The temples of Madurai and a few other stops

The previous post in this series is here..

We had reached our nice hotel in Madurai the previous night from Rameshwaram after a few extra stops by car. FIL had requested that the same driver take us around Madurai the entire day. We got 6 hours of sleep and had to get ready at 5AM. It was going to be a busy day. 

We started by visiting the Madurai Meenakshi temple. I have an interesting blogging history with this temple. You can check out my very first ever post where it starts off as an angry man venting.. have become a lot calmer now, at least on the blog!

This is my visit to this temple after 2005! It was a much better experience. Had sworn never to go near this temple again.. but guess there is always some fate or destiny..

We entered the temple at 6AM and were out in 45 minutes. Then it was time to visit two more temples. First one was Koodal Azhagar temple. There was a wedding party there and we had to rush past the crowd from the wedding to finish seeing the temple and getting darshan.

Then we were to go to Thirupparankundram Murugan temple. Given we were ahead of schedule, we talked to our driver and decided to go Pazhamudhir solai. We went up to the Noopura gangai (MIL decided to stay back given the climb to the top of the hill was steep) and me, San and FIL made a trip to the top and came back. Then we got to see Pazhamudhir solai. The priest was friendly and he was telling us about his cousins in Mumbai and US. 

We made a stop at the Kal azhagar temple which I believe is part of the 108 divya desams. It was a beautiful temple. By now we were cutting it close. 

some of the stuff is in ruins.. but looks like folks are working on preserving these few hundred year old temples. The temples older than these seem to be doing fine!

Once we came out, we drove to the other side of Madurai to Thirupparankundram. We drove past this beautiful church on the way.

The Murugan temple closes at 1PM and we made it to see the deity and deepa aaradhanai at 12:55. It was touch and go. We were also very hungry after that visit. 

We had a quick bite to eat at one of the local Vegetarian hotels. The ladies in their infinite wisdom decided that they will shop for Saris. They had seen the Thirumalai Nayakkar Mahal (palace) and were not impressed. I had never seen it. So my FIL said he will take me there after we drop the ladies at a Sari store. While they shopped we walked through this massive building and its hallways and took pictures. There is usually a light show in the evening which is the rave, but we were going to miss that anyways.

We drove past the city center and saw the amman temple tank during the day.. our driver was nice enough to park, so I could go get some pics.

We also stopped to get some Madurai famous Jigarthanda.. a sweet drink that has 3850% of your daily required fat and 80000% of the daily required sugar levels. 

After that we decided to change plans.. more on that later..

Rameshwaram to Madurai

The last post in this travel series is here .. and is three months old! 

My iPhone storage is full after more trips and if I don't microblog this now, it will be gone from memory!

On that quickfire trip to India, after we spent the day in Rameshwaram, we had to drive to Madurai to reach our hotel that night.

We left Danushkodi at almost 5 PM. We had two planned stops before reaching Madurai city. 

The first was Thiruppulaani. A beautiful place with an amazing temple tank full of fishes that gave us a free feet cleaning. The temple dates back to the year 1300 and is one of the 108 divya desams. The idol was just beautiful to look at. Sculptors had the golden touch then. Today's temple idols simply don't come close.

Then we stopped at Uttarakosamanagai temple. This is another famous temple in the area. It is a Shiva temple famous for the 6 feet Nataraja idol made of emerald. They cover it with sandalwood paste throughout the year and the emerald is seen only once a year and close to a hundred thousand folks come to visit it on that day!

We got to see the sandalwood version at least. The temple was going through some renovation and we navigated our way through the massive temple complex in the dark. 

Then we stopped to have an early dinner and it was off to Madurai..

A very very short video clip to remember.. we got to watch the sunset on our drive..

We got a glimpse of another beautiful temple tank after entering Madurai.  We reached a fantastic hotel that my FIL had booked. He told us it was one of the best in Madurai. He was right!

 

We had a good nights sleep and were up early to visit the temples in Madurai the following day. 

Think you will see a theme on our trips. India or Europe, we stay in each place for a day and keep moving cities every evening!

Madurai in another post!