After our 2 day stint in Pondicherry we booked a night bus to Madurai, further south. We haven't yet oriented ourselves with the trains here in India, but we do plan to use them extensively in the North. But for this trip we made a quick decision for the sleeper bus--another practical and CHEAP way to get around the long distances in India---$10/person! We were leaving in the evening and would arrive in Madurai in the morning.
The bus was pretty comfortable and we made it to the bus stand with no problem thanks to our rickshaw driver. We arrived into Madurai VERY early-4:
15 AM and had no idea what to do with ourselves at such an obscure time!!! We felt a bit panicked and out of place....
We noticed there were actually some pockets of the city awake that early which was quite surprising. We trekked towards the temple (the highlight of he city & the reason we came), and surprisingly found some people wandering around there too. We decided to just wait it out near the temple until the sun came up---no fun when you are tired and in a strange new place.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the sun began to show! How happy we were! Now what to do? We were leaving Madurai again that night so we didn't book a hotel or anything because we figured we would just explore & tough it out until the evening bus. Easier said than done with heavy backpacks on our shoulders. Oh well, lets explore !
The temple opened at 6 so we decided we wanted to see it in the glow of a pink sky. The temple we came to see is the largest Hindu temple in South India. It contains 4 massive [incredibly colourful] rectangular towers that jut out into the sky. Inside there are thousands of gods & goddesses, statues, smaller temples, roaming/blessing elephants, roaming camels, a lake, and more!! It's size rivals St.Peters Square in the Vatican! Smack dab in the middle of the city!!
In order to enter you must remove your shoes and leave all of your belongings in the cloakroom. I was dressed appropriately in my long harem pants and blouse + wrap, but Tom had to wrap himself in a white skirt (dhoti?sp?) in order to enter because be was wearing shorts. Since we had everything with us, we felt nervous just leaving our stuff in the 'cloak room' which was more like an open space. So we decided to go in separately, me first--Tom did have to appropriately dress after all :P
I jut roamed and observed for a while, trying to take it all in! So much and so big you just get disoriented! You forget which entrance you came from! The Hindu religion is bizarre, incredible, surreal, intense---a great mix unfolded before me! Tom entered next....
The whole temple complex took us about 2 hours to explore & see because we did it separately. After that, we had the whole day ahead of us before our next bus, with no place to stay, thirsty & tired. Some girls we met on our previous bus ride recommended some rooftop restaurants in the city. We made our way there and luckily the one we were looking for was open
at 8AM til late night :)
We were so tired and had such a gorgeous view of the temples up there on the 8th floor/roof top restaurant that we actually ended up staying there ALL DAY
from 8am to 6pm! Seriously :P we ate breakfast, had coffee, had juice, had more coffee, took a break, then waited for a late lunch and got lunch, more juice, and still more juice :P that adventure set us back a whopping $14!!!
The waiters were cool and told us we could sit there until our bus showed up :P we had the best seat in the house and just stared out onto the temples half the time, in between some chatting & reading. We were just too tired to do anything else. And to be fair, other than a small Gandhi museum and a small mosque, there was not much else to see in the city anyways!! So why not enjoy the marvel of the huge temple from afar in a comfy environment for as long as possible?!
We finally left for our bus and boarded for our long journey to Alleppey, Kerala, the southwest coast of India. No long bus rides for a while after this one!!! Maybe trains?? :P
