Finally leaving

Trip Start Mar 10, 2007
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153
Trip End ??? ??, 2007


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Thursday, January 10, 2008

First full day in Madurai, was on my way to the Gandhi museum when some idiot taylor approached me saying i had to go to the temple now as today was some special festival and the towers (gopurams) would be open now only for people to go up. Got to the temple and it turned out he was bullshitting and was just one of the usual people trying to get a commission by getting me to go onto the roof of a government shop to look at the view of the temple. A little pissed of at him for wasting my time, a carried on towards the museum.
      In the street on the way i saw what i guess is a close to the circus was you get in India. People set up a tightrope between two poles, some 1.5m high, after which a small child climbed up and began to walk the tightrope, to accompanying music, after this spectacle, the begging bowls come out of course. Strange to see, but a better way of getting money than simple begging i guess.
      The Gandhi museum is thoroughly interesting, detailed and very well presented, giving an excellent account of the troubles and struggles faced leading up to India's Independence from the bastard British. One fact that stuck in my head was how the first shot fired in protest was done so in protest of the use of bullets covered in animal fat. What's for for the cheapskate it is also free to enter, and the people running it are friendly and polite. A recommended visit to anyone in Madurai.
       On the way back to the Famous Meenakshi temple, i felt the stomach cramps return, so i wasn't in the best of states to see the supposed 9pm procession. Feeling like my stomach was eating me from the inside, i skipped the whole thing and went to bed. Clearly not over the illness from Kodai yet. The procession for those interested involves the carrying of an image of Sundareswarar from one shrine to Meenakshi to 'sleep' by her side, and is apparently led by a cow and the temple elephant. The temple itself is a huge place, with a large gopuram at each compass direction allowing entrance to the main temple. This area is a throng of the usual tourist stalls, banana and coconut sellers and Hindu pilgrims. There is also a temple elephant from which one can receive blessings. The architecture and size is very grand though for those who have seen many Indian temples it is similar to that one has seen before, though maybe just on a grander scale.
      Train to allepy was next day.
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