It was 6 AM in the morning when we got on the cab from Munnar. It was a 4 hour journey to Madurai, Tamil Nadu. We started off right at sunrise and the first hour of the journey was not so pleasant. The roads were not well constructed and just when things couldn’t get worse, it started to rain. Our driver was a very nice guy and he took us through the curvy roads very cautiously.

After an hour or so, the roads became smooth and the sky cleared up. The view from my window was breathtaking and the sun was shining bright. I plugged in my earphones and enjoyed the view with some nice songs.

The sun was rising up little by little, making the sky look so bright and beautiful. I really enjoyed the drive with the beautiful scenery passing by.

On the way we stopped for breakfast at a restaurant. The best thing about South India is the South Indian Food. The idli, dosa, vadas served with all the different kinds of chutneys and the Sambhar is to die for. For the nonvegeterian people, you can find an amazing variety of sea food.

After having an amazing breakfast, we started off again towards Madurai, enjoying the views of the green fields and coconut trees passing by.

It was almost 11 AM when we reached our hotel in Madurai town. On reaching the hotel, we freshened up and relaxed for a while. It was the month of December, but it was really hot in Madurai with the Sun shining bright. We had booked our Hotel near the railway station because we had a train to catch at midnight. After a while we went down to have our lunch in one of the restaurants nearby. Most of the restaurants out there were vegeterian (works fine for us) and we enjoyed a delecious lunch which included Rice, Sambhar and 3 different kinds of curry served with Papads.
The town of Madurai is famous for the beautiful Meenakshi Temple, a Hindu temple dedicated to Parvati. It is one of the famous religious pilgrimage sites for Hindus. And we had come down to Madurai, just to visit this temple.
There are specific timings at which the temple opens up for prayers, once in the morning and once in the evening 4 PM. So at around 3.30 PM we made our way to the Meenakshi Temple. We decided to walk the way as the weather had cooled down a little and it was really pleasant.

As we approached the temple, I put my head up to see the beautiful entrance of the temple. It was one of the most beautiful man-made structure I have ever seen. The colorful sculptures of god and goddess crafted on the wall was such a beautiful sight.

The fine architecture and the details on the entire building left me amazed. On reaching one of the gates of the temple (there are 4 gates through which one can enter), we first made our way towards the counter to keep our shoes and cell phones. Cellphones are not allowed inside the temple and they properly check you before you enter. After keeping our cellphones and shoes safe in the counter, we made our way towards the entrance.

On walking inside, we were greeted by the guards who asked us if we wanted the Fastrack ticket to avoid the big queue of people for prayers. We ended up taking the tickets at Rs 100 and we were thankful we did as there were hundreds of people inside waiting in queue just to get a glimpse of the Goddess and pray there for a little while.

We had to wait for a little while in the Fast Track queue before the doors to the temple inside. The prayers were going on, and people were trying to just get a glimpse from wherever they were standing.

I wish I could capture the beauty of the temple from inside. The compound was really huge with multiple “Darshan” arenas and different idols. There was a huge pool inside the temple, where people could take bath before going for prayers. We walked around the temple, from one corridor to another. The entire temple was so beautifully constructed with such beautiful architecture all across the walls, ceilings.
We found a peaceful spot where there were very less people and we prayed in silence for a while.

The Meenakshi Temple is considered as one of the most holy places for the Hindus. People travel from all over the country to pay homage to the Goddess.

While coming out of the temple, we brought some “Prashad” from there and walked out the gate through which we had entered. It was almost 5.30 PM and we grabbed our shoes and cellphones from the counter and then walked around the temple.

The temple is set in between a very busy town. Around the temple, there was a proper market with people flooding in from all the sides, there were cows walking around and some shopkeepers trying convince the people to buy some things from their shop. The temple is an unexpected beauty in between these busy streets.

It was getting really hot and we were sweating profusely. To our relief, we found a shop which was selling ice-creams after a little while and we helped ourselves to some tasty Kulfis.
As the sun was about to set, we retired back to our rooms. We only went out to have dinner at a nearby restaurant. After taking some rest, we packed our stuff again and made our way towards the Madurai Railway Station. We had a train to catch at midnight, the train to the coastal town of Rameshwaram and Dhanushkodi.

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