – very efficient! The hotel was on a VERY noisy main road though, so the ear plugs were brought out for the first time as Indian drivers honk their horns incessantly. It was on this road that we witnessed a cow grazing from the central reservation, blissfully unaware of the traffic. We now considered the sight of cows wandering on country roads and in resort towns to be quite a normal part of India, but in the middle of the city with buses, tuk tuks, vans and cars speeding past was another level.

Debbie went straight to bed, after emptying the minibar of fizzy pop now that she was safely within reach of a loo, and Steve ordered Domino’s online. He wasn’t sure that it’d worked but soon there was a knock at the door – the guy from reception had Domino’s on the phone and after much confusion and broken English exchanges it transpired that they were ringing because they didn’t have any of Steve’s chosen drink (Mirinda orange – PepsiCo’s version of Fanta). He agreed to take Pepsi instead and the pizza arrived soon after.

Debbie woke the next morning feeling better but still not ready for food, so Steve ate the leftovers from the previous night’s pizza, having learned nothing from the incident of the dodgy prawns being left at room temperature.

Thanjavur is not on most Indian tourist itineraries and we didn’t see very many Western faces there – but it’s featured in Rough Guide and Lonely Planet so is not that obscure. There are 2 main attractions – the breathtaking Brihadishwara Temple (signposted Thanjavur Big Temple), Tamil Nadu’s most awesome Chola monument, and the world’s finest Chola Bronze collection (even after the British Museum and various American museums, galleries & collectors have pilfered some).

The temple was indeed as awesome as South India & Kerala Rough Guides describes – and that’s high praise considering that we’ve been to Angkor Wat. We visited in the morning and returned just before sunset and got to see the magnificent temple complex in varying lights, on both visits just sitting for a while and marvelling at the intricacy and beauty of the structures. Families were in their Sunday finery and made us feel very scruffy – the women and girls in particular looked stunning and Debbie commented that she’d not yet seen a badly dressed Indian female. A group of 3 teenage girls politely approached us for a chat, wanting to practice their English, and various groups of women/girls wanted photos with Debbie for some reason.

The Royal Palace complex was not quite as spectacular as the Big Temple but we were really only interested in the art gallery anyway. A lady told us that it was closed but invited us to look around her museum instead – we declined, having just been ‘ripped off’ at the other museum next door where the ticket guy ‘forgot’ to give us our change. It was only 10p though! Actually, it turned out that the art gallery was not in fact closed but we found it quite by accident – walking through a decorated arch into a beautiful garden filled with sculptures from as far back as the 9th Century, and then into a gallery containing an enormous display of priceless (but seemingly not very well secured) Chola bronze sculptures. Intricate and beautiful, and available on most local market stalls…..

A lunchtime coffee & ice cream (all that Debbie could face eating) stop at Bombay Sweets was educational. Steve ordered coffee with milk that was served in an ornate metal cup sitting in a pool of milk in a matching metal dish – he commented that they’d obviously missed the cup and then the waiter demonstrated what he was supposed to do……. pour the coffee into the milk dish, transfer everything back to the cup, keep mixing to develop a froth. Aaahhh, OK then.

Dinner was another cheap and cheerful, but obviously very popular, vegetarian cafe. Thank god, after The Bangala food disappointment, we were back on track with great taste and quality and for less than a tenner for us both.

A short but sweet stay in Thanjavur surpassed our expectations – it was well worth the stop – and then we headed to the station for our 2nd trip on Indian Railways to Puducherry. Our tuk tuk just needed to get through the procession celebrating the birthday of an important woman (we didn’t get the name) in time…….