more of madurai

this picture show more of the art of the highly decorated pillars and temple-tops of madurai,
















a busy street in madurai














a temple which has turned into a tailoring bazaar, where we made a couple of very nice silk shirts and pants. 

the art of the temples of madurai

the pyramids on top of the temples are very elaborately deocrated and sculptured, teeming with thousands of different deities, gods, angels, devils and things we dont really know about.

the atmosphere in the temples was very strong as people go on pilgrimage of thousands of kilomoters in india to reach these temples (sometimes on foot) and when they reach there they worship the statues with great zeal.
people also sleep and eat inside the temple, and the temple holds elephants and camels which are used in a daily ritual showing the symbolic marriage of shive and parvati, linga and yoni, male and female.
in the night their statues are brought together in a big procession to their marriage chamber, and in the morning they are each brought back to their own chamber.

however incorrect information has baffled us and other people who were there with us, and we didnt get to see this ceremony.
 

madurai

after that, we rested for a day in varkalla, and took off to madurai, a city well known for its beautiful and very important temples. these famous temples symbolize the temple-style of tamil-nadu, and appear on many postcards.

as we arrived very early on a night train, we caught the sunrise on the temples.

 

the elusive elephant festival and a bad experience...

on that day, (which is to remind you, still the 2nd day with the motorcycle)
we were going to search for some elephant festival which was to sport no less than 18 (!) fully decorated elephants. we drove through kapil beach to the small towns, to the place described to us, but we didnt find any elephants... all the places had elephant festivals but on different days. in our searches we finally stumbles on an elephant farm, which accomodates the elephants and lends them to temples when necessary. there we saw the bathing of an elephant and had a (very) close encounter with this animal which is so gentle in captivity and so wild and dangerous in the wild.


look at the enormous ...












after that we drove back before it got dark. unfortunately we had a very very small and minor problem, that our bike "slipped" a little, but because we were driving slowly we were not hurt except a few scratches... but definitely "kol kalb biji yomo" and this is our final adventure with bikes forever and ever... dont worry! 

kappil beach, the fun continues

all these photos were taken in the space of ten minutes...


I hope I am not boring you, but it was one of the most beautiful moments of our trip in south india 

more of kappil beach

this place was so beautiful, and full of birds and cows and and everything was magical




even this plain vanilla bridge looks shines! 

kappil beach

on the 2nd day with motorbike, we tried to reach a temple with a festival and elephant show. on the way we passed through Kappil beach - a point where the backwaters meet the arabian sea.

a truly beautiful point - we took a 100 pictures here. all the pictures here are from this point "only".

 

varkalla and the area

a common evening sight in varkalla - candlelit dinner in front of the sea.












on the 2nd day with the motorbike, we saw a beautiful masjid and took a macho picture with it.
















we were driving to kappil beach, a place where the backwaters meet-ups with the arabian sea.
we see women peeling the hairs of dried coconuts, to make coir - a coconut thread.









linda on kappil beach with the infamous motorbike 

villakoor

notice the fisherman fishing "manually" without the use of a boat. 

varkalla

day after that, we left by train to varkala, a beach resort place, similar to goa. there we got infected by a shopping virus, and we bought an amulet, a bracelet, earrings, a neck chain for linda, and a shirt, pants and dhoti for aviad...
(most are seen in this picture)

generally it was fun and enjoyable there.





unlike goa, we slept on a cliff top, and could go down on 2 minute walk to a small gorgeous beach. here we see the view from the cliff, and the many shops and restaurants along it.

we cant fail to tell about our amazing encounter with 6 legged friends. on the 2nd night, we both woke up from a dream of being eaten alive by bugs, at t the exact same time. we woke to discover that we are sharing our bed with about 50,000 new friends. we had no choice but to turn up the lights and engage in total warfare. we discovered that the source of the ants was our bedsheets, we threw the sheets out and went back to a nightmarish sleep.

after spending a whole day laying on the beach, the next day we took a motorcycle to roam arround. we discovered a nearby beautiful fishermen's village named villakor. it first appeared to be a beautiful, expensive tourist resort, but apparantly they were just poor fishermen with a aesthetic eye. 

sija

sija is an accountant that was born in malaysia, and now lives between canada, india, and malaysia. we met her at our first night in tiruvilla, when linda stepped in to a women's-guesthouse in search for a room. a room was not available, but sija (whose mother runs the guesthouse) volunteered to help us find one.from that point onwards, it was a continuing stream of free lunches, drives and other ways of sija treating us in a manner beffiting either kings or infants... but seriously, we felt very honoured by her hospitality.