Sangam Madurai

... us) and a little extra company in our bunk from a nice fat rat! we arrived and checked into a lovely modern hotel which is possibly the nicest hotel we have stayed in so far - and it has a flat screen tv!<br>Had a very lazy couple of days, we now both have poorly tummies so did very little - weighed ourselves though and al has lost 1 stone and me half a stone which isnt as much as we wanted but a good start - just have to keep going ...

... ended up spending 2 hours at the Temple pond just sitting, observing, meditating until the sun has chased me.<br><br>There is a little more begging going on around the temple than I have experienced before, but most of the time it is not pushy.<br><br>Also nice to see is the Thirumalai Nayakar Palace or what is left of it. Quite the impressive building. I have been there yesterday morning. Right after I went to the Gandhi Museum, also worth a visit. It is north ...

... tours around Kodaikanal. You can combine hotels and itineraries to make your ideal trip.Misty holidays<br>misty co 14, bender lock road,7 road junction<br>KodaikanalPhone : 04542243248<br>Mobile : 9943942996<br><br>Email : contact@kodaikanalinn.com web site www.kodaikanalinn.com <br><br><br>

... museum and many shrines found amongst large wooden doors, pillars, gateways, large rooms and hidden sections. We watched lots of activity as people prostrated, lay on the ground, dotted their foreheads with coloured powders, walked around statues, lit ghee oil candles in clay pots, offered baskets of fruit and lotus flowers, smudges sandalwood paste onto their heads, made mandalas on the floor, chanted, touched the feet of statues, hung garlands of ...

... s including deities with 10 arms, elephant heads and flying monkeys - awesome! On a lesser note we managed to arrive in Madurai 2 weeks before the great unveiling. Apparently the whole gateway temple had been under restoration for the previous 2 years and was there fore covered in scaffolding and cloth. A huge elaborate party was planned for its historic unveiling and a carnival ...

... and lots of lovely conversation. I tasted sugar cane which I have done at carnival before but this was not as sweet, sparking a great realisation in me how refined all our sugar products are and so stopping me, I think, from eating them. I had coconut direct from the tree which is great and ate rice which had been grown by the village on the plot they all shared. I had such a wonderful sugal pongal day and was very sad to leave. 

... of which caught me off guard. It was an older structure, an amalgamation of courtyards and columns, but distinctly non-Indian. It came to light that it was actually designed by an Italian in the 16th century who was commissioned by the Raj of the time. Confusion solved. We then went on to Meenakshi Temple, which according to our guide is the 2nd biggest temple in all of India. Thousands of pilgrims everywhere. You know you're in ...

... spaces. A lot of the spaces are closed to non-hindus (and of course, you can't wear shoes or socks in the complex at all), but you get a sense from the small alters and gods outside of the importance of this building and the connection people have to it. The carvings are quite nice (best we've seen in the south so far). In the evening we went back to see a ...

... read then get out much. Something had put me in a funk - it can't be entirely fair to blame Madurai alone - and I have been highly irritable for the past several days, not appreciating my surroundings and experiences properly, and just wanting something a little more freaking, well, normal; a break of decency. In each and every city, you ponder your next destination, hoping that in fact it will be the one place that blows your socks off, that you feel ...

... here. Sometimes, there is a sidewalk, then it disappears, or is destroyed, or a merchant has his wares blocking the way, or there is a car or rickshaw or cow there. You walk by bobbing and weaving, avoiding oncoming traffic that honks at you simultaneously with the honking traffic coming from behind you. Keep in mind the pecking order of vehicles; people are on the bottom of that scale. That means when the street is flooded (and it is barely big enough to be ...