Madurai - Part 3

Madurai Part 1 Madurai Part 2

After visiting the Mahal we bought cucumber, pineapple, mango all sprinkled with salt and chilli powder and ate them on the way to Meenakshi Temple. We walked through "Therku Maasi Veedhi" which was a busy street with market. It had lot of provision stores with lorries loading and unloading stuffs. Atlast we reached the temple. A traffic constable was shouting in mike and clearing the traffic near the temple. The entrance to the temple was sorrounded by people selling coconuts and flowers.

One person from such shop targeted us and asked us to leave our footwear in his shop. Only then I realised that we are supposed to leave our footwear outside. There were few dedicated places to put our footwear so we ignored the shopkeeper and left our footwear in one such dedicated place. We walked into the temple which again had lot of shops selling religious items. My sole was hurting as I was not used to walk bare foot.

Then we reached the theppakulam inside the temple it was a beautiful sight. The we searched for the special Meenakshi temple. They charged Rs 20 per head for special darshan. The entrance announced only Hindu's are allowed beyond that point. The queue was long. The place had some light but no air. Atlast we came out and headed for shivan temple which was near by. All this while my foot was hurting badly. For shivan temple another Rs 20 per head.

Inside the temple we searched for the "Aayiram kaal mandapam" and found it. Inside the mandapan we searched for the musical pillars. We knocked almost all the pillars and finally found them in one corner barricaded. We have to give some amount to the guy who is around there to hear the sounds. He decided otherwise and left.

Finally we came out of the temple and located a restuarant named Harish which announced it was an A/C resturant. Only after going insider we realised he used only air coolers. After lunch we asked for the best theater around and got the reply as Cinepriya. We took an auto to that theater hoping it will have A/C. After buying the tickets for the movie Naan Avanillai at Rs 30 per head we realised the A/C was not working. The fans werent switched on either.

After sometime they switched on the fans. The movie was ok movie but I slept through the last part of the movie.

Then we headed back to thiruparangundram. After a brief rest we went for the reception which was held in a grand manner.

In the morning we attended the wedding the took off to Madurai station to catch the 11 AM Koodal express.

Here are some more snaps.