Day 253 : Arrival at the Ashram

It’s the day before our “yoga vacation” course starts so we took a rickshaw in the afternoon to the ashram (i.e. retreat). When we arrived it seemed deserted apart from a few people quietly sitting under a tree but we were soon checked in and shown to the dorms where we’ll be spending the next 10 days. My dorm had about 20 beds in – most seemed to be on the teachers training course that has already been running for a few weeks and there are a few yoga vacationers who have been around for a while as well. Felt a bit lost as we could not take part in the yoga classes yet (the beginner classes start tomorrow). I just sat reading in the room (it’s very hot outside) while the others went off to class.

Dinner was interesting. At 6pm everybody (about 100 people) sits cross–legged in rows on the floor of the dining hall chanting “Hare Krishna” whilst the food is served out onto stainless steel trays. Food is  tasty curry and bread. Not sure I can sit cross-legged for very long though.
In the evening we bought some yoga mats and baggy trousers for me. At 8pm there is half an hour of silent meditation – very hard to concentrate when sitting cross-legged as my feet keep going numb! After that is chanting along with drums and bells. The chants are very repetitive and gets faster for a few minutes until it ends. The lyrics are something like a Kula Shaker song. It’s also very hot and sweaty even though the yoga hall where we sit is open sided.

Lights out and bed at 10pm.

Day 252 : Morning trip to Tiruparankundram

Took the local bus to Tiruparankundram a small town with an impressive temple dedicated to Lord Muraga. The temple is very colourful and set into a hill that looks like a huge boulder.

Looked around the temple, saw boys in monk school (their chanting was very noisy not very serene, in fact most of the temples feel very chaotic with people cramming into small spaces and queues to get blessed and the temples are often very noisy). I lit some little oil candles and decided to get blessed by the elephant (I don’t usually but thought I would today, I love elephants so much I hope she isn’t too lonely with no other elephant friends).

Got the bus back to Madurai went to another bakery (not as good as yesterday’s) and had coffee and Indian cakes so naughty! Then bananas and crisps picnic lunch back at the hotel to escape the heat.

Did some more present shopping.

Day 251 : Madurai

Went to the Sree Meenakshi Temple which is meant to be one of the biggest temple complexes in South Asia. It is a huge maze of corridors, shrines and halls (plus the usual elephant) with four huge entrance towers covered in fantastically bright deities and figures. The temple was very busy and there was music coming out of speakers and also some live music. We watched as men carried out carvings of deities into a hall in a very chaotic manner with lots of shouting and laod drum music and a ceremony of flower garlands and candles. The various carvings and woken up and then put back to bed everyday.

Went to a bakery and had some sweet coffee (coffee is instead of chai in the South) and doughnut type things and Indian cakes (like baklava) some delicious.

Went to a rooftop restaurant (almost normal price food) which has views of the 4 towers of the temple. An amazing sunset and then the sky went a deep purple with such a bright crescent moon.

Randomly bumped into a lovely couple (David and Vicky) who we met in Darjeeling so we are hoping to meet them for dinner tomorrow.

Day 250 : Thanjavur to Madurai

 Checked out of the nice hotel and got an auto-rickshaw (with a giant speaker in the back) to the bus station. Took the local bus 4 hours to Madurai bus station then another bus to the old city.

Trawled the street of hotels and found a nice place to stay. Went to a cheap, clean cafe and had South Indian lemon rice and onion bhajis (like I’ve never tasted before– like a whole chunk of soft onion in a doughnut – amazing). 

Day 249 : Palace and more dancing

Today we went to the palace art gallery, it’s full of statues and bronzes many dating from the 10th century. We went up the palace tower squeezing through tiny staircases all the way to the top. We watched the world from high up looking down on everything even the backs of beautiful green parrots flying through the air. I could see the big temple and 3 other very colourful smaller ones, palm trees, a barking dog, a woman leading a calf, a cocky cock scratching the earth, people playing cricket in the orange dust. Its a skyline that could be from 100’s of years ago exempt for the many communication towers. I sat in the lovely peace and quiet for a long time until we were eventually invaded by hoards of school kids that stare at us as if we have 3 heads.

Went to the dance festival again, there was an amazing pink sunset and bright crescent moon framing the temple.

Loving it here in India generally (helps having a lovely room to retire to!). The colours of the flower garlands, the beautiful saris, your eyes are never bored, 1/3 of the smells are pleasant and your ears are always deafened. 

Day 248 : Thanjavur Temple

 Had a lovely breakfast (included in the hotel price – buffet of western and Indian food, lots of fresh fruit, had 2 bowls of cornflakes yum yum!).

Walked to the Brihadishwara temple – a very impressive temple built in the 11th century. The gateway to the temple is beautiful and has a real elephant (seems to be the norm in the south). You have to leave your shoes at the entrance so your feet get really hot on the brick tiles. The main temple is huge and it is surrounded by columned walkways that are the longest in India (I was saying to Will this must be the longest corridor I’ve ever walked down I guess I was right). Had a few people taking our photos but not too many. Lots of school kids in their smart uniforms and pigtails.

Got back to the hotel to avoid the mid day heat and had bananas for lunch.

In the evening, we went to a classical dance and music festival at the temple that happens to be on this week. The first show was a woman dancing a story about Shiva accompanied by a live band. It was absolutely mesmerizing, some of the best live music I’ve ever seen and the dancing was incredible she was so expressive.

Had room service dinner (almost as cheap as eating out) broccoli pea korma, chapattis and onion pakora yum yum.

Day 247 : Early bus to Thanjavur

Got up at 4.45am and made our way to the bus station. There was no way of really telling which was our bus just spent the first half hour wandering around the huge bus station asking random people which bus to get (also nothing much written in Latin script). Found what we thought was the right bus and stood next to it till about 6am then the bus drivers woke up (they sleep in the bus) and confirmed it was the correct one. Bus not very comfortable but quite empty which was good for the 6 hour journey.

Checked into our “splurge” hotel in Thanjavur which is quite posh and very clean yey! Had a nice and cheap lunch. Bought some more naughty Indian sweets (similar to fudge).

Generally in the south women wear garlands of small white flowers in their hair which smell sweet. Saw more ?bullocks? with painted horns pulling carts. People often have white stripes painted on their foreheads. Like everywhere young children and babies have black dots on their face (I think to create an imperfection to ward off the evil eye).

Had dinner in the same cafe as it is clean and cheap but decided not to go back because the waiters are really annoying.