Meenakshi Temple in the daylight

We went again to the Meenakshi temple, the same one where we saw the night ceremony 2 days ago. We went to the main sanctuary where the gods were put to bed. I was having a little heat stroke and almost passed out but my fellow travellers poured water over my head and down my throat and I felt a little better and continued on.We go to the 1,000 pillar hall where the sculptures are larger than life and seem to jump out of the pillar they are a part of. In the side isles there is an exhibit of classic bronze statues. On we go to the marriage mandpa where we encounter a "baby shower" in progress which we are encourage by our guide and just join i. It is a celebration by friends and family of the girl for her first pregnancy. There blessings and flowers and small gifts given to the girl by each of her friends after the priest gives his blessings. We are given bracelets and candy as guests and later are asked to send photos as we are the only ones there with cameras.
From there we cross the valley to the mountains in our big bus. Crops of grapes, rice, sugar, and palm cover the fields. We make a sudden climb up the Eastern Ghats to the top of the mountains, through the jungle to our new abode in the Periyer National Tiger reserve. along the road we slow down to see the many families of monksys hanging out in the trees and along the walls. The bus boy throws them some treats and there is no sharing happening there!

The rooms are small buildings staggered up the hillside.We get the closest one by the pool and are very happy although there is no time for anything but a dip while were here. We went to a martial arts performance and then a classical dance exhibition by a 10 year old who was fantastic. We are thrilled with the slight breeze and the relative coolness here, no need even for air conditioning!

Madurai

Our first stop this morning was the Nyaka Palace. It has been recently restored, built in the 1700s. Some of it was repainted in its original color and some was not, it was massive in scale and impressive even though only 1/3 of its original size. The only furnishings sere sculptures in a small museum in what used to be the entertainment/ dance hall.

From there we took a wild rickshaw ride through the streets and around the Menakskee temple where we went to the night ceremony last night. Every evening they put Shiva to bed with Parvati in a grand ceremony and then close the temple. We did the evening ceremony instead of the 4 AM awakening ceremony for obvious reasons. The priest brigs the statue of Shiva in a fancy covered carrier and do a ritual ceremony with 3 different stops along the procession. Lekuna ran us through the crowds to each stop holding on to one another so as to stay together.We short-cutted the route and she managed to get us i the front row for every stop along the way. Too bad mom told me to leave my camera in the hotel! The temple was closed today for the wedding of the Shiva's son.
We continued in our rickshaw through fruit and vegetable markets, clothing streets, and businesses of all kinds. We drove around a big statue of Nande the bull which was pretty cool with a temple behind it, a horse statue and we saw a prade going down the street with people with sprouting plants on their heads celebrating the wedding. Then it was off for a bit of shopping before luch at a local slow "fast food" restaurant full of local people.
Then it was time to go to the wedding at Thiruparam Kundram temple. We thought we could only see the outside of the temple and the parade carts but Lekuna found a guide who got is in to see the temple. So through the crowd linked together again we went. We saw groups of people sitting around praying or whatever and many asked me to take their photo. I was only in trouble once when we got inside the inner sanctum and I tried to take a picture when the guards started yelling at me that it was not allowed here. I had bought my camera permit so I thought I was good to go but no such luck. We thought we'd seen the main alter where we reversed direction and started climbing stairs over walkways and up more stairs until we were in front of the the entrance to the cave where we saw the real inner sanctum where the wedding couple were sitting. We were blessed several more times with spots of red color that looks like blood and white ash which also went all over my shirt. Then they handed us more ash and a passerby instructed us to smear that on our foreheads as well. What a mess we are now but we are certainly blessed.

Chanting voices coming from the dark path below us turned out to be a group of young boys training to be priests and who are in a boarding school for this purpose. They only get to see their parents once a year.

Katia's birthday

Up early to go to a 7 AM wedding in orur best attire. We sat in the first rows and observed the wedding. The bride's father invited us afterwards to stay for food but we had to get on with our trip.

