India: Madurai

When I first set foot on the Indian tarmac, a lot of feelings rush trough my head: excitement, happiness, curiosity but also some fear of the huge country with a bad reputation. They interrogate me for 20 minutes at the passport control. Meanwhile about half the passenger's bags have been marked with chalk and have to be opened for thorough inspection. It's definitely not easy to get in the country! (My visa papers also took a lot of administration and work to get). I've to wait a bit to get my hands on some rupees, because the ATM doesn't accept my card. I can convince a taxi driver anyway to take me to my hotel and to pay him later. The lift boy shows me my room and immediately turns on the TV, probably so I won't miss the last episode of Indian 'Thuis'.

I head out to find another ATM and to explore the city. It's OVERWHELMING. There is traffic everywhere, but no sidewalks, so everybody has to walk at the edge of the road while honking tuktuks and scooters race past. You also have to evade children, beggars, food stalls, garbage, cows... total chaos! For me at least, because for the 1,5 million people living here this is all completely normal. It's really fascinating, but walking around is very tiresome: it's not only busy but also very hot and smelly. In the evening I go trough the streets which are still packed with people to get to a local restaurant. I order rice and mushroom prepared in an unknown way but it's really good! While I'm eating the owner blesses his restaurant with incense, filling the whole place with smoke. Not enough smoke, because I see the cook cleaning bowls with his sarong, revealing they don't wear pants under it!

The next day, after a horrible breakfast of spicy potato lumps, I head out for the huge Hindu Meenakshi Amman Temple. After handing over my shoes and camera, I step trough one of the four decorated entrances into another world. My mind is completely blown away. The interior, rituals, smells and sounds are all so vastly different to our western culture. Because it's impossible to capture the entire experience with words, I'll give one example: in the middle of a long but narrow hallway there's statue of Ganesh, covered with a thick white paste. It's surrounded by people, praying and dropping to the ground. Other ones are asking for favours in a different way, by throwing butter balls to Ganesh. Oh by the way, the gate to this hallway is guarded by a real elephant!

Other highlights are the central pool and the hall of a thousand pillars. After the visit, there is a tropical downpour. So I wait a bit, witnessing more crazy rituals outside the temple. I ask for an umbrella shop and end up with and umbrella, some food and tailor-made clothes. This is in an old part of the temple converted to a market where you can get insanely cheap clothes, if you bargain correctly.

Next stops are the Madurai Palace (impressive), Ghandi Museum (closed on a friday...), water reservoir (dry but huge) and more of the busy dirty city. I wade trough the deep puddles caused by the tropical rain and non-existent sewage. Then I see a cow peeing and a man spitting on the street. And another man, and another (it's a normal here), and another cow. The coin in my head drops and I realise what I'm actually standing in. I need a shower!

All the experiences (and many more like mobbing schoolchildren, fireworks and busy roundabouts) add up to an exhausting day. But back in the hotel awaits the hardest challenge: a french toilet...

Link to the complete South India gallery.