Blogs from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 7

Her er et par billeder fra de foerste par dage. En forholdvis vellykket nats soevn har udrettet mirakler og vi er paa trods af de 35 grader+ i anstaendig form. Min antagelse er at jeg har galoperende kulturchok, saa tager det stille og roligt med at traekke de store linier op. Der er mange fattige mennesker og vi har diskuteret hvordan vi skal haandtere dem. Jeg har mest af alt vaeret stemt for at ignorere dem, men Chris kom med en god pointe omkring menneskelig anerkendelse ogsaa er vigtig. Saa proever fremover at kigge dem i oejnene og smile, inden jeg ignorerer dem. Det er sagt i alvor, da de mennesker vi moeder der hvor vi er kan vaere ekstremt insisterende og gerne griber fat i en hvis de faar en mulighed. Jeg er glad for ... read more

We had a leisurely morning of food and checking out then were on the 5hr midday govt bus to Madurai. It was amazing how quickly we dropped out of the mountains and this had a direct correlation to the increase in temperature. Soon we were racing along the plains of Tamil Nadu in our solar heated oven on wheels, passing tropical crops of banana and coconut. The landscape was littered with large brick kilns/drying houses – large pyramid structures covered with palm fronds where hand made bricks were stored to dry. At one point a pyramid shaped mountain (due to aggregate mining I think) stood alone on the plains with the ‘mini-me’s’ in the foreground and it felt like some alien/ lost civilisation landscape. Madurai, one of south India’s oldest cities, was a dirty, dirty hole. ... read more

Here is 5 day travelogue of our journey around Tamil Nadu. We started in Madurai, the oldest city in Tamil Nadu also known as the Athens of the East. And then on to a lovely traditional wedding in Trichy, Tiruchirapalli, the city of Rock Fort and Temples, Kodaikanal, Ramanathapuram to Rameshwaram, the birth place of Rama and all the way to the Land's End at Dhanushkodi. Day 1: Madurai மதுரை Meenakshi Amman Temple, Tirumalai Nayak Palace and Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam The Meenakshi Amman Temple or Meenakshiamman Kovil is one of the most important places of Hindu pilgrimage, located in the heart of Madurai. It was built by Kulasekara Pandya in the pre-Christian era and is an outstanding example of Vijayanagar temple architecture. Continue...... read more

Well, that's the end of my three months in India. It's been a real experience and I'm glad I did it after a few years of plucking up the will and courage to go. I'd say that my trip could be split into two halves. North India was an adventure. South India was a holiday. Mumbai is both literally and metaphorically, somewhere in the middle. North India (by which I mean from Kolkata in West Bengal to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan) is a lot more hectic and in most cases, less westernised than the South. I suppose there is a case for saying that the North is more like the "real India" than the more tourist orientated South of Goa and Kerala. I'd be hard pushed to say that traveling in the North was "fun" but that ... read more

Von Kerala haben wir einen Abstecher nach Madurai gemacht, um uns den beruehmten Sri Meenakshi Amman Tempel anzuschauen, der auch als das Taj Mahal des Suedens bezeichnet wird. Leider ist das Wetter nicht so gut. Da wir den Tempel nach unserer Ankunft aber erst nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit besuchen, ist es fuer die Fotos nicht so schlimm. Der Tempel besitzt eine Vielzahl von Tuermen mit unheimlich vielen bunten Figuren. Im Inneren des Tempels stehen viele Skulpturen von Hindu-Goettern, die von den Glaeubigen angebetet werden, und die Decken sind sehr schoen bunt bemalt. Um 20:30 findet eine kleine Prozession statt: mit allerlei Tamtam wird eine Saenfte durch die Gaenge getragen, in der sich eine kleine Figur befindet, die fuer die Nacht in ihr Schlafgemach gebracht wird. Die Glaeubigen draengen sich um die Saenfte, legen Opferkoerbe ab und ... read more