After a very relaxing time in Varkala, making new friends as well as seeing old ones we departed for Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) in an Ambassador, the quintessential Indian Taxi (which until this point we had not been in and quite a comfy ride despite people telling us otherwise) to catch our last train in India for Madurai.
We decided to treat ourselves to a posh hotel for our last two days in India - around £25 a night which would easily be £100+ for the equivalent back in Europe.
It was nice to do some touristy things after being on the beach and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Temple complex and Palace of Madurai.
The Temple complex is so colourful and architecturally interesting besides being a very important pilgrimage site for Hindus.
There was even an Elephant blessing pilgrims/worshippers with his trunk, for a small fee of course ;-)
Madurai has a nice vibe we felt, typically Indian but no hassle and quite clean too, a good place to say farewell to India.
So our lasting impressions of India:-
Indians love to sing at any given moment.
Indians always want to ask you where you come from and many want your photo.
Colourful temples and amazing palaces.
Lots of nature to be seen especially all the Egrets and Kites.
Beautiful colourful clothes that the women wear and they love their gold.
Thalis, Massala Chai on the train and South Indian Food, although funnily enough the food could have been a little spicier.
Trains filled to bursting especially in the north.
Auto Rickshaws (tuk-tuks) buzzing around everywhere like mosquitoes, fun to ride in but good bargaining essential to get a decent price.
Crazy roads and crazy driving - to our western eyes anyway, they seem to have a system that works for them, as long as you have a horn you’ll be ok.
Of course, the ubiquitous cows in the roads which unfortunately doesn’t improve the air quality and perhaps should be in fields grazing on grass rather than eating plastic from the rubbish dumps, in fairness many people give the street cows food but i’m not sure chapati dough is the best for them.
Happy beach dogs, mangy city dogs.
The really negative point for us was too much rubbish and pollution everywhere, most have no understanding of how plastic affects their environment but the government is trying to educate people so hopefully the next generations will realise the impact of throwing rubbish out of the train/bus window etc..
It’s a beautiful country, so diverse and rich in culture and colour, unfortunately it’s not all Bollywood yet so don’t be fooled.
From Varkala to Madurai
We decided to treat ourselves to a posh hotel for our last two days in India - around £25 a night which would easily be £100+ for the equivalent back in Europe.
It was nice to do some touristy things after being on the beach and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting the Temple complex and Palace of Madurai.
The Temple complex is so colourful and architecturally interesting besides being a very important pilgrimage site for Hindus.
There was even an Elephant blessing pilgrims/worshippers with his trunk, for a small fee of course ;-)
Madurai has a nice vibe we felt, typically Indian but no hassle and quite clean too, a good place to say farewell to India.
So our lasting impressions of India:-
Indians love to sing at any given moment.
Indians always want to ask you where you come from and many want your photo.
Colourful temples and amazing palaces.
Lots of nature to be seen especially all the Egrets and Kites.
Beautiful colourful clothes that the women wear and they love their gold.
Thalis, Massala Chai on the train and South Indian Food, although funnily enough the food could have been a little spicier.
Trains filled to bursting especially in the north.
Auto Rickshaws (tuk-tuks) buzzing around everywhere like mosquitoes, fun to ride in but good bargaining essential to get a decent price.
Crazy roads and crazy driving - to our western eyes anyway, they seem to have a system that works for them, as long as you have a horn you’ll be ok.
Of course, the ubiquitous cows in the roads which unfortunately doesn’t improve the air quality and perhaps should be in fields grazing on grass rather than eating plastic from the rubbish dumps, in fairness many people give the street cows food but i’m not sure chapati dough is the best for them.
Happy beach dogs, mangy city dogs.
The really negative point for us was too much rubbish and pollution everywhere, most have no understanding of how plastic affects their environment but the government is trying to educate people so hopefully the next generations will realise the impact of throwing rubbish out of the train/bus window etc..
It’s a beautiful country, so diverse and rich in culture and colour, unfortunately it’s not all Bollywood yet so don’t be fooled.
From Varkala to Madurai
Madurai
Wonderful what a great trip !
ReplyDeleteWow! You're certainly covering some ground - we loved our ride in an Ambassador Classic from North Kerala (Kannur) down to Calicut - smooth and comfortable; we felt like Maharajah's :). Have a great time in Sri Lanka. Keep up the blog posts; really enjoying your travels and the great photos. xx
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