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Comment by jonjos | Hacker News Reader

> the food just got wonderfully hot and wow there are all of sudden a lot of churches

implies that you might have visited the green south Indian state called Kerala. Kerala is also called the Spice Garden of India (or maybe the world).

Happy to shamelessly and contextually plug my native land Kerala Tourism's website here if anyone wants to visit the land of spices.

https://www.keralatourism.org/kerala-article/spices-kerala/5...

More about Kerala here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala

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They have a fantastic youtube channel as well:

https://www.youtube.com/user/keralatourism/featured

And one of my favorite videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE8sc2932Js&t=13s

Checked out a few videos from that channel, they are pretty good, thanks for sharing. I've sometimes found that in regards to tourist topics or spots, foreigners know more than locals :)

They tend to know the best food joints, party places, road shortcuts, etc. Maybe because they get more time to explore.

This is fortuitous as I'm planning a trip back to the motherland. I'm Tamil by birth, but my mom's side of the family traces their ancestry to Kerala, and a few generations back they were based in Palakkad. Any recommendations for a temple-lite itinerary?

I am a Christian from Kerala but I think the below temples are the most visited in Kerala. I wouldn't know deep about the reasons on why they are popular.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabarimala (This one is famous for the seasonal pilgrimage)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadakkunnathan_Temple (350 years old, famous for the architecture)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guruvayur_Temple (A lot of people gets married in this temple)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple

(Now famous for the recent discovery of huge gold stash)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple#Temple_...

To visit these temples, you would start your trip from Thrissur district all the way down south to Trivandrum district. All of the places near to the temple has got 3 star hotels for stay and all the cities are easily accessible by train except Sabarimala. Almost everyone in Kerala can satisfactorily converse in English and all routes and signs are written in English too. Kerala is a tourist friendly state.

I think the parent commenter was requesting an itinerary without many temples ("temple-lite" → "light on temples"), rather than suggestions of temples to see!

I would not miss Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. You could look at the Gopurams alone for hours.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meenakshi_Amman_Temple

It's just beautiful. I don't think pictures do it justice. It's an experience. That would also put you in striking distance of Kerala or it could be made as an easy side trip from Kerala.

Edit: I didn't read closely enough that you said temple-lite. But I think its still a good suggestion :)

I'm definitely a fan of the Madurai Meenakshi temple, and the Kapaleeshwarar Temple in Chennai (partly because it's so close to my grandparents' home). But at this point, most of my trips back home have been spent in temples, and I'd like to have a more, shall we say 'secular' experience. :)

>"implies that you might have visited the green south Indian state called Kerala"

Indeed! Kerala is fantastic! From the Western Ghats to the beautiful beaches Kovalam, amazing spicy fish curries, friendly people, I could go on and on ...

There's no shame in that plug at all :)

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