14/2/10 Quilom to Madurai (Sunday)

We arrived in Madurai at the awful time of 4.45am!! We hadn't had alot of sleep as the train was quite a bumpy one and we were both lying on our small bags as pillows to keep our stuff safe. We went by autorickshaw to the KT lodge recommended by Lonely planet . we were pleased that they let us have a room straight away but it was a real hole. The room was big but every surface was dirty and the bathroom was minging. It is the worst room we've had all trip but it was 5 in the morning and we just wanted some sleep so we stayued put as we only had one more night to stay there and it was cheap at least. When we got up a few hours later there was no hot water, of course so we had colds showers which aren't that bad in the heat to be honest. Madurai is one of South Indias oldest cities and is home to a huge temple and was where Gandhi famously chose only to wear Khadi (homespun cloth). We went to see the Sri Meenakshi Temple complex which was near by according to the map in the liar. After 20 minutes wandering around to no avail we realised we must be in the wrong direction. Phil thought his map reading skills had failed him but it turned out later that the hotel had been marked about four streets away from where it actually was so he didn't have a hope of navigating. Once at the temple we realised we couldn't get in as we were both in shorts, normally we carry things to cover up but hadn't that day for some reason. We decided to walk around the outside of the temple then go and get changed for the inside later on. The temple closes between 1 and 4pm so we would go back for the later opening time. The temple was really impressive with twelve tall gopurams (towers) between 45 and 50 meters tall. Each was adorned by hundreds of carved creatures and Gods and brightly painted, we met a couple who'd been to see it the year before when all the towers were covered for repair so we were lucky. It was designed by Vishwanatha Nayak in 1560 but its history goes back 2000 years to when Madurai was a Pandyan capital. As we walked around the outisde we saw many Indian men entering the temple wearing their mundus (sarongs) which they wear tucked really short and wearing no tops so it seemed rediculous that shorts weren't allowed. We saw a few tourists being turned away for wearing 3/4 length trousers so it was strictly enforced. On our way round we were approached by a man to go to the top of his bulding, which was a shop, to see the view "no shopping, only the view" he promised us. We went up in the lift accompanied by a worker and saw the view but when it was time to come down we were directed through the shops four floors of goods!!! After so long here we are sick of being conned so walked straight for the door not stopping to look at anything. After the walk around the outside we walked back to our hotel .It took a while as we didn't know where it was as the map was wrong. We passed the address written in the book and it didn't look lke it could have ever been a hotel address. On the way we bought an SD card reader hoping it would improve the photo uploading. We found a couple of internet places near our hotel, one of them had 24 hrs on the door but closed at 9pm!! We went into one but the card reader didn't work so we headed back to the temple taking the card reader back to the shop on the way for a refund. We had returned to the hotel to pick up a sarong for Phil and Lizzies trousers so we were prepared for the visit. We had a lunch of chicken fried rice in a hotel overlooking the temple in the distance and a lovely rubbish pile in the street below. We reached the temple by 2pm and decided to go and see the Gandhi Memorial museum before the temple reopened. Phil needed to use the loo and decided to try the 'modern' toilet facilities there. Inside he had to wade through stale urine and other peoples poo to use the foul squat toilets...and he had to pay for the privilege !! Liz could smell the stale urine on his shoes when he came out !! The cycle rickshaw took us to the museum showing us local shops and markets on the way. He rode us over a river bridge where there was a laundry in the nastiest most polluted water we'd seen so far. There were ducks being kept there too scrabbling through the rubbish for food. The museum was housed in a lovely building and charted the history of India and its independence from Britain.It was unsuprisingly biased against Britain with only small mentions of the legacy left behind like the railway, health system and education. The part about Gandhis life was interesting and there was a display of the garment hwe wore when he was shot complete with blood stains!! After the museum we went back to the temples despite the kind offer of the rickshaw cyclist to take us round several shops and bazaars. It was about 3.30 when we got back to the temple so we had time to walk through the bazaars there. They were seling lots of brass items and other curios so we wandered around to pass the time. There were big queues outside the temple as it was nearly opening time and people were being directed to a cloakroom as shoes and bags were not allowed in either. We went to put our shoes in to the cloakroom and were told the bag would be ok inside so we checked with security who said to leave it in the cloakroom. When we told securtiy what the cloakroom man had said he replied well then its ok, not sure who was in charge of security then. We headed inside but as Liz had bypassed the metal detector she had her bag thoroughly searched. The guard even shook each piece of paper we had in case we had concealed devices, but at least they checked, most security here has been pretty lax. Once inside we saw rows of market stalls selling tat rather like Blackfriars (once a naff market in Worcester in case you don't know) We went to buy our foreigner priced tickets to see the 1000 pillared hall and the main inner temple areas but realised there weren't any Indians buying tickets. We went inside the 1000 pillared hall which as the name implies has loads of decorated pillars and stone carvings as it doubles as a museum. We walked along to go inside the temples main inner area to realise nonone checked tickets at all so we needn't have paid which the Indians obviously already knew. Inside the temple was quite dark but there were many idols and stone sculptures. Worshippers were lighting butter lamps and praying to their Gods there. Everyone was bare footed but the floors were so dirty that we were more dirty coming out than when we went in. The temple complex was big with many areas to see including a large outdoor tank with a large golden lotus in the middle. Walking back through to the exit way we passed the temple elephant. She took coins from worshippers then touched their heads with her trunk as a 'blessing'. Phil went up to get a blessing but the mahout yelled at him for money. Phil said hed get it afterwards as Liz had the money but the man was adamant and wouldn't let the elephant bless Phil. The whole thing was just elephant abuse and nothing about religion. We walked from the temple to the internet again and stopped to eat in a nice restaurant near our hotel. We got chatting to an older Canadian couple there who had spent years visiting India. We compared notes and they had the same feelngs as us about things so we didn't feel like it was just us being intolerant. We tried the internet again but Phil spent two wasted hours trying to upload photos. He blew a gasket and we went back to the room exasperated at 7 hours wasted time for Phil.