Jan 11, 2012 - Madurai

We were due to leave at 9am so with a late arrival and a later start looked forward to a bit of a lie-in.  No chance.  5am and the music from the temple started.   As it is a religious festival and pilgrimage period until 15 Jan, the music apparently started earlier and lasted longer than normal.  We were told it went on for two hours (we think we got back to sleep!) and also managed to drown out another call to prayer in a different part of the city as well - Hindu temple and Muslim call to prayer.  And the good news is we get it all again...

Dec 29, 2011 - Madurai

Headed for Madurai today (not so cold this morning) When we arrived we went to the Ghandi Museum, it was quite interesting but being with all the Indian tourists and reading about the history of India and their quest for freedom and what the British had done along the way did not make me feel all that comfortable. The hotel I booked here was the cheapest and also the nicest (you never know I suppose) In the afternoon I went to the Sri Meenakshi Temple and the Tirumalai Nayak Palace, both really good to see and amazing places. Each place...

Dec 19, 2010 - Madurai

So, I am now in Madurai. I spent my final night in Thanjavur, moved on to Trichy for one night and am now in Madurai. Thanjavur: My final night in Thanjavur I was sitting on my bed eating a bag of chips when a huge sewer rat streaked out of the bathroom. I immediately jumped up on to my bed and screamed. The rat went under my bed and wouldn't come out. I started jumping on the bed to get the rat to get out and go back where it came from. Instead, the damn thing leaped onto my bed. When it leaped, I leaped I ran to the door so fast. But do...

Dec 5, 2010 - Madurai

Day 7- Sun. Dec 5- Madurai We left our hotel in Chetanid this morning and travelled west to our destination. Along the way we stopped at a bird sanctuary where Jamie got his fill of viewing nesting of migratory birds like egrets, herons, ibises, etc. While we were there several local children came up to see us, as happens wherever we go. We asked them if they would sing to us, which they did, and then we sang to them “head and shoulders, knees and toes…” Of course there was lots of laughter all around. We continued on our way, over dirt...

Jun 2, 2010 - Madurai

This morning we started our day early to miss the main heat of the day. We had a short cycle rickshaw which took us to the main temple in Madumalai again and we wandered around taking it all in and getting some photos. It was a popular wedding day and we saw a couple of brides with their henna tattos and hair braided with jewels in beautiful red saris. After that we went to a place where they were making cotton material by hand. Devonne and I were unimpressed by the menu offered at lunch (omellette sandwich anyone?!) so we went up the road...

Feb 4, 2010 - Almost time to go

Since our last entry we've had several other visits to the tailors (with another one planned for this evening, hopefully our last), a huge amount of curry to eat (thrice daily), a visit to a luxurious swimming pool in the hills, and lots of getting to know the girls at the orphanage. On one of our trips to see our tailor in town, we were advised that our suit jackets were being made off-site by a 'Master Tailor'. This meant that when we tried them on and they were too small we were sent off in a complementary rickshaw with an escort to the...

Jan 26, 2010 - Madurai

After a couple of easy nights in Dindigul Rajkumar took us in his Ambassador taxi to Madurai (luxury after all the trains), and we were introduced to Seetha who manages the orphanage. Rajkumar explained briefly where we were staying, and what the buildings were used for, with a lot of long pauses, looks towards Seetha, and general head waggling from both of them. After slightly too long of all four of us stood waggling heads at each other without exchanging words, we were taken across to meet 'our people' (other white volunteers). Grace...

Jan 12, 2010 - Madurai

On the way to Madurai we stopped at a town (don't know the name of) to see a temple located up on a hill. 400+ steps up. As we wandered through the small streets to the temple we came across an elephant coming out of its garage - a bit like a car - and then ended up following it up to the temple where it would spend all day blessing people by placing its trunk on their heads. (Tamara and I got a similar blessing from an elephant the day before. It's pretty cool. Tamara ended up with elephant snot in her hair, but that's part of the...

Dec 6, 2009 - Week 5

Wow - 5 weeks already!! So Marc forgot to mention a historic event last week...I ate not just one, but two banana fritters! For those of you who don't know I think they are the devils food so it was a pretty big deal. Anyway...what have we been up to this week. It's been pretty busy as we're both in complete and full health and we wanted to see as much as we could before we leave on the 10th. So once we had left our houseboat we jumped on the bus and headed to Kumily which is on the outskirts of Periyar National Park. The buses took about 6...

Nov 17, 2009 - Tempel trance

Madurai's temple complex is a truly magnificent place and the town around it has all the charms one might dream of in Southern India. The tall gopurams (gate towers) of the temple are regularly repainted, as are the ceiling paintings, making it a strikingly colorful place. The whole canon of Hindu deities seems to be represented and every day is a festival for one or the other of the gods. There are always many little sanctuaries and altars dedicated to women's needs, wishes and desires in Hindu temples but here on this day, women are a...

Apr 8, 2009 - Visit to Madurai

It is around 9 p.m. I'm sitting at an internet cafe right around the corner from our hotel in Trichy. We spent a lot of time on the road today, but our stop for several hours in Madurai provided us with an excellent break from driving for the middle portion of the day. Last night we bush camped in a clearing some several hundred meters from the road, and after several hours of chilling at the campfire, I simply went to sleep - sans a tent - on my air mattress under the open sky. The temperature stayed warm throughout the night and no rain...

Feb 23, 2009 - Madurai

My first real disappointment of the trip so far has been to get to Madurai, only to discover that the entire Sri Meenakshi Sundareshwarar temple was covered in scaffolding, as it was being painted. My only reason for stopping in Madurai had been to visit this colouful temple as images I have seen in pictures (great towers covered in painted gods) are really iconic of southern India. This painting work only happens every few years and the temple is due to be ready again early March, so just unlucky with my timing. After travelling 5 hours...