Elements Hostel Madurai

Penultima etapa en terres tamil, i penultima visita a un temple i s'ha de reconeixer que un dels mes espectaculars tan pels colors com pel que succeeix a dins. Els indis literalment hi viuen al temple i aixo es en bona mesura el que aporta bona part de la seva espectacularitat. Es un recinte que allotja quelcom mes que la liturgia de les poojas o les estatues de les diferents divinitats. Els temples estan plens de vida, i es una vida que canvia segons l'hora que el visitis ...

... failed attempt as it was close (of course because of the holiday) but the rickshaw didn't tell me that when i asked to be driven there, of course as he would be the one to drive me back in that case...my own fault really though, should have clued in. It was still a great experiene though as there were a group of young boys who lived near the Museum escorting me around the grounds. They spoke quite good english and told me aboot ...

... Le tout s'opere dans une successions de gestes, de maniere organisée, et en musique au son des flutes et tambourins. Il est 9h de matin et la chaleur est etouffante. Passé la visite du temple, peu de chose nous retient ici. Nous reprenons un bus pour Tanjore, autre lieu ou la magie des temples continue de faire battre le coeur et l'esprit des pelerins, parfois meme les notres.

... but nobody seemed to bother us except for some chai wallahs who had tasty brew, a coffee vendor who stopped for a chat about the cricket and to massage one of my feet and a magazine seller who looked at me and said 'would you like to buy a fashion magazine miss, so you can look trendy'. I looked down at my backpacker threads and asked him if he thought my Afghani Ali Baba trousers were out of fashion already. Then i told him that the pirate look is ...

Madurai. The festival of human existence that is India in giant, subcontinental nutshell, was Madurai. Lively, colorful, dirty, crowded, loud. Barefoot walkers, cows with red and green striped horns taller than me. Bullock carts cringing under a punishing Indian sun, alleys reeking of various forms of human exhaust, smothered speakers struggling valiantly to declare their relevance. Unfortunately, the sacred, Dravidian Sri Meenakshi ...

... as the driver slowly edged out into the traffic, whether i should stay on the bus with all our bags and wait, whether i should jump off and look for him, or whether i should try to get all the bags off, and wait for the next bus. I decided that this last option WASNT an option, and so i jumped off (it wasnt moving very fast) amd ran in the general direction of where someone told me the shop was...next thing i see is the man himself waddling ...

... and included the loin cloth that he was assassinated in. I really did not realise the brutality of the English to the Indians and can't understand why Indian people are always so pleased to hear when you say you are from England. It was quite upsetting. After a quick snooze - well we had to since the temple was shut from 1-4pm we went into a souvenier shop just so we could go up on their roof to see an aerial view of the temple. Unfortuately for the next 2 years the ...

... the street the man from the shop started yellign at me, coke coke coke. i had no idea what he was saying so i walked off, untill i realised that he wanted the coke bottle. ahahahah... after that incident i headed back to the rickshaw which was waiting for me, and he took me to Ram's house, where more of Ram's family were showing up. We ended up staying in a room with them lounging on the floor Indian style and resting and having a good time. We ate and had a merry day.

... several times, etc. Finally, we had a full minibus, and of course, the man sitting next to me is the fat man who ruined my knees. He was much kinder this trip; he only oozed into about 50% of my seat with his girth. I was sincerely hoping to make it back to the hotel in time to get some food, as I had gone the previous night without anything to eat and did not have anything again for nearly 18 hours. I was reluctant to experience this twice. Looking ...

... not to mention good restaurants and bars as well), and today was a brilliant day for temple-going. I hope that my above description of this amazing temple can do it even a fraction of the justice it deserves. (I have pictures, lets say tons to be modest. But it is very difficult to manage them in these Internet cafes since they are of large file size, and Internet connectivity can be spotty. This computer is W2K, and doesn't have the drivers for my cameras...) JT