Tag: tamil nadu

Madurai and the Meenakshi Temple

After three lovely days near Periyar we headed off in a taxi to the 2500 year old city of Madurai, dropping down very quickly from the cool 1200m-above-sea-level zone to the tropical plains of Tamil Nadu. Three hours later and we arrived in Madurai, mad, busy, noisy Madurai. It’s not like Madurai is any different from other cities but after spending the last four days in serene countryside the noise was deafening.

Straight off to the railway station to check our rucksacks ahead of our overnight train several hours later and then it’s time for some food at the rated Kumar Mess and shopping at Chennai Silks, which is massive.

After lunch and shopping we head straight for the Meenakshi Temple which was potentially built in the 7th century, making it the oldest temple I’ve visited. It’s 1:30pm, it’s closed until 4pm, or is 2:30pm or is it 3pm. It’s so confusing, even the entrance guards don’t know when it opens. Either way we’ve got time to kill, it’s boiling hot, it looks like it’s going to rain and we’ve got nothing particular to do. Ok then, time for more shopping I’m informed.

Foreigners only have to pay Rs50 (65 pence) to visit the inner temple, the outer courtyard is free, but we are quite rightly restricted to the non-sacred parts. In the outer courtyard there’s a queue for the inner courtyard, it’s very long but instead of queueing we decide to go for a little walk around it. At the entrance it turns out you can queue for 1 minute and pay the Rs50 to get in, it turns out queueing gets you in for free…after about an hour.

What we can see of the temple complex is stunning, its painted ceilings, its ghats, the carved pillars, all of it. With only so much to see we didn’t spend long here and we left feeling happy to have visited such an historic pla

Afterwards we headed to the Hotel Supreme’s rooftop restaurant where it duly pissed it down, leaving us to eat at a table just under shelter, watching the rain and lightning over the Meenakshi Temple a few yards away. We had a great meal and Jane’s Kashmiri Naan, with its layers of fruit, nuts and raisins went down very well.

Here’s a little video of the template:

Short stopover in India’s southern most tip: Kanyakumari

I’d never really thought much about coming to Kanyakumari to see India’s southern most tip as I guessed it would be a little like the Land’s End disappointment I felt upon seeing it: “is that it?”. But Amy really want to see it so I planned our journey around it, changing our intended train from Chennai to Trivandrum (for Kovalam) to Chennai to Kanyakumari. Trouble is we’d have full rucksacks with us so sightseeing wouldn’t be fun, and we’d still need to get to Trivandrum/Kovalam. The problem was easily solved with another train booking in sleeper class from Kanyakumari to Trivandrum, which then entitles you to use the luggage cloakroom for Rs30 (36 pence) per rucksack for 24 hours. Our train out left at 10:30, giving us 3 or so hours to see what we could.

First we needed breakfast so relying on the Lonely Planet we walked sans-rucksacks to Hotel Seashore and their much appreciated a/c seventh floor restaurant. The view was stunning and being the first visitors at 7:15am we got prime position.

Realistically we only wanted to see the view, we weren’t interested in visiting the temples, or seeing anything else. We did venture down towards the ferry to the islands but with not enough time we decided against that and headed on down to accidentally discover the fish market which was a hive of activity, and well worth seeing. Hardly something you’ll find in recommendations on TripAdvisor, proving yet again just getting out there and building your own experience is the way to go. Also saw this man which I thought was interesting:

And finally, happy anniversary to the both of us:

Here’s a little video panaroma:

Video: 750km overnight train from Chennai to Kanyakumari

Last night we slept on a train, well, kind of sleep, kind of didn’t. It was our first train of this trip and the longest one to boot, 750kms, taking 13 hours to go from Chennai to Kanyakumari, which is India’s southern most tip.

It was good fun, we all love the trains.

We used 2AC class which has air conditioning and usually cubicles of 4 berths, 2 below, 2 on top, with a curtain between the cubicle and the walkway, plus it has lines of side berths, 1 up, 1 down. This time though we had the only coupe – 2 berths one about the other and one lower side berth.

Street life around Mahabs’s Fishermen’s Colony

You really feel like you’ve escaped the confines of the grockel shops and Mahabs’s Backpackistan when you head off in the maze of streets towards our guest house, on the northern edge of Fishermen’s Colony. People going about their everyday life, no hawkers, no beggars, rangoli patterns in front of most doorways. We’ll be sad to leave* this place.

Here’s a little video of us navigating the maze of streets, firstly to our guest house during the day and then from there to the Santana restaurant when it’s pretty darn dark.

*actually, we’ve already left, I scheduled this post for when we’re on our 750km train to Kanyakumari, 13 hours through the night to the southern most tip of India.

Mamallapuram, or Hampi-by-the-sea

My friend recommended Mamallapuram to me, we’re glad he did: Mahabs as it’s also known as is great. We’re staying in a pretty little guest house with its lovely owners who are so attentive and make staying here a great experience.
Mahabs has a lot of heritage from many centuries ago and today we went on a stroll – very slowly, blame the humidity – around much of it.
It reminds us so much of Hampi which we loved so much when we visited in 2011, but with a backdrop of tropical surf, what’s not to like.
Yesterday’s ocean view meal, at the Santana restaurant, with its backdrop of a tropical lightning was just stunning. Fish curry, calamari curry, butter chicken masala, all eaten during a power cut, with wind blown lanterns glowing gently. Wow.

Video: a short hop from Mumbai to Chennai

Although we landed in Mumbai our trip really started when we landed at Chennai, after spending two nights in Mumbai just in case our luggage never arrived with us. The ‘short hop’ was a 100 minute flight, across a bit and down a bit, showing just how big India is.
Currently we’re in Mamallapuram, or Mahabalipuram as it used to be known, or Mahabs as it’s called for short, or, as I call it, Hampi-by-the-sea.

Here’s a short video:

Mahabalipuram accommodation – Blue Moon Guest House

Rs1700 £20
In Mahabs our accommodation for 3 nights is at the Blue Moon Guest House, a relatively modern brightly coloured guest house on the edge of town, just a hundred metres from the beach – it’s at the end of the lane on the photo above – and easy walking distance to the Unesco World Heritage site. At the time we booked it it was ranked Number 1 of 29 B&Bs in Mahabalipuram, many people saying how the owner Saravanan made the stay even better.