Shri Meenakshi Temple.

Madurai, 24-11-1994.After our disastrous experiences with State Transport busses which were obviously non-excistent despite the efforts of the locals to convince us otherwise, we have gone into the habit of getting up real early whenever we wanna move to an other city or place and catch the first bus leaving for our preplanned destination. We still will have to wait around a little but at least we manage to get our precious bus. Madurai with the Shri Meenakshi Temple belongs among the cream of India as far as most western backpackers are concerned. An opinion with which I readily agree! Even though the inner sanctum is not accessible for non-hindus, the place is still fabulous with spacious corridors, the walls and collumns full with stone carvings and gargoyles. The ceilings covered in murals, a temple elefant that will pat you on the head with its trunk after you`ve given the animal a coin and everywhere very devout Hindus in their best clothes. Naturally the "official" guides have a problem with a negative answer to their services but in general the place is quite relaxed.