Madurai was a big disappointment. First, we spent an hour at the train station to find out that our train is soldout unless we pay TATKAL- twice the fare. Madurai was dirty, had congested traffic, was hard to breathe in, and had lots of flies (especially when I was trying to drink my juice). It rained all day making it muddy and hard to walk around. The Ghandi museum was closed; the Palace closed 20 minutes after we got there; the grand temple was being restored, so only parts were visible through the bamboo scaffolding; and to go inside the temple to see the ancient rituals you have to go barefoot (and there was no way I was putting my feet on this disgusting foul soup covering the ground!) To end the day, we took a 30-minute bicycle taxi through town from a skinny, coughing 80-year-old Indian man (weighing no more than 80 pounds) to the train station. I hope he spent his tip quickly because he's not going to be around much longer! I felt awful and wanted to get outta' here! Paul had an awesome idea to check into a hotel for 6 hours until our train arrived at midnight (the train was an hour late) to escape Madurai. I can't wait for this day to end!
Check out that crazy hairy bus driver above... from Munnar to Madurai it took 5 hours!
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