Madurai

I was a person who always thought, North India is the best for exploring as a tourist, but South India is no less.

Starting off the journey with the first city- Madurai.

Enough of hill stations and beaches, this time let me introduce you to the city of temples-Madurai.

Basic info: Mumbai to Madurai by road

Route: via AH47
Distance: 1425 kms
Time: 23 hours

"Madurai is the city of temples in Tamil Nadu, India. The satellite view of Madurai city represents the lotus."

We reached Madurai at around 11.30 pm.

After 1 hour of hunting for a lodge we finally got to sleep which was much more needed as we literally broke our backs after hours of driving in the car.

We woke up and got ready by 7am. It was hard though but anyways I was the most excited for the day here.

As per planned, we were going to start our day by getting darshan at Meenakshi temple.

For those who don't know, Meenakshi temple( Meenkashi Amman or Meenakshi Sundareshwara Temple) is an ancient Hindu temple located on the southern bank of Vaigai river. It is dedicated to god Shiva and named after goddess Parvati.

Tickets: Free and 100 INR for VIP

Opening timings: 5am to 12.30pm and 4pm to 10pm

It was around a 5 minutes walk from our hotel.

We reached the temple and the first thing I started wondering was how the temple was actually constructed? It was the finest architecture I ever saw in my life.

With hundreds of such questions on my mind, I entered the queue for darshan.

We got in and were more stumbed by seeing the art all over. I was continuously looking around by trying to move my head in every direction possible. 

The architecture of the thousand pillars hall was absolutely wonderful.

While in the queue, one uncle was sharing his knowledge with us and I came to know that there are 33,000 sculptures in the temple.

And we finally got blessings from the goddess. It was so beautiful. It took us around 1 hour in the queue, but it was all worth it.

The temple was just an endless of around 15 acres complex with 14 towers.

It was such an amazing experience.

We then had breakfast.

A South Indian breakfast.
I'm not a huge fan of South Indian food but this was really so good.

Next was Tirumalai Nayakar Palace which was around a kilometer from Meenkashi temple.

Tirumalai Nayakar Palace,

Opening timings: 9am- 5pm

Tickets: 10 INR

The palace was constructed by the King Tirumalai Nayak in the 17th century. It is the second biggest attraction in Madurai. It has got the best architecture by an Italian architect.

It was so huge with around 240 massive pillars. And to my surprise, it was only a quarter of the original structure. Like, what?

There's also a sound and light show every evening which tells the story of Salippathikaram, both in Tamil and English language.

Next,
Gandhi Museum.

Opening timings: 10am- 1pm and 2pm- 5.45 pm

Tickets: No entry fee, 50 INR for camera.

It is one of the five Gandhi Sangralayas (museums) in India. The museum displays pictures, paintings, sculptures, replicas and also a letter written by Mahatma Gandhi to Adolf Hitler.

Most importantly, the portion of blood stained garment used by Gandhiji when assassinated was also displayed. The 'visual biography of Gandhi' has 124 rare photographs of Gandhiji depicting childhood to death and cremation. It took us back in history.

Different kinds of classes are conducted here for residentials and visitors such as self employment class, Hindi and Sanskrit course, meditation and yoga course.

Every year on 2nd October on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, a 5 days festival is organised.

We left the museum at 2.30 pm. Had lunch and went back to the hotel.

After 2 hours of sleep at 6.30 we got ready to explore the local markets of Madurai.

While in the market, we literally didn't understand a word the native peoples (so called Anna and Amma) were uttering loudly. Even though they speak Hindi their accent was still Tamil.

After enough shopping, we went for dinner. Then back to the hotel.

And this way Madurai was explored.