In The Lap Of The Ghats 2

Madurai

Eventually we arrived in the fascinating city of Madurai.

Whilst Chennai (formerly Madras) is the capital and by far the largest city in Tamil Nadu, Madurai is often seen as its spiritual and cultural heart.

I'd called a hotel and arranged a 3 person room over the phone, but once we saw it we realised it was really bad value, and eventually found a much better one down the road for less than half the price.

We dropped off our bags and went strolling.

Chai and coffee wallah. The coffee here's great - strong and cheap.

The biggest drawcard in this city is the Meenakshi Amman temple. It's a magnificent ancient temple, one of the most important in south India. The temple is dedicated to Meenakshi, an avatar of the goddess Parvati, Shiva's wife.

There's images of Meenakshi all over the city.

Building chariots for a temple procession. Note the sparkly shops for the well-heeled.

Frankie, being from the original Black Forest, was really down with this haappening place

Selling human hair. I've actually been considering making a new merkin for myself, but this stuff wasn't bushy enough. Plus you really don't know where it's been.

Fireys having a smoko.

Nah not really ya drongo, they're devotees.

These trippy Meenakshis changed colour

More propaganda for the new Ram temple opening in Ayodhya, with Modi looking all Ghandi-ish

We found a rooftop restaurant that sold beer! Not that the beer was on the menu though. Holy places in India are generally alcohol free. But we asked, and they delivered. It was delicious.

The three of us had already discovered a basement bar the night before which was full of groups of dodgy men, and was so dark that you could hardly see yourself talking shit. We had a beer though, it'd have to be far worse than that to stop us.

So creative

Chat stall

Frankie blending in

Extolling the virtues of reading, a rapidly dying pastime all over the world.

Oh, of course! That must be the reason why my blog views are waning, I thought it was just because they were too boring. I've been considering doing Tik Tok dances instead.

I wanna be this guy. You gotta zoom in on his face, it's pretty memorable.

So many options, not enough lime

Looking unimpressed

Frankie being roped back into his tobacco addiction

Ajuna dodging cowshit again. At least it's a change from all the bullshit that she has to dodge when she's with us.

Random temple masterpiece

Awww, just be-you-tiful

Pink stink

Really colourful a-dress

Cool ez bru

Modi positioning himself as almost level with Shiva, another step in his well planned strategy to become a living god

Frankie and I having his favourite (non-alcoholic) drink. Every time we'd pass a coconut stall, he'd call out "coconut?" Without fail. It didn't matter whether or not we'd just had juices, shakes, chais and a massive meal. Ajuna and I found it very amusing.