Taj Garden Retreat Madurai

... me a bit of a shock as I almost wandered into an elephant, there is also a market inside selling all sorts and it is full of religious areas and praying shrines to various different hindu gods.<br>So our time in Madurai and indeed India was at an end, al now has cellulitus from a mosquito bite (told him to stop scratching it!) so we have loaded him up with antibiotics and we made our way to Tiruchirappalli airport and to Singapore!!!! <br> <br>

... the river in a nice old building and shows the colonial history, the wars, the riots and finally the life of Gandhi. Really very interesting and comprehensive. On display are also sandals and the famous glasses of Gandhi and quite grim : the cloth he was wearing when assassinated.<br><br>For my way back I was taking a bicycle riksha, because an old man really talked me into it...fortunately it wasn't him who was riding but his son. Anyhow, I didn't feel happy ...

... squeezed lemons, worshipped and were blessed by the temple elephant. There were miniature paintings and decoration everywhere including on the ceilings and floors. There were sculptures alongside all the pillars and we were most impressed by the Hanuman, the acid trip goblins, the dancing woman with a peacock and some dragons with trunks. Somebody smudged ash onto my forehead and i think the significance is to renounce the past as though it ...

Unfortunately the temple was under renovation and so the edge was taken off its impressiveness, still the structure is huge and imposes over the rest of the city. The external areas not covered in scaffolding showed intricate carvings, too numerous to count, stacked layer on layer into the sky each layer smaller than the previous, like a 500 layer wedding cake of religious iconogrify. This was the impressive side of Hinduism that I had not witnessed so far ...

... colour and noise would surely ensue. Ah well can't win them all. I was fascinated by the scaffolding that hugged the 12 storey temples. All made from bamboo, bent and bowing, Bristol City Council would have a coronary. From Madurai to Trichy we found fort hills and yes you guessed it Temples. Again a complex web of symmetrical towering gateways and inner sanctums. Our guide Bruce ...

... havde vi dog koebt i forvejen, men vi kobte den til i morgen fra Madurai til kanyakumari.(sydspidsen). Det var ogsaa godt vi tog for afsted for det tog os ca halvanden time at finde rundt og faa koebt den rigtige billet. Det er ikke helt nemt kan I tro - men vi tror vi klarer os bedre naeste gang. Nana har koebt stof saa hun kan faa syet en saribluse til sin sari i den rigtige farve ...

... when a few hundred yards before the temple entrance you have booth set up much like a western coat check, but it's for your shoes. What follows is the continuing saga of my love-hate relationship with the Dhoti. At the entrance to the temple they had a security checkpoint, essentially a PVC square that you walk through with no scanners of any sort, it was comical. Everyone passed smoothly, but upon my approach the guards began ...

... was neat to see though, and there was a sort of energy in the air that I felt a little detached from, but I was intrigued nontheless. The next day I just lazed about before the overnight train to Mysore. We stopped by the markets before we left, just outside the temple. Really neat, lots of tailors, and little things to buy. I really wished we had more time to explore them.

... city after Madurai, Pondicherry, a French colonial city that is supposed to be pretty nice (whatever that amounts to is an unknown entity). I did not feel satisfied that I had properly seen Madurai, so I visited the travel desk at the hotel and upon inquiring about transport to Pondicherry, I got sidetracked with the idea that I should visit Kanyakumari, the southernmost point of India. My planning for the next few days was damn practical and ...

... of like going to Europe and getting museumed out, or churched out, or in Thailand Wat'd out, etc. (Or in Portland, hippied out... just for you Mr. Watson.) You get the point; you see enough of them and they lose their impact upon your essence. Therefore, when reading that the primary attraction of Madurai is the giant Meenakshi temple, I thought it would be cool but, yes, another temple. I couldn't have been more wrong. This was one of the magnificant temples I ...