After packing up at our hotel we went to a pr Aryan temple with terra cotta horses about half life sized lined up for about 1/4 mile leading to the temple. The priest did a ceremony for us and gave us all a blessing complete with red spotted foreheads for all. There were some very saad people there with wounds that wantd food- we should have brought breakfast from the hote.

Across the road we watched 4 bulls driven through the cut rice thrashing and winowing and the rest of the family helping out.

The fort up on the mountain of giant bolders we viewed from the bus- just as well- it is damn hot here.

We drove to and walked around in a village where a group of wealthy bankers had built gorgeous houses. Most were not in residence as they travel most of the time and use the houses for family gatherings. We got a personal tour inside one of the large houses.

We went to see weavers and then to see tile makers and they showed us how they make their crafts. We had an exceptional lunch at a fancy traditional hotel and restaurant where we ate a fiest on banana leaves in the traditional fashion- really the best lunch yet. We sat outside in the shade with fans.

We end in madurai with a small bag of goodies we purchased along the way.

The internet is down at our hotel but the manager is letting us use his which is on a different line so we are hurrying.
Tonight we are going to the evnening ceremony at the Menakshee temple.

Saturday

The first place we visited today is a UNESCO World Heritage site, Bridha Disvara. It was a fabulous temple carved and constructed from some sort of hard stone . It is dedicated Shiva. We saw the 5th largest Nandi statue in India before entering the temple and proceding to the inner sanctum where the largest ling is worshipped. We cued up with the crowd and waited in the hot temple for about 15minutes for the ceremony and to get blessed with the sandlewood paste. . The linga was draped with cloth and flowers. Elephant was at the entrance giving blessings with his trunk.

We saw a shop where they made string instuments and saw them carving the veenha.

Next we went to the bronze makers. It is an entire family working together to make bronze statues, etc. We saw them make themolds, pur in the hot bronze, cool it and break open the mold.

Next we visited an orphanage of about 200 kids where they had prepared songs and recitings for us, some in English, some in Tamil. Sri Venkateswara. The kids were very friendly and played games and talked to us afterwards. They wer exeptionally polite and well mannered, also to the elders who also had a retirement home on the site. We saw their room full of cots and spoke to some of the elderly people as well. Many people asked for us to take their pictures. We brought our USA stars and striped pencils to give out.

Then we went to see a Bahman women (of the highest caste) who told us how she is helping the children at the school by bringing them to her home and teaching them traditional songs, games, cooking, manners and all things traditional in the Indian culture.

Then we came back to the hotel and were invited to Lacuna's room for a surprise party. She dresed us all up in her Saris,, bindis, flowers in our hair and we went on a photoshoot and then to dinner all dressed up. boy, wern't we all good looking!

Trip to Tanjore

Saturday, March 19.

A long ride from Pondicherry to Tanjore. We mad a lot of stops during the day and the entire trip lasted from 8 AM until 5 PM. Our first stop was watch a parade along the street escorting holy ash to the temple. Then we stopped again and went down a path into a walled enclosure to see the huge guardian figures by another temple. We walked into a one room kitchen/ restaurant to see it. We drove over a bridge where the old bridge was converted into shopping stalls. Then we went to the hemp village where one extended family works together making ropes. We watched them as they did many of the steps to making the rope and gave out our pencils and spare toiletries from the hotel. One lady was giving her little baby a bath with Johnston's baby powder.

Now we go to the village of Paguni Vitram where they are holding a colorful festival. Hundreds of dressed up people were milling around, eating, and circling the temple by foot, wagon, or rolling through the dirt. Mothers wheeled children in stretchers and thanked the gods for healing them. On the way back to the bus an oxcart was stopped in traffic and Laurel was invited to ride in it down the road through the traffic and merchants selling balloons, cotton candy, pinwheels and fruit.

