Pondichery, Trichy and Madurai

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Sorry about the delay, but we've been busy and lazy and now we have lots of work to do....

We went to Pondichery, Trichy and Madurai ages ago. Can't remember exactly when, but sometime in September.

Pondichery is the former capital of French India. We spent a day here, walking along the sea side promenade, visiting the temple and the Shri Aorobindo Ashram (apparently one of the best known and wealthiest in India) as well as the Botanical Gardens...

From here we headed to Trichy to see the nearby Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam. The temple area was huge and very impressive, but we were disappointed to hear that as Non Hindus we were not allowed to enter certain areas. Instead we were shown to a vista point on a roof top where we got a nice view, and the guy who took us up there kept trying to convince us to let him guide us around. He said that if we went on our own we would be harassed by angry Brahmins demanding money from us. After a long discussion we agreed to be taken around for a fraction of the ridiculous price he had first suggested. Back in Trichy we went to see Rock Fort and the Vinayaka Temple on top. Of course again there were areas we were not allowed to enter... The highlight for us however was not the temple itself, but the gorgeous elephant Lakshmi at the entrance who gave blessings to anyone who placed a coin in her trunk.

Again, we didn't stay long and moved on to Madurai, taking the train for the first time. The train ride certainly was an experience in itself as we only got unreserved second class seats... very uncomfortable... Although we had already started to accept that hardly anybody in India will offer to help us with our bags, getting off the train in Madurai was just ridiculous. Not only were people not helping, but they almost prevented us from making it off the train. Monia managed to get off quite quickly, but by the time Kiki was making her way towards the exit with her two big bags, people were already pushing their way in through the doors. Nobody cared that there were people trying to get off. As they did not seem to pay any attention to her “excuse me's” Kiki ended up just having to ruthlessly push people to the sides in order to get off before the train started moving. Watching from the platform Monia saw rage in Kiki's eyes...

Madurai... There was something different about Madurai, maybe because of its narrow streets and it being one of the oldest cities in South India... we don't know, but it seemed somewhat less chaotic than other cities we had been to. We really liked it. The huge Meenakshi Temple was amazing despite the fact that all the towers were covered, in the process of being repainted.... The guy in our hotel convinced us to cancel our train tickets down to Kanyakumari and to go by minibus. A very uncomfortable, but efficient ride...

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