Madurai - cultural capital of the tamil

So, the time came to leave the ashram, which to be honest, turned out to be harder than expected: it really was an oasis of peace in the middle of chaos.... So at least we continued our journey with new energy and peace of mind (which - believe me - you do need a lot of when travelling here). Nothing better than to sit on a train for 7 hours and look at the palm trees passing by to reflect on the last few days.

Anyway, this trip started with a little "bonus", one of these experiences which make you remember why you love India in spite of everything. We were sharing seats with an Indian family, with which we could hardly communicate, but we kept exchanging smiles. As they served themselves their tupperware of Curry, they handed over a big plate to us, not asking if we wanted something to eat, but directly asking if we had enough!! And, it was obviously the best curry ever in India!

We arrived in Madurai at midnight, and as good backpackers, obviously totally unprepared... Fortunately, the station was quite near the hotels district and most places were still open. So we went searching for a half-decent place to a half-decent price, which we could not find: there seemed to be no middle between: 5USD flea-nest and 50 USD AC/Wifi/Cable TV rooms.... We finally find the right middle for 20 Euro after having checked a dozen places.

Here, I'm having a very good Thali for breakfast.

There's actually only one (main) reason to come to Madurai, it's its Tamil Temple which rises above the streets.

In the temple, Caro got blessed by an elephant. Its owner was angry because she was scared of the elephant dribbling over her hair.

We came accross a couple of "gringos" (read: westeners), who turned out to be Colombians! Nice cooincidence which made our stay here actually really good!

Enjoying an ice coffe with city and temple view to relax from the noise of the streets

Here with the Colombian couple Juan and Juana (honest!)

Appart from the temple, the town could actually compete with Delhi for dirt, traffic and noise...

Typical street view in Madurai.

For more info about architectural features you can check Caro's blog:
http://n-movimiento.blogspot.com/2011/10/sri-meenakshi-temple-taj-mahal-of-south.html

David