[edit] Pandalam
This is a small town which comes alive during the Sabarimala pilgrimage season, an otherwise sleepy town. Pandalam is the birth place of Lord Ayyappa. The Pandalam king who found an abandoned baby in the forest brought the baby to his Palace and brought him up as his own son. The boy-prince left the Palace one day to meditate in the forests of Sabarimala. He made his abode there ever since.
Every year, during Sabarimala Makara Vilakku (January/February) ornaments for Ayyappa are brought from his former home, Valia Koikkal Palace, by the head of the family, to Sabarimala in a colourful procession.
