Before arriving at our accommodation we checked out the Gandhi Memorial Museum, established in 1959, which is a memorial museum for Gandhi located in the city of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. It includes a part of the blood-stained garment worn by Gandhi when he was assassinated by Nathuram Godse.
We checked into the Star residency Hotel and was given an hour to have a
Walk around the city centre, I’m not
Sure I am a fan, it was like slightly less busy than Delhi! Me and Emmanuel walked round all the gold shops, as we found this the most fascinating part of the city. The gold shops were massive and had bouncers on the door which would take you up by lift to your desired floor depending on what you are looking for! And then you are overwhelmed with the amount of staff there are ready to help.
We then got back to the hotel just in time for our visit to the Meenakshi temple. The temple was an impressive structure and was super brightly coloured! It was very strict entry and you could only take in a passport, money and phone... no cameras were allowed. We walked in through very strict security. The temple is considered to be the finest in South Indian religious architecture. This enormous temple
complex is dedicated to Shiva and his consort Parvati, or Meenakshi. Even before you pass through the massive stone walls of the temple, the nine striking gopurams (monumental gateways covered with stucco figures of deities, mythical animals, and monsters all painted in vivid colours) loom high above. The temple was massive inside and had a large open space in the middle where there was a large pond, with seating around the outside. Whilst walking through the temple we saw marriages where they were all in bright coloured saris. One strange thing I noticed was that there were a lot of god statues around the temple. The strangest one was a god which helps the ease of child birth - so people come to the temple with margarine and wipe it on the statues crotch which helps with easy child birth!
Later that day we had a cycle rickshaw tour of the city For two hours. We were pulled along by a bicyclist, he was an old man on his 60s. It was crazy how he was riding in bare feet, it must of been so hard on his feet. Me and Emmanuel had a rickshaw for us two. He cycled us around the city where we did regular stops at markets, potters and pashmina makers. We stopped at one place and the kids went crazy when they saw us, there was a realLy cute boy who kept shaking my hand and saying “hello, are you fine?”! It was great to see the sights at a slower pace and from street level.