We travelled Executive Class by train for the 7-hour journey over 305 miles to Madurai, still in Tamil Nadu State. The people here are very dark and are more likely to wear local clothing than in other parts of India. Madurai is one of the oldest cities in Asia and is mentioned in the 3rd century BC by the Greek Ambassador to the Mauryan Empire. It has several (we counted seven) Tamil temples which are perpendicular towers tapering towards the top and covered in intricate carving of people and animals. They are garishly painted in blues, reds and purples. We visited the largest, the Meenakshi Annan temple, and got there just before it closed at 1 pm. It was due to open at 3 pm so we went for a fruit juice and ice cream and got back just before 3, only to be told that it opens at 3.30. Feeling totally pissed off in the heat (we were told it had reached 40 degrees) we were about to go back to the hotel when some bloke said “Go to that building and you can get a great view of the temples from the roof”. Guess what, it turned out to be his shop, the “Lhasa Emporium”, and a very jolly man with perfect English soon got us buying stuff. We then decided to visit the temple, and walked round the big pool in the middle. There was a huge queue behind a barrier and we were told by the shop man that they were waiting to perform a puja (prayer). The temple is dedicated to Meenakshi, a form of Parvati (Shiva’s wife and mother of Ganesha) and was built by the Pandya Dynasty in the 12th century. We couldn’t take our phones into the temple so we don’t have any pictures, and non-Hindus aren’t allowed into the inner sanctum where the shrine to Parvati is located. The most interesting part was the Ayiral Kaal Mandapam (“thousand-pillared hall”) consisting of 985 carved pillars which we passed down when walking to the North Gopuram (Gate) of the temple complex.
Weather forecast method at our Chennai hotel
Coconut
Ladies carriages on Indian trains
Many men wear long white dresses which they tuck up round their knees
The oldest bit of the temple
The South Gopuram of the temple. Bamboo is used for scaffolding while the temple is being repainted
The golden inner sanctum as seen from the rooftop of Lhasa Emporium
One of the beautiful articles at Lhasa Emporium