We stopped on the side of the road again to watch people making handmade and machine made mats. The finest ones were for bridal presents with the bride and grooms names as well as doves and other symbols woven in them.
Next we take a wild ride through one lane streets in our giant air

conditioned bus to view the many temples in the town of Kumbakonam. Cows and goats, people, dogs, motercycles and tuck tuks all fight for the right of way but nobody seems to get hit.

In the tank were bathers and a floating festival cart-- all sparkles and flags, all ready for the festival. The young men bathing in the water all waved when I took their photo and laughed.

The hit of this town was when we got out

and went into a 12th C.

temple to get blessed by a holy man and get ash placed on our foreheads. He took my hand on the way out and we walked out together, he was 78

today and I'm sure he did need a hand to stay balanced. He didn't want his picture taken- too bad for that.

Our hotel for tonight is the Sangan. Our fearless leader Lacuna says to not espect too much but it is more than adequate with plenty of bathroom facilities an you can see in the photo. got to get off computer now, time is up, love you all....Laurel and Nancy

Today is Friday. We left our hotel with the gigantic swimming pool and set off for Pondicherry. We visited the Shore temple, build on the seashore as the name suggests. We shared our visit with lots of schoolchildren which is always fun. They were all excited to come up and say "hello" and smile for us. The temple was fabulous, gods and building details carved out of single huge pieces of granite. The second temple was from the same time period but was made up of large rectangular stones that were stacked to make the temple and then carved. The third site we visited was a huge rock wall which had been carved out to make a temple on one side and a pictorial display of the gods and the decent of the Ganges next to it.
We had a unique Indian lunch experience which was sort of a sampler plate with a banana leaf plate, rice, and lots of spices, dips and sweet treats.
After checking into our hotel we went on a tour of this French inspired city which included window shopping, a tuk tuk ride, and some delicious expresso on the side of the road. This place is more dangerous than any city we have visited to date. They all do seem to pass on the left but everybody wants to go straight down the middle of the road or even the wrong side until they are just about to hit another vehicle or pedestrian (no sidewalks) and then they suddenly remember to vier to the left. I went shopping with Mimi after the group left and we decided it was safer to just stay on one side of the road and not try to cross. We got directions from one of the merchants to get us home to the hotel but we got confused as we couldn't tell a road from an alley and streetsigns were hard to find. We decided to get a tuktuk back: it only cost us 40 Rubies or about a dollar.

Kanchipuram

Today we took a road trip to Kanchipuram to see the SriEkambaranathar Temple where they were having another festival. This is a working temple with 5 worship times a day. It was quite crowded with pilgrims; extended families fo children, parents and grandparents there to pray were sporting their best attires so it was a great day to visit. We were not allowed in the main sanctuary but there were plenty of shrines for us to see as well as the famous Mango tree that is 3,000 years old. They renew it with slips and cuttings when necessary so it doesn't die.

On the way to the festival we stopped on the road to see a place where they dye and weave silk into threads and then weave fabrics. The work was quite intricate. Two little boys followed us around asking us to take their pictures in various locations. We were happy to oblige.

After lunch we saw another temple from the 8th Century that is now a museum and a World Heritage site. It was built by the king of the Pallavas and was built out of sandstone so it could be carved quicker so that it would be finished within his lifetime. The sandstone has weathered considerably but has been restored in part. both temples are dedicated to Shiva, the God of Destruction. There were many relief panels of Shiva and his consort Paravati. Fantastic composite animals decorated the colomns and pilasteres. In order to get to these temples today we drove for an hour and a half through small villages. We litterally drove strait through their village. The road was right up next to some of the houses and schools. Cows, goats, and chilren were in and around the road- it's amazing we didn't hit any at the speed we were going!

At the end of the day we swam in the Hotel pool- the Radisson. It is the longest and cleanest pool I have ever seen. It is built like a lagoon with trees and islands and waterfalls. I did a few laps which felt good, the water was splendid- probably about 85 degrees.