Well last time i left you was the bus ride to Madurai. It was a slightly frustrating trip (not the first I'm sure), but in the end provided some beautiful moments as we travelled through feilds of rice paddies and palm trees. At dusk I watched the red orb of the sun settle hersef into the watery fields as the call to prayer echoed from far away and the fresh breeze cooled my face. I felt a genuine excitement and contentment to be travelling that I haven't experienced for a very long time.
As we got in rather late, the others slept in for ages the next day (I have a feeling this could be an annoyingly recurrent event), so i spent an hour in early morning meditation to pass the time. Mediation feels different in India, as if within the madness it is easier to settle and travel within. Or maybe I'm just a 'gora' on a bit of a pseudo-spiritual ego trip ;o)
Once we had realised how hard it was to get a train in India, we set off this morning to book, some trains for later in our travels. Lol, booking trains is an example of India at her most pedantic and chaotic. We had to fill in 3 different forms, wait at three different counters, and negotiate the Indian concept of a line, which seems to be a flexible concept depending upon ones own perception of the urgency of your own request.
Unfortunately, either the heat or the doxycycline had conspired to
disagree with my body at this point, and feeling faint and sick to the stomach we retired back to the hotel after booking a flight for the end of our trip. While, I didn't mind if they did their own thing, Steph was lovely enough to insist that she come back too, and i don't think Aaron had much inclination to explore on his own either. SO we chilled for the afternoon, after which I only felt vaguely yukky and we decided to head off for a dusk/evening visit to Sri Meenakshi Temple, the reason we had come to Madurai!
What an experience. We caught sight of the temples soaring gopas (tall gates, intricately decorated with colourful statues of the Gods) streets away, and as the tuk tuk wound through the tiny back alleys on the way, they continued to tantilisingly disappear and reappear in totally different directions. When we reached it, Aaron was told off for his boardies, and not allowed to enter. Lol, its kinda funny because he is usually the one that gets all the respect, deference and opportunities in this country so far. I think it was a little wake-up call that for the first time he couldn't just have what he wanted on the virtues of being a white male. Not that he was upset, far from it!
Anyway, as we were turned away from the temple gates, we were immediatley set upon by touts (surprise surprise) offering 'superb rooftop, sunset views' of the temple. "no rupees no rupees". Steph was immediately cynical, but as Aaron had already loped off on his long legs we had no option but to follow them. The views were, as it turned out, very pretty, and we soaked it up, breathing in the scent of the jasmine pinned in our hair by two tiny old flower sellers.
Just as we were figuring out the best way to negotiate back through the many levels of shop on the way down, and Aaron was preparing to 'get all kung-fu on their arses', we teamed up with an amazing beautiful couple - a brqazilian man and Italian woman, and made our way down with the moral strength of numbers.
Aaron went off to get a lungi (the sarong type skirt the southern men wear), and promising to meet him inside, Steph and I checked our shoes into the locker room and headed inside with the foreign couple to have our first temple experience (finally, this is what I came to India for, not to eat in hotels every day!!). Amazing, beautiful, confusing and enchanting do not even begin to describe it.
The temple at night was far more crowded than expected, which we later found out was because of a festival occuring that day to honour Shiva. We wandered the huge outer complex admiring the intricate carvings and tiny shrines along the way. That is, we did, until I took a photo of two young boys. Suddenly I was at the centre of a HUGE brouhaha, as I was surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of Indians clamouring to have their photo taken with a digital camera. Like many things that are at first charming, quirky and funny, it quickly became a little annoying as I was official photographer for about 20-25 minutes :)
Finally managing to extricate myself, I made it inside the temple, only to be greeted by a chained elephant posing for photos herself. Poor thing. The inner main halllway was pacekd to the rafters with tiny shops selling various types of random useless crap. POstcards, flashing light up pictures of the gods, plastic flowers, tapestry bags and bangles were all just part of the wide array. (no mum, I didn't buy you any, but i will before i leave this country, I promise :)
After visitng the uninspiring 'art' gallery suprisingly lacking in art, and with no sign of Aaron, Steph wanted to get dinner. We were just about to head off when we got talking to a lovely woman about the temple. Before I knew it, we had been talked into 'just looking' at her shop and walking out with a scarf each for 400 rupees. Steph kept saying that we had been ripped off, and I just got this sick feeling in my stomach that redonated through the rest of my body. Its the one thing I hate about travlling in developing nations, is walking away from what i thought was a lovely conversation with someone, only to feel dirty and used. like a cash cow. And i'm so bad at spending $$ anyway! :)
Anyway, given that i was in a bit of a state, I wasn't really paying attention to where we were going. Somehow, after turning through multiple wrong doorways as we moved along with the crowd, we found ourselves in the inner sanctum of the temple, a place reserved for Hindus only. It was an amazingly different world to the garish brashnes of the main hall. The stream of the devout washed us through candlelit corridors and past figures of the gods garlanded with flowers. We wandered, lost, for at leadt 20 minutes before stopping at an alcove where people painted tamil characters in bright yellow onto the walls.
Two besuited security guards started a conversation with us with the inevitable opener "which country?", and proceeded to talk about the cricket at length. Just as we were wondering where on earth the conversation was headed, Steph whipped out her camera and was promptly reprimanded with 'no cameras'. "Hindus only' followed swiftly on the heels of that comment and we were pointed towards the exit. Blushing, abd feeling like naughty schoolgirls we scampered as fast as we could towards the glowing doorway. Oops.
Still sans Aaron, we made our second mistake of the night by hopping onto a cycle rickshaw for the short trip home. While Steph said that it made her feel old world, I spent the entire trip in agonies of guilt, as the poor driver not only had a bad eye, but was so weak and thin he could barely pull the two of us along. I just wanted to get out and push from the back to give him a hand! As soon as we knew where we were we got out, paid him twice the agreed fare and fled into the night. I don't even think he realised.
Another day of Indian faux-pas drew to a close with the discovery of Aaron, who had been sitting in the hotel restaurant eating for the better part of an hour, and had no idea of our misadventures :)
