Madurai

Day 8:



Meenakshi Temple

Our next destination is the temple town of Madurai in Tamil Nadu state. If it is a direct bus then it should take around 4-5 hrs to reach there. Swami’s rickshaw dropped us in the KSRTC bus stand at Munnar at 7am. We took a bus to Theni in Tamil Nadu from there, our first stop. On the way the bus had a punctured tyre which delayed the trip by about  an hour. But we were not really in a hurry and the bus route was along the breath taking tea plantations and mountain ranges. I wish I could stop there on the way and enjoy the view for a few minutes. We passed through a place called Devikulam not far from Munnar.  I think it is better to stay at Devikulam than Munnar if one is looking for a peaceful stay in the tea plantations. The location is absolutely stunning, in the midst of tea plantations and as munnar is not far away one can always take a taxi or rikshaw to do the sightseeing trips around Munnar from there.  I would strongly recommend Devikulam than Munnar, just by the fact that it is not at all crowded here when compared to the mad rush of tourists in Munnar.
 

It was quite a long journey to Theni.  As we climbed down to the lower altitudes the temp also started climbing up. We reached Theni around mid-noon. We caught the next bus to Madurai from there which is around 80km from Theni.  It was an unimpressive journey amidst the summer heat to Madurai. The 80 kms took around 2 hrs to reach there. Once in Madurai we took a rickshaw to our hotel called Moskva.  The hotel was quite a surprise. I booked it from Munnar only a couple of days before and selected it simply because it is not far from the famous Madurai Meenakshi temple. It is located in a busy street about 500m from the temple. It turned out to be the best accommodation we had in the whole trip. Though a bit expensive than our normal budget levels, it was worth every penny. The rooms were quite luxurious in its settings and the hotel staffs were really helpful. We took rest, took food at the hotel restaurant, which was good, and went to have a look at the temple in the evening.

 

Madurai, a 2500 year old city, is the third largest city in the state of Tamil Nadu and the Meenakshi temple is its main attraction. Meenakshi is an avatar of the Hindu goddess Parvati – the consort of Shiva The temple built in the Dravidian style of architecture in the 1600’s is one of the most important Hindu pilgrim centres in India. The temple houses 14 gateway towers called gopurams which are multi storeyed structures around 45–50m in height, adorned with beautiful colourful sculptures of Hindu Gods, Goddesses, demons and animals. Millions of devotees visit the temple every year.  We didn't go inside the temple, but just walked around the temple walls exploring the shops and the spiritual atmosphere around. We bought jasmine flowers for Gela and she had a good chat with the ladies trying to sell the flowers and other jewelleries.

 

Day 9: 

I woke up early and went to the temple at 6am. It will be less crowded during early morning and one could pray peacefully in the temple at this time of the day. If I am right the temple opens at around 4: 30 am. The temple has four entrances facing four directions and has more than 30000 idols and statues inside. Inside there is also the sacred temple pond.  Adorned with carved pillars in stone it's a breath taking view inside. Also impressive are the 1000 pillars hall inside the temple.

I came back to the hotel, had breakfast and the proceeded to visit the Thirumalai Nayak Palace. Only part of the original palace remains. Still it is a massive structure with huge pillars inside. It had been the venue of many Tamil and Bollywood movies.

Thirumalai Nayak Palace

Our next stop was the Gandhi museum which houses Gandhis bloodstained clothes inside. It is in Madurai that Gandhi decided to change to loin clothes for the rest of his life. The museum gives a good view of not just on the life of Gandhi but also on the important events in India s freedom struggle. On display is the cloth worn by Gandhi when he was assassinated. On the way back we stopped at the shopping streets to have a look at churidars and saris for Gela in one of the local shops. After a long scanning of the shop (women do love shopping) we settled for a beautiful sari. Once back in the hotel we relaxed in the room till evening. After dinner we checked out of our wonderful stay and picked a cab at 9 pm to the KSRTC bus station for our overnight bus ride to Mysore.