Tamil Nadu –
Madurai /
Tiruchchirappalli (Trichy) – The “word” without end
We arrive in
Madurai in the evening and, after our ruthless rickshaw driver, Babu, knocks
down a couple of people along the way, we find a decent room with a bad
bathroom. We wake up in the morning and go to the wonderful local temple. It’s also pilgrimage time and all the
pilgrims wear a black “sarong” and no shirt or shoes, quite an amazing sight.
As I said before, it’s really hard to be OCD in India! You have to leave your
sandals and wander around barefoot. So, to get to the temple and inside the
temple, no shoes, you can imagine how difficult it is for someone who wears
thongs (flip-flops) to shower in hotels and even to walk around at home…
HELP!!!!! And this is just our first Hindu temple in a big city this trip, so
many more to come... poor little feet! I want a pedi and I want it NOW! So, we
wander around the temple for hours and then it’s time to catch a train, 3
hours, cattle class, to Tiruchchirappalli (Trichy, for the in crowd).
Trichy is SO
nice, clean and organized, looks quite prosperous and the traffic is not as
unforgiving as Madurai. The hotel is pretty new and clean (yes, white linen and
towels, this place is going off! We try to find some breakfast in the morning
other than wadas and dosais as they can be a bit much on an empty stomach and
we had no dinner last night. We find the tourism information office and the
officer is so helpful and well informed, is this Indian heaven? After some
wonderful tandoori chicken and veg biryiyani, we set off to explore the local
temples. We take the local buses, quite an experience in itself and visit the
main temples, more barefoot time for the OCD woman, foot wipes anyone? The
first temple has some 400 or something steps and the second one is a huge,
beautiful complex.
We go out for dinner
and there is a live performance at the local square, with lovely music and
dance, and we find out it’s festival time in Tamil Nadu. It’s Pongal time, the
biggest festival in the state. We have a great time in Trichy but it’s time to
say goodbye as tomorrow we are off to Pondicherry.
