Madurai: Busy streets, tea stalls and colorful temples

---

As soon as we got off the train in Madurai, we were swarmed by rickshaw drivers (as usual) and very pushy beggars, one of whom inadvertently flashed us due to a poorly wrapped sari. We figured out that the hotel we'd booked wasn't terribly far away, so, despite the heat, we decided to walk. When we arrived at our prospective hotel, we were appalled by its dirty, run down state, as well as its jacked up prices, considering its website falsely advertised it as affordable and clean. Disappointed, we set out to find another hotel and settled on one nearby that, though still a bit pricey, was exponentially cleaner. After we checked in, we realized that it did have a few downsides, however, in that the beds were extraordinarily short with wide pillows, causing our feet to hang off the edge, and the power had a tendency to go out sporadically throughout the day and night, which we only really minded when we were sleeping and the fan shut off.

After about five minutes of walking around the city, we were reminded of Hanoi, a city in Vietnam that was not necessarily at the top of our list of favorite places. We were disheartened to find the streets to be littered with trash (more so than usual) and the traffic to be heavy and terrifying - at least in Hanoi we only had to worry about dodging motorbikes! The city also maintained a constant haze of exhaust and pollution, making it difficult and unpleasant to breathe. I think it's safe to say that after this trip, Scott and I will have developed the lungs of chain smokers. Anyway, we did enjoy the wide selection of fresh juice stands, coffee and tea stalls, and sweet shops, and we managed to find a reasonably priced restaurant that we really enjoyed. We decided pretty quickly, though, that this wasn't a city we cared to spend much time in.

We spent our first day wandering through the city's famous (and huge!) Meenakshi Temple, marvelling at its massive, colorful gopuras, as well as its many shrines, sculptures and colonnades. We found ourselves surrounded by pilgrims, some laying themselves out on the ground in worship, and our visit was accompanied by continuous meditative music, both live and recorded. We even got to see the temple's elephant, who placed its trunk on the heads of tourists and pilgrims as a form of blessing in exchange for rupees and bananas, which it peeled masterfully. We also had the pleasure of witnessing the elephant relieve itself right on the pavement in the midst of a crowd of people...let me assure you the urine and cow pies in the streets are nothing compared to this...

We spent much of our second day browsing a wide array of local hand woven textiles at a place near the temple called The Museum Shop. We went in just to look, but, after a few hours of being shown numerous wall hangings, rugs, pillow cases, etc. and kindly being served tea and biscuits by the shop's owner, we left having splurged on several items, including a giant hand stitched wall hanging with a peacock on it and a patchwork tree of life hanging. Everything there was very beautiful which made it difficult to choose, and we even got to go up on the roof of the building for a nice view of the temple. Aside from visiting the temple and shopping, we didn't do much sightseeing in the city. We found it to be a bit too chaotic for our taste and booked a minibus bound for the remote hill station of Kodaikanal set to leave at 7:30 a.m. on the 21st. We were told that taking a private bus would get us there much quicker than a public bus, but, as it turned out, the bus didn't leave on time and made several stops about which we'd not been informed (a few times for photo-ops of the mountain views and once at a random science museum), causing the ride to take five hours instead of three. Also, our driver drove like a maniac on the winding roads, so I'm just glad we made it in one piece! We're excited to spend some time in the small, quiet, and, weather wise, much cooler mountain town. 😊

---

Photos

Bookstore
Definitely not representative of all the bookstores here, but certainly more photo-worthy.