Here I am in a rather hot and extremely dirty Madurai. We (my cousin Gaurav and I) missed the Meenakshi temple this morning because we woke up too late so now we’re just killing some afternoon time in a town thats mostly closed because its Sunday afternoon.
So far we’ve breezed by Kovalam beach in Kerala and then Kanyakumari where you run out of India in 3 of the 4 cardinal direction and then Rameshwaram which is a city because of the temple and now here we are in Madurai which is a city by itself that just happens to have a huge temple.
Kovalam was magnificent with its black sand beaches and 30 feet tall waves spurred on by the monsoon. Just magnificent to watch walls of turquoise water crash not 100 feet from the bed in your hotel room. Other than that that town was not really alive since this is the off season. There was also a quaint lighthouse that we didn’t get a chance to visit.
From Kovalam we took a cab to Kanyakumari through what is unbearably beautiful countryside with rocky mountains and banana plantation as far as the eye can see all dotted generously with coconut palms all in a rich green monsoon hue. On the way to Kanyakumari we stopped by the Hanuman temple in Suchindrum where men have to enter shirtless. It was interesting and devotional all without wearing a shirt. Kanyakumari was in fact very peaceful but commercial in a very haphhazard sort of way. Visiting the Swami Vivekanand rock and the other Thirivalluapar(sp?) rock was stunning in that ‘no words’ sort of way.
From Kanyakumari we took a 10.5 hour ride on a Tamil Nadu state bus to Rameshwaram. That bus ride was by far the most uncomfortable yet interesting bus experience I’ve ever had. I got to fight with the guy behind me for open window rights, Gaurav stopped a crazy woman from jumping off the bus as it was going full speed, and someone pooped on the stairs closest to us. Other than that it was all good. Oh yea my white t-shirt was a diry grey when we got to Rameshwaram. As soon as we got there and checked into a hotel we rushed out to take a dip in the Bay of Bengal which is considered to be the Ganga since thats the body of water the Ganga empties into. Then we went into the Ram temple for the worship which was cool since the temple is so old that I count that high. I’ll have to write about money and faith in India some other time but yea it really got to me that you have to pop Rs. 10 every 4th step in the temple.
From Rameshwaram we took a 3.5 hour train ride to Madurai where we crashed into a decent hotel at around 1:30p and slept like logs till 11:30a today. SInce then we’ve only had lunch and had some film developed. We leave to go see the temple in half an hour and then leave for Koddiakannal at 6p.
Hopefully another update during the trip otherwise from Bombay.
Posted by Mr. Keyur at July 20, 2003 06:00 AM | TrackBack