Hotel Supreme Madurai

... really provide much during the day. She spoke in an low, monotone voice that made me bored to hear her talk and also had little insight to give. At one point, some local Indians pointed out a really interesting feature of the temple that she had completely passed by.

The first stop was the Tirumalai Nayak Palace. This was the first palace I had seen in South India and reminded me of the ones I had visited in the North. It had big ...

We headed to Madurai to see the famous Meenakshi Amman temple and to visit with Latha's cousin's family. Kavitha has three year old twins (a boy and a girl) who were the highlight of the trip. They have a lot of energy, and loved getting their photo taken (and then running to see the picture on our camera). Siva applied henna on their hands, and they were so good about sitting patiently and waiting for the henna to dry! Very impressive. The temple's main ...

... to me. He spoke english and was a nice person. He took me around and played a couple of jokes on other foreigners which i thought was a tad mean. For example when we were in the 1000 statue room, if you tap one of the statues with your ear up against the stone, you can hear music(a tone like a tuning fork). I thought this was amazing, some nearby toursits heard this and as a joke told them that they had to pay him 100 rupees. They stared at him, and i believed him at first ...

... Chennai - and there is much more to do. There is a huge temple in the centre of the city that is vibrantly painted - we took a walk round and much to both of our amazment there was a real elephant inside! 10 Rupees (about 15p) got you a blessing from him - basically he rested his trunk on your head - Carol had to have a go!!! Then we've just been wondering around taking in the fantastic colours and ...

... a TV, the first working hot water shower in weeks it seems, even a towel, and of course, marble flooring. In my brief research of Madurai, it appears that there is not too much to do, just a big temple, a palace, and a couple of good museums. From what I had seen of the city thus far and my high-priced hotel room, I wasn't too impressed and began to formulate my departure prematurely. It was mid-afternoon, and I was thirsty. I had decided that I would take it ...

Two buses got us to Madurai in the early afternoon of Wednesday. The first departed Munnar at 7:00 AM, descending a very winding and dangerous road to say the least, quite a spectacular drive down though through the Western Ghats. And then we boarded a second bus in Theni for the noisy ride to Madurai ... a very loud Bollywood flick was being screened on the TV mounted at the front of the bus. We had been forewarned that Madurai touts are quite ...