The first day here we were really tired. We had a wonder around the town after lunch, noticed that you get really mithered here from all sorts of people but it's ok, I guess if we wanted to have trousers made or buy chessboards and wooden snakes we could do so easily! We went back to the hotel for a snooze and then nipped out to a little chai stall down the road where old men were congregating sipping chai. I braved it and queued up while Nikki waited in the wings somewhere. I was in the wrong queue obviously but a nice old Indian man told me what you had to do. Bare in mind that the chai stand was no bigger than a shower cubicle, but you had to queue up at a little desk and say what you wanted (either chai or coffee), you pay the man behind the desk 6 rupees per drink and you get two green tokens. You take these to the chai men (one does the washing, one does the elaborate pouring and one does the handing over of drinks) and then you take your chai, which is about 3000 degrees celsius and do what all the other Indian men are doing, wolf it down whilst burning the inside of your mouth. It was quite funny because we were a bit out of our comfort zone but about 10 people got involved in making sure our order was heard and we got what we wanted. It was probably the highlight of our time in Madurai and it was nice to experience something real and rewarding and forget about all the beggers and touts. We talked the men about where we were from and where we were heading before heading back for a shower and then tea on the rooftop restaraunt.
Yesterday we went round the temple complex and got away with not paying (no one asked us). It was difficult to get around the temple because some shrines were off limits to us 'Foreigners' as the signs said it. We spent loads of time on our balcony taking pictures of street life. Last night we ate on the roof again but it was bloody chaos because a few tour groups had come in and the kitchen couldnt cope. It took 2 hours for our food to come but we had a great table overlooking the temples and we sat there chuckling at people and sipping pepsi's.
Today we checked out and had a wonder, found a supermarket that sells western snacks such as pringles and cadburys. Bought a feast for the upcoming journey, chocolate (gone already), pringles, cashew nuts, cookies, and some panda shaped biscuit thingy's that we scoffed in Vietnam at some point.
We've got a train to catch tonight at 10.45 which gets us to Kollam in Kerala at 9.05am. From there we need to get a bus to Alleppey (2hrs) and from Alleppey we need to get a ferry across the lake to the village of Kumarakom where we'll spend a few days relaxing in the backwaters in a homestay we booked before we left. Got a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a LONG day. Might be no access to the internet until we get to Kochi on 30th December, so have a great New Year everyone.
C&N
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