On to Tamil Nadu

I took off from the volunteer site in Kanthalloor, Kerala state, on saturday. My first stop on my solo travel is Madurai, in Tamil Nadu state. Madurai is supposedly the oldest inhabited town in the southern half of India, which is amazing considering how old Indian civilization is.

The big attraction in town is the central Hindu temple complex, with rooms filled with hundreds of pillars. Elephants stand in the midst of the pillars and large bats flit about overhead. I walked around the temple once last night and again this morning.

Outside of the bus station a coconut vendor told me how to get to another temple on the outskirts of town. I caught the bus and found the temple, which was very different than the central one in town. People lay on the cool floor of the temple, escaping the burning sun outside. Fruit bats the size of small cats crawled around above my head, feeding on the bananas that people set out for them. Behind the temple was a huge rock that families hike up to picnic on. I climbed to a point where I could see the whole city and the countryside below me. Its great that such an ancient city still looks old and flat.

Tomorrow I hope to tour the Mahatma Gandhi museum, where several of his few possessions are held. The building was an old palace that was converted into the most important Gandhi site in southern India. Martin Luther King Jr. toured the same museum in 1959, so I hope to catch the historical importance of the place as I walk around the grounds.