One Day Trip To Coimbatore

Hi everyone, it’s been a while. Sorry that I haven’t written anything much after the Ooty trip. It’s been pretty hectic here. Anyways, here I am to let you know about my one-day trip to Coimbatore.

I have toured around Pollachi, Valparai and some part of Coimbatore District in the past, but it was long back. I guess I was doing my 8th Grade back then. I don’t even remember much about it. Apart from that, I have also been to Coimbatore when I went for my MBA Counselling with my dad and brother. But I didn’t get to tour around the town.

Until December 2022, Coimbatore wasn’t on my travel list. But, when I was working at Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation(TTDC), I somehow decided to work on Coimbatore District E-Brochure. I have no idea why I did that, maybe because my brother is currently there doing his MBA, or maybe two of my colleague were related to Coimbatore.

But working on that Brochure allowed me to get to know so many things about the place in terms of natural bounties and its cultural and spiritual significance. Not talking about the Isha thing. I am glad my MD told me not to include it. But anyways, I got intrigued by all the ancient temples it houses as well as by the unique museums, so I felt like being there as soon as possible at that point.

So soon after leaving my job at TTDC, earlier this month I visited Coimbatore before starting my new job at Cavinkare. And in this blog, I am going to share all the things I did on my 1 Day Trip To Coimbatore so that next time when you wanted to get a one-day escape by going to Coimbatore you can try adding all these places to your list.

From Chennai – Towards Coimbatore

I wanted to go on the Train, like always. But, yeah we didn’t get a ticket so ended up going on the bus. My dad and I got on the bus by 7:00 PM and the bus left the station by 8:00 PM. For the first time in my life, I get to experience a bus ride in the sleeper berth. I had some aavin milkshakes and ate the sandwich my mother packed for me while staring at the people in the street. Had a bit of uncomfortable sleep but isn’t worse than the ride I had during my Ooty trip.

We reached around 8:45 AM at Coimbatore Gandhinagar Bus Stand. From there we went to Hotel LandMark which is like 3 minutes from the bus stand. We freshen up ourselves there and had some delicious complimentary Breakfast. I am pretty sure I will be staying at Landmark whenever I am going to Coimbatore. That place is soooo good eventhough its lobby feels a bit gloomy.

Perur Patteeswarar Temple

As soon as we were done with our breakfast, we left for Perur Patteeswarar Temple. The temple and the entire surrounding have so many interesting tales and mysteries. For this sole reason, I wanted to visit the place. It is believed that the statue of Lord Shiva in the temple still has the scar that Khamadenu left. Not gonna tell you the story. Read up yourself. Perur is also known to be a town where the cow dung doesn’t degrade into manure, and also a place with a Tamarind tree that has seeds that couldn’t germinate and a palm tree that is unaging and immortal. So many things that cannot be explained by science. I heard that even now lot of scientists and biologists go there to research.

It took around 20 min to reach there. The temple is quite humble on the outside and typical Tamil architecture on the inside. Besides, all the sanctums of the main deities and the sculptures around them are such a sight to explore. The most rememberable sculpture is of the Lepords which is in front of Natarjar’s sanctum which has dots that are in a flowery pattern. The temple feels nice to walk around. Apart from that the walk around the town to find the immortal palm tree was such a memorable experience for me, personally. Because almost every person you meet in the town knows about its story.

Gass Forest Museum

Gass Forest Museum is one of the most interesting places in Coimbatore that I wanted to visit when I wrote about it in the brochure. So from Perur, I went directly to the museum. Situated inside the huge lush green premises of Tamil Nadu Forest Academy, the brick red century-old colonial architecture of the museum sits beautifully and elegantly. The exterior of the museum was very photogenic and it was nice to laze around and admire its beauty.

Inside the museum, especially when there is not much crowd around, it feels so peaceful. It houses so many collections of insects, minerals as well as forest specimens. These collections were initially done by Archibald Horace Gass who used to work there in the colonial era. There were probably around 5000 artefacts and one thing that bothered me is most of those specimens don’t have Tamil nameplates. Also, in the previous paragraph, I mentioned about a leopard statue, right? If you look closer at the pattern of the stuffed leopard sitting at the entrance door of the museum, you will be stunned by the resemblance to the statue you get to see in Perur Temple. I want you guys to experience this. Besides, I have also read somewhere that a few feet away from the museum there is a baobab tree, which can otherwise be seen only in Africa. So I went close to it hugged it and bid adieu before I left for lunch at Hotel Hari Bhavan.

Lunch at Hotel Hari Bhavan

My brother and my dad have previously visited here, so I decided to try it there. I wanted to have non-veg meals, but I know I couldn’t finish them so I stopped eating Mutton Biryani and Nattu Kozhi fry. And after a year I decided to take a risk and ate pistachio ice cream. To those who don’t know, I shouldn’t eat ice cream due to some medical condition, so even though it’s my favourite thing in the world, I always kept it at bay. Still, I desperately wanted it so ate it. Surprisingly I didn’t get into trouble. So, yes, that’s one satisfying meal. We got back to our room, rested there for a while and left for GD Naidu Car Museum.

GD Naidu Museum

We planned only to visit the car museum, but we had more than enough time on our hands so went to the science museum too. Since I went there on a weekday, it was really quiet and was able to explore it in my phase. There was a huge collection of Cars. The place has historical detail about technological information and the transformation automobiles went through. It gave me a better experience than I expected it to be when I read about it. The entire building has superlight and superfans with sensor tech. They have also utilized this option effectively for power saving. The cute yellow Beetle, the Herbie version and vintage cars were such an eye candy. You are allowed to take photos of the car, but you are prohibited to touch so be mindful of it.

The science museum has numerous collections I don’t know what should I mention specifically about it. Because it has an array of calculators, cameras, mobiles, typewriters belonging to different generation. But the most memorable of them all is the history of GD Naidu. This man has all my respect now after visiting his museum. Such a Genius and, sadly, our textbooks are missing out on this legend while they are so focused on putting up an entire chapter on Scientists from the western world. I request every one of you to visit this museum and to try getting to know about GD Naidu. I hope the upcoming generation tries to know more about this person and remember him forever.

It took a solid 2 hours of exploration at the museum. My brother also joined us there after he was done with his classes. After this, we went through hell to get an auto to reach the room. But sadly, Coimbatore auto guys are worse than those you could find in Chennai. I was so disappointed. Plus they are utterly disrespectful. I definitely won’t suggest you guys take an auto in Coimbatore. But I should also mention this one auto driver in the entire Coimbatore who was genuine. He dropped us on GD Naidu museum and agreed to get paid as per the price ola app suggested. I don’t know guys, I guess its time for ola and uber to disappear. No use.

Tuticorin is the only place till now I have seen auto riders with a conscience and they were so polite. So, yes, once we came out of the museum, we went to a supermarket nearby and had some watermelon juice and sweet corn – Quantity wise quite generous. Then… we got back to the room on a walk. After a few minutes of rest bought some dinner from the hotel’s restaurant and got a bus to Chennai. Reached home by 7:00 AM.

It might seem like a fully packed day. To be honest, it was, but I was so satisfied that I visited the places that I wanted to. This trip was so sudden and I am glad it worked out. There are still so many that I wanted to see like Siruvani falls, Baralikkadu, Eachanari Vinayagar Temple…

So, yes, there are so many places to see in Coimbatore. TTDC has not yet put up the brochure. Not sure why. But once they are done, I’ll share the link with you guys. So, do add Coimbatore to your bucket list already.