First overnight bus in India, to Madurai

I'm well used to overnight travel now, and so the idea of an overnight bus wasn't very daunting really, even given that we were in India. We arrived at the bus station in plenty of time, and our bus arrived and departed pretty much on time too.

I wasn't expecting luxury (the bus was described as 'semi-luxury', and of course any description in a 3rd world country with 'semi' in it means things are going to be pretty rough), and that's pretty much what we got. The seats didn't recline at all, and there was no air-conditioning apart from all the open windows, but in fact the whole journey was fine. I managed to get a fair bit of sleep (poor Sarah didn't get any meaningful sleep at all though), and we arrived at Madurai pretty much on time, which was nice and early in the morning.

After getting a hotel sorted (the Sri Devi, very near the main temple), we both slept for a few hours before checking out the town a bit.

Firstly I wanted to check out the local Gandhi museum, which gives a good account of recent Indian history and the part played by Gandhi in particular. A local bus from the nearby bus station brought to strolling distance from the museum, which is housed in a nice old colonial building. The museum only has a few knick-knacks of Gandhi's, including the bloodstained tunic that he was wearing when he was assassinated. The many information panels were detailed and informative though (and primarily in English, with less detailed panels in the local Tamil language).

I'd read a Gandhi biography years ago but I'd forgotten most of it, so getting a refresher was good. The poor English get a hard time throughout all the descriptions, deservedly so though by an account of one of their own, John Sullivan, with a pretty damning indictment here.

By far the most famous sight in the town is the huge temple complex, one of the biggest in India. But unfortunately for us, it was currently undergoing major renovations, which meant all the huge towers were obscured by bamboo scaffolding and palm leaf sheeting. You could still glimpse sections of the towers, and I'm sure it must really be quite a sight after it's freshly painted with all the mad garish colours used on Hindu temples. But it was still impressive to just stroll about the complex and watch the Hindu devotees doing their thing (like blessing themselves from fires, being dotted on the forehead with tikkas by priests, lying prostrate on the floor in front of statues, and all that crazy stuff).

Seeing as how their isn't much else to the town, I decided to move on the following day, and after another quick scout around the temple the following morning (just to see it in daylight really), and getting a tad lost, I ran back to our hotel to check out by 10am and then stroll to the bus station and hopped on the bus to the hill station town of Kodaikanal.