Madurai

When someone says Madurai, naturally everyone thinks of the Meenakshi temple, but as we discovered there is more to the place. We decided to go to Madurai , just to pay respects to the goddess. We had no reservations and we were like we'll just crash in any old place . We had'nt realised that Madurai had grown and is a major town now. boy were we in for a surprise !

Madurai as we found out was the third largest city in Tamil Nadu ( but that does not mean that any of them will talk to you in English , though they can speak Queen's English). We (again) were in a time crunch , so we were like we'll visit the temple nothing else. We did just that but the goddess had other plans for us.
We landed in Madurai , checked into a sad looking place near the main bus stand not realizing that there are decent hotels in the center of the city. We decided not to go to the Temple in the evening and decided to try out the shopping which Madurai is famous for.

Madurai is a city built around the Meenakshi temple . There are concentric lanes around the temple  dedicated to shopping . There must be at least 3 kms worth of only Gold & Silver shops around the temple . I have never seen so many shops selling only jewelery standing next to each other for kilometers together. It was amazing . But we cant really buy anything .. are you kidding me ? but there are other things you can buy , fun things . Madurai has an awesome flee market in one of the old buildings in front of the temple. You can get any brass ware imaginable ,any kind of junk jewelery, any imaginable tailoring supply, painting on cloth , beautiful clothes .. its amazing. But remember to bargain hard. Madurai is known to be the Pirated Blue Ray capital , you get every imaginable Blue Ray rip off at dirt cheap prices. There are CD shops next to the Periyar Bus stand which sell only these. Its worth it.

Around the temple is where you get the best food and tea and coffee in Madurai . Bloody cool I say ! Though the weather is hot and humid , you will enjoy the tea and 'muruku' ! There is no chat culture in the city but their local 'Sundal' is awesome. They have their own awesome ginger milk and snacks which are delicious. There is a famous place called Modern Hotel which serves the best food . Try the parota there . In T.N for some odd reason people do not eat a full meal in the evening, they eat snacks , heavy ones at that. We went to a place called Madurai Hotel, got the best damn South Indian 'thali' in the city .. Bless them !

We went to Madurai a day before the 'Subramanya Kalyana' . Since all the boards are in Tamil, we had no clue. We decided to skip the temple and visit the temple in the morning. The next day we arrive all clean and decently dressed to the temple , to be told by the police around the temple that the temple was closed for the day as Devi's Son was getting married, she was being taken there to bless the couple. In all my life , I had never heard that Subramanya was married ( I donno if anyone else knows that) . So what to do now , after moping around a little we decided to follow the Devi . She was being carried to a Subramanya temple outside town to bless the couple . It was a 'jatre' or a 'mela' . As everyone in India knows , any kind of procession is bad , that too the ones involving the gods are to be avoided , due to the sheer crush of it all . We were like its ok lets go , took a bus to the temple on the outskirts and we plunged right into the crowd. The temple was older than the Devi temple so you can imagine ,the crowd, the fumes of the Kalyanam and the bats in the temple was like aaaaaaaaa ... but we bribed our way into the shrine , got that Darshan (yey!) and came back in a crowded bus . Adventure of the day done .

We traveled only in the buses and the local shared autos in the city , they are cheap and well connected. Worth it. SO the dirt, the heat and the bats .. all was worth it , but my only regret is that I dint really see the famous Madurai temple, it is an architectural master piece . There are many other places to see in Madurai , palaces, museums  but we dint have the time ,but its supposedly worth a visit :) 

Kanyakumari

We were planning a trip to Kanyakumari for a long long time. It it work out until quite recently. We set out from Bangalore to Kanyakumari by bus , reached there in 12 hours flat . The train usually takes 20 - 24 hours that depends on your luck :) 

The place itself is so so small, the southern tip of India is a charming little village by a fantastic beach :) that is how i would describe the place. I am not too sure how many people live there but I do know this , I saw more hotels than houses there. The place is bustling , the heat and the humidity hits you when you land there. You can see only  blue on all the three sides. 

We checked into the TTDC guest house , the rooms are decent (dont expect 5 star) and the food is good . I dont understand one thing about all these tourist places, why serve that crappy North Indian and chinese food when they dont even know how to make the dishes properly ?? I mean we have a great  cusine on our own , and people who come there should eat the local stuff not the greasy grub you come up with. Anyway the place is right on the beach and it has a great view. 

There are very few things you can do in KanyaKumari , the beach is the most obvious attraction, Vivekananda Rock is another , then there is a temple dedicated to the Goddess Kanyakumari .

Kanyakumar is surrounded by the three mighty water bodies , the Arabian Sea , the Indian ocean and the Bay of Bengal. The water is calm but there are too many rocks so the water breaks on them , good for photography but bad for getting into for swimming. It is downright dangerous. The beach is actually taken over by hawkers , selling everything under the sun , from shells to bondas and teas (which you must try they are delicious ), mirrors to spices anything you need . Let me tell you all you would need is a sun block and a lot of bottled water and sun glasses :). Do not venture out in the mornings , we had no choice since we had a time crunch , we were severely dehydrated and tanned. 

The line to get to a jetty to take you to Vivekananda rock is long and people try to sell you stuff you don't need but when you are on that jetty you feel all tingly maybe because you are on the verge of leaving the mainland , its only 500 mts into the sea but hey you did leave the main land dint you :) ... the water is blue .. really really blue. The rock is famous because Vivekananda meditated to the goddess Devi Kumari (Parvathi) here in December 1892. Devi Kumari is supposed to have meditated to Shiva here on one foot ( you can see the impression of her foot on the rock ). They sell all the works of Vivekananda here . There is a famous Tamil poet - Thiruvalluvar statue right next to the rock. 

The Temple in Kanyakumari is dedicated to the goddess  Devi Kumari and she was supposed to be the most richest goddess until the Portuguese came into town . They say that the diamond in her nose pin was so huge and cut so brilliantly that it used to shine like the sun when the night fell and it used to guide the sailors to shore.  And no you cant see it today ... 

The highlight of out visit was the sunrise, that part is out of the world. It is usually after 6 , we made sure that we were on time. The entire sky is like an orange flame which slowly turns golden , beautiful , mind blowing!! The water looks as if it is on fire and the sun in a red ball slowly coming out of the shadows!! This is one thing that should not be missed.

Shopping in Kanyakumari  is like shopping for souvenirs thats all , you get great shell art and remember to bargain like crazy. 

There are a few palaces and forts scattered around the place we dint have the time to explore but since it is a small place it does not take long to get somewhere , the taxis and the autos con you so be careful when you travel 

All in all it is a great visit, its ok to spend a couple of days looking around , it still has the small town charm so its all good !