A day in Madurai

After our late night at the temple last night it was a bit of a stretch to be up and on the move at 5.30am this morning for a guided walking tour around the small laneways of the old city.  We had to get going this early (before sunrise) to see some pretty special sights..... 

This is when the women of the household prepare their front entries with special drawings (Kolams). They use a loose white powder and no brushes - all free hand. The drawings are supposed to bring prosperity to the household and keep the women's minds and bodies agile!!

These busy laneways also support a large population of cows and goats. They're milked early in the morning and allowed to roam the streets during the day, amongst all the traffic and the city mayhem.

 We watched this lovely lady milk her goat into two tin cups and deliver them (immediately) to the men in this fruit shop. Talk about fresh and warm!

 There is a strong coffee culture here - small cups of sweet frothy milk coffee drunk standing up Italian style! We joined the throngs of men (mainly) and enjoyed a hot spicy donut with our coffees as an early morning pick me up.

 Our walking tour included the early morning market streets ......

 A favourite haunt of the foraging cows ......

 Beautiful sandalwood oil .........

And how to move a mountain of chillies .....

We had a short break and a shower back at the hotel before heading out for our next tour - back to the Meenakshi Temple for a good look in the light of day.

This pic is of just one of its four main gate towers .........

 People like to take garlands of flowers into the temple to make offerings to the many Hindu gods and goddesses.

 Visitors to the temple use these powders to mark the centre of their foreheads - to help them focus their prayerful thoughts. Red denotes prosperity.

 It seems like a joyful place. People are happy and excited and they sit in the temple in family groups and eat snacks and take selfies. Lots of the locals want to take our photo too (especially of Sophie - can't think why)!

 Then time for marsala chai, a delicious samosa (or two) and our pick of Indian sweets - giving us just enough energy to embark on the next round of sightseeing .......

 All this food was ridiculously cheap: There are just under 50 rupees to the AUS dollar so those samosas were about 26 cents each. My box of hand made sweets cost about $2.40.

Madurai also has a royal palace - erected in the 1600s by the very enlightened king Thirumalai Nayak. Only the central part of the original much larger palace remains standing today.

 We admired the fusion of Islamic, Hindu and Roman styles .........

 Last stop was the busy fresh flower market in the newer south side of Madurai city.  The flowers all seemed destined to be temple offerings (just like in Bali).

 Sophie was popular in the flower market too!

 I loved the way these two women had "whispered" their chooks to be so well behaved in amongst all the mayhem of the market (they really aren't dead chooks, just sitting there all broody).

It was a big day for us hardy tourists - but one that revealed some of the magic of this amazing city - so glad we've seen it!