Madurai
Trip Start
Jan 13, 2009
1
9
23
Trip End
Mar 15, 2009
Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
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So we left Kerala on the train from Alleppey and arrived in Madurai on the morning of the 25th, where we were planning to meet Lewis (another friend from school for those of you who arent familiar)..but it turned out that he'd gone up into the hills 120km northwest of madurai, so we had to get a bus up through the mountains to a place called Kodaikanal, a hill station which sits at just over 2000m above sea level.
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There's a little story that goes along with the bus journey....OK so before the bus had left id asked the driver what time it was due to depart, and he'd said ''one o'clock'' so brownie was like..''ok grand, well max im gonna run and find a booze shop, ill be back in a few minutes...'' so i said..'' ok but just BE back before 1 ok!''...so all was well, and i went to go and get some crisps from a shop next to the bus. As i got back on the bus, it started pulling away, and it was only 12.45...so i proceeded to have a shouting match with the driver, who insisted that he'd told me that this was the time that we were leaving, and at the same time, i had to try and explain where my friend was ( i had no idea where he was) and i ALSO had to make the decision, as the driver slowly edged out into the traffic, whether i should stay on the bus with all our bags and wait, whether i should jump off and look for him, or whether i should try to get all the bags off, and wait for the next bus. I decided that this last option WASNT an option, and so i jumped off (it wasnt moving very fast) amd ran in the general direction of where someone told me the shop was...next thing i see is the man himself waddling merrily around the corner with numerous bottles stickng out of the pockets of his shorts, which he has to hold up himself... so we then had to run and get back ON the bus, which we eventually managed, and we slumped back down in our seats, Brownie giggling at the hilarity of the situation, and me with my nerves shot to bits.
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Anyways after a long and perilous bus journey, winding around Italian-job-esque mountain corners, we made it, and had a nice tibetan meal! The owner of the hotel tried to completely rip us off, but we were having none of it, and ended up getting our room for Rs200 each, and we also had a campfire outside too, so that was nice.
Another bus journey back the next day was equally as perilous and vomit inducing (well no-one actually threw up) and we were back in Madurai, where Brownie and I spent the night of the 26th.
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That evening some chap brought us to the roof of his linen shop and showed us a rather spectacular view of the Sri Meenakshi temple complex, which was really nice. Look it up on google or whatever, cause i couldnt really take any good pictures of it because all the intricately designed towers are covered up with palm tree leaves at the moment because of the renovation that they do there every 15 years! Bad timing eh?!
Ok thats all for this entry but ill do a little bit about Chennai in a separate one now!
Namaste
