Madurai

Madurai is Tamil-borne and raised, no British, French or Portuguese influence there let me tell you. 100% pure Indian. The main reason to go to Madurai is to visit the Sri Meenakshi Temple which is considered to be one of the greatest temples in India. There are loads of Indian tourists here and few foreign ones. The temple complex is 6 hectares and is enclosed by 12 gopurams with the highest one being 52 meters tall! The gopurams were just refurbished and the colors are beautiful. I spent hours at this place and had a beautiful feeling when I was inside amongst the masses doing their thing.

Some of these pictures do not do it justice but it will give you flavor of the enormity and intricacy.



The ceiling art was outstanding.




When I was in Rome this summer there was a huge lineup to post mail from the Vatican. I have been to lots of temples throughout my travels in India and I guess this is the temple where it is considered auspicious to post from!


And of course, what would a day be without a family wanting their picture taken!


Pure relaxation and bliss is up next at the beach!!!!

Daily life

Of course this bike baby carrier meets safety standards.


This little gem was sitting next to me on the bus.

Tiruchirappalli

I have left lovely Pondicherry and entered into temple mania. Tamil Nadu has over 5000 temples and I am on the temple circuit for the next few days. Trichy is a dirty, dusty, busy city that has two wonderful temples. I arrived here on the train and knew as soon as I left the train station it was going to be a tough go. The hotels are disgusting but the Femina which caters to 'business men' will do the trick. In India you are often asked "profession?" and when I ask back these are some of the responses I have gotten: "typesetter' 'professor' and the funniest is 'business man' - what the hell kind of answer is that? Well, the Femina caters to them and to backpackers like me who look nothing like a business man but at least it is clean. Clean yes, showers no... bucket style.


Bonus: Continental breakfast included.



The first temple I hit up was the Rock Fort Temple. It is literally on top of a rock that you climb over 400 stairs to reach. Nice view which made it worth it as I could not go inside the temple - Hindus only.




The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple is beautiful. It is possibly the largest temple complex in India and feels more like an enclosed city rather than a place of worship. The pictures really don't do it justice.




As I was leaving the complex I almost got ran over. Is he old enough to drive?



The best part of my day was the bus ride back to the hotel. I sat next to a wonderful lady and we had such an honest and sincere conversation, it was lovely.

Keller Brown

Keller,

Thank you for the invitation to your parents wedding. I am looking forward to celebrating with you little man!

Love you,
Tracy

Market day

I got up bright and early and hit the local market. I was given strict instructions to start at the flower end by the guesthouse owners. As he told me this he had a huge grin on his face and I knew not to ask why and to just follow his instructions.




The flower section was beautiful and it gently flowed into the fruits and veggies section. This lady here requested her photo be taken and held the camera for a long time as she looked at her picture.



The dude is selling Betal leaf which is required for Paan It has a very fragrant smell and Sam who used to own Babas near my apt used to chew it. Whenever I went there and he was having a chew I always knew!



He told me I could take his picture - I promise...



As I meandered on through my nose told me the reason why I was to start in the flower section. If I started in the fish section I would never have made it to the flowers. If these pictures could smell...



These ladies are chopping fish with knives that looked to be 100 years old and dull as shit. I can only imagine how many fingers get hacked according to the vigor they chop at the fish with!



Mainly men run the flowers, fruit and veg section whereas it is all women in the fish section...



It was a great morning at the market.

Wedding day

I married a brown boy - juuuust kidding!

I stumbled upon a crowd gathered across the road from the Sri Manakula Vinayagar Temple so I stopped to check out what was going on. To my surprise and delight it was wedding day at the temple and the bride and her family were waiting their turn to enter the temple and get married. They could not speak a lick of english but when I pointed at my camera they all smiled (except the bride) and shook their heads yes!



The bride did not say a word the entire time and she showed very little expression. Her family on the other hand loved getting their picture taken and checking them out after. I wonder what was going through her mind?




After a few minutes a security guard ushered them across the road and they joined another group - the groom and his family! More than likely this was an arranged marriage which means the bride and groom probably have not met each other more than two or three times. They certainly did not act like they knew each other or maybe they were nervous. The groom's family were quick to grab my arm and point at him and my camera. At that point I realized I was the impromptu wedding photographer.



I really enjoyed the experience and felt privileged to be allowed to take the photos. I tried to get an address to be able to mail the pictures but there was no one around who could translate for us... too bad.



Little gems




I wish them much love, friendship and good health.

Pondy

Pondy is lovely. It is a quaint town with loads of character while the throng of India is still honking in the background. I have just wandered really for the last little bit. Up and down the lanes, into temples and markets, shops and internet cafes. No set schedule or agenda, just taking it all in. Jesse are you jealous that I don't have a schedule to follow while on vacation?!

