Day 1 - Madurai

From Namakkal, we drove towards Madurai. On the way, we saw fertile fields of paddy, ginger, chrysanthamums, sugarcane, and others. This time around we did not stop and enter the fields; however, we enjoyed watching the fields go past by one after another. The lakes were filled with water. I am sure that the Pongal harvest will be good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madurai

By 2:00 P.M or so, we reached Madurai. The city experienced a bundh due to the Mullaperiyar dam issue. The otherwise hyper active city seemed awfully silent that day. We stayed at the Madurai Residency hotel, which is closer to the West gate (and North gate) of the gorgeous Meenakshi temple. By the time we checked into the hotel, the hotel restaurant was closed for lunch, and the only food that they served was bread-jam or bread-cheese and milkshakes. Ah, that was a blessing!

In the evening, we had plans to meet a friend's family and have dinner at the Murugan Idli Shop. We walked from our hotel to the venue. It's beautiful to walk and get accustomed with the city's culture. You can see small temples, shops that sell soft cotton cloth, ground turmeric, and other items, and idli shops that women run outside their homes.

While we waited for our friend to arrive, we loitered around on the West Masi street, and entered the ancient temple of Madana Gopal. The Lord has four hands, holding Shanka and Chakra in two hands, and playing a flute with the other two. The idol may be one of its kinds, and can mesmerize you. The temple is open in the morning from 07:00 A.M to noon and in the the evening from 04:30 P.M to 09:00 P.M.

http://tn.ellamey.com/madurai/Madana.html

What can I say about the Murugan Idli Shop? They serve idlis and dosas with a variety of chutneys and delicious sambar. On a busy day, you have to wait to get a seat at this place; may lose your patience. The place also sells Jil Jil Jigarthanda drink, which originated at Madurai. This drink is made of milk, China grass, sarsaparilla syrup, ice cream, and sabudana. Please try this drink; it's yummy.

http://www.madurairesidency.com/

Review of the hotel:

Ensure that you get a room for which you have paid or booked online; check your preferrance of toilet (Indian or European). Otherwise, the staff will allocate a room of their choice, and you will end up wasting time in your attempts to get another room.

The rooms are neat, and the service is relatively good. It's great if you can communicate in Tamil. Though there are unpleasant reviews about the staff or service, we had a good stay for four days. The staff were kind and enterprising.

The food at the restaurant is tasty. We liked their breakfast spread and the a la carte dishes (lunch and dinner). The hotel also has a roof top restaurant, which we did not use. We visited the roof top in the morning to get a bird's view of the city.