Madura Park Inn Madurai

... br><br>Back to our hanger-onner who was lurking in wait behind a fruit stall outside our hotel - The Tailor. A short white haired old man with a leathery face to match his sandals and the familiar white cotton wrap skirt tucked into itself resembling a giant nappy. Before leaving for India we had both agreed that we'd get an item of clothing made to measure so we were quite happy to follow Tailor into his small shop ...

... sehenswerter Teil Indiens.<br><br>Vorgestern kam ich morgens um halb 7 hier in Madurai an. Seit meiner Kindheit war ich von Bildern des Meenakshi Tempels fasziniert und war deshalb schon sehr gespannt, wie das alles "in echt" aussieht.<br>Die Nacht-Zugfahrt war kurz, da ich vor lauter angesammeltem Schlafmanko tatsaechlich im Zug geschlafen hab. Abgefahren bin ich in Villupuram, einer Stadt ca. 30 km von Pondicherry entfernt.<br><br>Madurai an sich ist wie alle ...

... store where sadly, they had two of those cute meercats in cages, apparently they milk them for medicine. We went through the copper, bronze and metal street, the onion street, the spices and to visit his friend's handloom factory where we were completely amazed to see young ladies hard at work making towels by hand weaving them on old looms. We stopped at the fruit and flower markets and met some more friendly workers. We chatted with and ...

... countless avatars including Krishna, Hari, Ganesha, Kali and Rama to name some of the most famous. Hindus generally choose one concept of God, and cultivate devotion to that chosen form, while at the same time respecting the chosen ideals of other people. Among the accepted routes to god are Yoga or exersize which includes good eating for example not just tying your limbs in knots, meditation and furthering of the mind as well as ahmisa, not harming ...

As we were now travelling on two wheels and no longer needed to cripple ourselves by lugging our rucksacks around on our backs, Tom was adamant that we stock up on excess baggage, namely in the form of two tennis rackets and four balls. The words unnecessary, ridiculous, utterly moronic sprang to mind. Where on earth were we going to find tennis courts in Tamil Nadu apart from at 5 star luxury hotels and ...

Und weit** gehts!! Da wir festgestellt haben, dass Indien dann doch recht gross ist und wir spaetestens Mitte Ma**z in Nepal sein muessen, w**den die einzelnen Aufenthalte wohl eh** kruz ausfallen. Heute ging es dann mit dem Local-Bus nach Madurai. Die Fahrt sollte laut dem Fahr** 2,5 Stunden dau**n und wir hatten **stmal wied** die ueblichen Probleme mit den Rucksaecken, weil in den Klapp**kisten kein PLatz dafu** ist. Mittl**weile haben wir ab** festgestellt, dass ...

... I promptly put it on and we were on our way. The temple was incredible and alive with people, thousands of them swarming like ants through the outer and inner sanctums, it was crazy. We passed by a small commotion around a man receiving a blessing, and on instinct I snapped a few blurry shots. I found out later it was a member of Parliament, so that was our celeb fix for the day :) The rest was very interesting, and I also found ...

... came to lunch time. Still clueless about what was happening around me and stuff, i was herded off into a car that took me to a lunch venue. I was surprised to find the people from Ramya's family all there and waiting for the food to be serverd. I have no idea where they were staying either. Anyway I started talking to neeru and krupa and eating my lunch. it was great! after lunch we had these leavey after dinner minty things. and OH MY GOD. they ...

... more temples, then more temples, and of course, 15 minutes at the Gandhi museum (which hours should be appropriated for). Grrr. My night bus to Kanyakumari, for which I primed myself with a few beers, found me sitting next to a wonderful and friendly Indian woman, with whom I chatted about all matters for quite some time, and behind an obese Indian man intent on reclining his chair back to some god-awful degree and kept smashing my knees to bruises, all ...

... was not right with me being there so left...). At one point you walk through a series of doors into a giant, darkened hallway with very high ceilings and tall carved pillars. Straight ahead was a large black carved shrine of Ganesh, adorned in garlands of flowers and incense and a priest helping people make offerings and blessing them. Down both the right and left hallways, light was very low and conversations echoed throughout the corridor, as did the ...