The young girl above was on her way to school and did not actually go into the temple but stood in front of the flame with her hands in prayer for quite some time.



The temple elephant on the other hand made his way into the temple and here he is coming out and getting ready to do his daily blessings. Yes, I have been blessed by a temple elephant and I have also been smacked out of the way by a fish seller in the market. I also had the privilege to take wedding pictures of a couple set to get married. I checked out Sri Aurobindo Ashram as pictures of 'the Mother' are all over town and have eaten many croissants - real french croissants! It has been grand here.



Apparently elephants wear ankle bracelets and I think a pedicure is needed!

Everyday life

Life here is different. I am amazed at how simple and peaceful it is amongst the chaos and craziness. This trip I decided to take lots of 'everyday life' pictures. When I get back home and slip back into my life I sometimes forget how the world's largest democracy lives and how fortunate I am.

Sometimes people don't have shelter but this does not mean they don't wash their clothes - they just have to do it in public and then hang them to try on the fence going into the temple. Can you imagine a World Heritage site in North America allowing this?



In small towns and villages water does not come directly into most homes. Adam and Emma can you imagine having to bathe without running water?



Cows need to eat too!



Pots and pans anyone? Door to door service.



Okay, I could not resist taking a picture of the roof in the taxi I took from the airport. Can you see that upholstery and sound system? Hilarious!

Holy sh%t!

Took a bus to Puducherry and thought I was going to die. I left bright and early because I knew travelling anytime after 9am would be sweltering hot and I would be rammed into a bus that technically holds 40 people but would have at least 80 on board. It was quite foggy and it did not dawn on me that visibility would be an issue... No pun intended.

The bus came around the corner and the ticket man was yelling out the door "Pondy, Pondy" so I waved and the bus slowed, yes slowed, not stopped. I hopped on (good thing I travel light) and away we went. Within seconds I realized taking an early start for a seat and less heat meant the horn was honking like mad because the driver had a destination to get to and he had to let all others on the road know he was coming through. OMG! When I realized this I put my headphones in my ears, turned my music up really loud and decided that these men go home to their families at the end of the day so I will get to Pondy safe and sound.



Two hours later I arrived in one piece to a town that used to be colonized by the french and is now more contemporary bohemian than french Provencal. It is kind of new agey here while also being sort of old worldish. Perfect. The town keeps European hours, french is spoken by many, lots of restaurants serve French food (this means cow is on the menu) and the beer is cheap! Ever since I read Life of Pi I have wanted to come here and so far I have not been disappointed. I am staying at Swades Guesthouse and it is lovely. The owner lived in France from age 9-35 so he gets it - there is even toilet paper provided in the washroom that has a toilet bowl brush - that is a novelty to have a clean toilet!! I am going to explore the city for a few days and just hang out now that I am no longer jet legged.

Shore Temple and a ball

Under construction... The Shore Temple in Mamallapuram is absolutely beautiful, even under a tarp. The temple is thought to be the last in a series of buildings that are now submerged. This theory gained credibility since the Tsunami in 2004 when the receding waters revealed outlines of what may have been sister temples.



I wandered around with only one other family and checked out the intricacy of the carvings. Considering it was originally constructed in the 7th century a facelift was probably long overdue. The family kept taking pictures of me when they did not think I was looking so I took one of them!



Shiva are you in there?



After the temple I went to check out Krishna's Butterball. I have no idea why it is named that but what I do know is this rock is literally perched on a hill. I have thought long and hard how this can be possible and have decided that somethings in life are just inexplicable and I am learning to be okay with that.



Next up Puducherry

Dirty Walls

India is a country a of dirty walls. Before I left a friend told me to check out her friend's blog because she knew he was somewhere in India and if I wanted to volunteer with him he would love it. As it turns out he is in Mumbai working in a slum so I won't be able to pitch in on this trip but his project "The Dirty Wall Project" is amazing. Be sure to look at some of the photos the kids in the slum took with his camera - absolutely beautiful. He is an inspiration to me.

This is one of the cleaner walls I have seen on this trip!



I love the hand, especially when given with full on attitude!

Clink clink clink

Mamallapuram wakes up to the sound of clink clink clink as sculptor's chisel away on granite doing their trade. Some of the pieces are massive and you would need a crane to move them - In India that means a lot of brut force from men.



The first thing I thought when I saw this one was "dear lord, even sculptures get bad breast implants!"



All around town are these flower holders - I even have a mini one in my room!



Next up a few more temples!