As you can imagine, we didn't get much sleep in our silk sleeping bags. We had to get up by 9 am so that we could leave for Kanchipuram, one of the important temple cities in Tamil Nadu.
We wanted to take a direct bus to Kanchipuram but a friendly couple advised us to follow them and change buses. They even paid for our ticket! Kanchipuram is famous for its silk saris (we visited a shop but mainly to enjoy the airconditioned room) and is a treasure-trove of Hindu temples. The town itself is busy, dusty and we had been warned about harassment from caretakers, shoe-minders, priests etc.. The first temple we visited was the Devajaswami temple
A friendly priest showed us around the complex with its lovely 1000-pillar hall (only 96 survive to the orginal 100 - and yes, that is not a typing error). There was also a nice wedding hall dedicated to Vishnu and Lakshmi. In the end the priest demanded money and he looked very disappointed when we didn't give him enough. I guess some things are free in life, and others not. We then went to the Kailasnatha temple which is the oldest temple in this region. There were 58 small shrines but non-hindus could unfortunately not visit the inner sanctum. After a visit to a small fruit&veg market we went to another, smaller temple that was very dark and a bit scary. There we were allowed to go into the middle, and Claudia attracted the attention of female workers who gave her a baby and wanted to be photographed.
We even went to a school and were warmly welcomed by the whole staff and the pupils. In the evening we went back to Joe's place and drove around town looking for good food stalls. The places Joe recommended looked really rundown and if Joe hadn't been there with us, we would not even have dared enter there. The food was stirfried in front of our eyes and wrapped up in newspapers. But I can assure you : the food was delicious and we still haven't suffered from any major stomach problems. We finished the meal off with a couple of Kingfisher beers and enjoyed our last evening together with our hosts. Kingfisher is a pretty solid beer and handles itself well with spicy food - all the more amazing considering how light it sits on the palate.
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