Madurai
Madurai is the third largest city in Tamil Nadu.
This is a real Indian city and the contrast with Goa and Cochin was rather a shock. No Café Coffee Day anywhere here – no local customers to afford it.
Here we encountered our first numerous and insistent beggars; many of whom were school age. But on looking it up I discovered it is actually listed as among the less needy cities in India.
A really noticeable difference to Goa and Cochin is the lack of schools. In the previous regions schools are a major industry but here, the few we have seen in Madurai proper, seem to be abandoned or in very poor shape. In contrast, on leaving the city, there were several large technical colleges and a variety of substantial industrial sites in the countryside.
Despite the general poor condition of many buildings, again our hotel was very good.
We went to the old palace. This has been a wonder since the 17th century. Only a section is still standing but it is very impressive. A lot of restoration has been done to give a sense out its former glory.
That is Wendy beside the column - showing the scale
The other big thing in town is a massive Hindu temple on the scale of Anchor Watt but without the moat. Apparently it once had a moat but this was filled in to make more space in the city that surrounds it; the streets in concentric rectangles.
There was a festival on. Many of the Tuk-Tuks had banana leaves tied to their sides like elephant ears.
There were vast queues to get in to the Golden Temple so instead we accepted a local shopkeeper’s invitation to see over the wall from a viewing platform on his roof. There was an Englishman painting the temple from up there. I took photos – quicker.
We also tried to get to the Gandhi museum that contains his blood stained dhoti, from the assassination, but it was unexpectedly closed due to the holiday.
After a day we left for Pondicherry by car. Not far out of town we encountered a huge rock about half the height of Uluru. I said it must have a name like sacred cow or elephant - our driver who did not speak English suddenly confirmed - elephant rock.
In Pondicherry I did a search on line. Apparently it is sacred to Jains (a minority religion) but local interests want to carve into it; or cut it up for granite. Read more…
