Madurai is known as the city of temples and for a good reason: There are lots of small hindu temples and there is a massive one. The big Madurai temple is one of the most important peregrinage centers for hindu people. Walking around this temple was like being inside a tomb raider videogame or a Indiana Jones movie. There were almost no tourists and it was so interesting to visit the temple on the company of locals that where actually praying to their gods. I loved it. I was even blessed by an elephant!
Receiving the blessing from the elephant
We couch surfed in Madurai for 2 days with Ragu, who let us stay at his guesthouse even though he wasn’t there to meet us. Not only did we have a place to stay without the host, we also got full use of his personal driver! It was the real royal Indian experience. At first Ann and I felt quite uncomfortable with people addressing us as sirs and madams but sightseeing Madurai in an A/C car was definitely something we got used to. After being treated like royalty in Allepey, it felt just as good to let the trend continue even though at moments we did feel guilty for feeling so spoiled.
Madurai Hindu temples