We booked a room at Hotel Bhimas Residency for that nights stay. After spending close to half an hour refreshing ourselves, resting a little and clicking pics of the view from the room , we decided on heading to the Padmavathi temple which was approximately a 15 minute drive from our place. This temple is situated in a place called Thiruchanoor/Alamelumangapuram.
We reached the temple at around 7pm. After close to twenty minutes of waiting had a good darshan. One very annoying thing was that they had a continuous recording being played asking the devotees to take care of their belonging like they do in exhibitions and and other fairs which to me did not give the fulfillment of being in a temple.
To pacify all this I was super happy when I saw ladus being given as prasadam in this temple as well, like that in the thirumala temple. After having some ladus and packing the rest to share it with family and friends back home , I saw a group of people having some different kind of Prasadam and then it was time to go collect ours as well and this time it was some delicious hot pongal being served in cups made of dried leaf (thonai). I have always liked prasadam s given at temples right from the time I was a kid.
Once out of the temple, the small shops adjoining the temple selling accessories, toys, and stuffs that are unique to the place always adds on to my entertainment quotient be it in any place, so the next half an hour we spent walking around the streets around the temple.
For dinner we headed back to the hotel where we had booked to stay for the night. I remember even during our last trip to Tirupathi we had stayed at Bhimas Residency - nothing very special about the place, a good not so expensive place with all basic necessities.
(My next post on the trip uphill and darshan at the Tirumala temple is coming soon )