Today we met up for a full day of sight seeing. We took cycle rickshaws to explore the vibrant and crazy city of Madurai.. One of the oldest cities in India and the soul of Tamil Nadu. We headed first to the Sri Meenakshi which is a huge Hindu temple that is a labyrinth inside... It covers six hectors and considered to be to south india... What the Taj Mahal is to the north. It is the abode of the triple breasted, fish eyed (fish eyed meaning perfect eyes in Tamil poetry) goddess Meenakshi Amman. Myth says that the goddesses third breast would disappear when she met her husband and became a complete women... This happened when she met Shiva and became his consort.

A lot of the temple is off limits to non Hindus but what we do have access to is pretty awesome. There are statues everywhere with hundreds of people offering gifts and prayers.. Including lots of Tamil pilgrims... Who spend a month a year on pilgrimage to all the sacred sights of Tamil Nadu. We saw a holy cow who was painted and dressed in finery being fed mountains of fruit and seemed quite content, we also saw apprentice priests practicing their chants. Cliodna and Rhys had invited along their friends from last night so that was interesting as the guy knew all the history of the place... He bought them both a massive flower garland and they walked around like royals all day... Poor Reece looked most uncomfortable with all the attention they attracted.

After the temple we headed to the Tirumalai Nanak palace. This is a large former palace that is now used for theatre performances and very pretty and a pleasure to walk around. After the palace we headed back to the hotel... Tipping the poor rickshaw guy generously after lugging our butts around in this immense heat. We then freshened up and headed for a thali lunch which as always was delicious.

We then headed back to the hotel for free time and chilled out before heading to the Gandi museum at four pm. This place was so humbling... It explains in a non finger pointing way the history of India and the struggles the nation faced while trying to gain independence. The British were quite brutish and it shames me that we were like that... But unfortunately India wasn't the only country of that time that our arrogant beliefs and values were thrown upon. Anyway... The museum tells the story of how they gained independence and Gandi's non violent form of protest. The place is pretty remarkable with his authentic glasses are on show and the very loincloth he was wearing when assassinated ...blood stained and everything, really is quite humbling to see. we were allowed to take photos inside but it all felt a bit inappropriate and the camera stayed in my bag. It's really quite a haunting place...

Their were a few Indian ladies and one said my bindi was cute! First time I have heard an Indian lady say the word cute! the museum is such a valuable place to spend a couple of hours and it makes you wonder about many things including what would Gandi think of the India of today... We contemplated such things on the warm dusty walk back to the hotel where we now sit. Some of the group have headed to dinner but we have opted out... Wanting to nibble something a bit later.