Chennai - Ponducherry - Madurai
India is a country that intrigues us with its food, colours, and culture. However, it was by far the hardest country to plan our journey. After changing our plan a few times and with the help of some amazing people, we could finally start our adventure.
We arrived in Chennai, and the next morning, we met our driver for the next ten days—a friendly Indian man with local driving skills who spoke a little English. Immediately, we were happy with the decision not to travel on a motorbike but to hire a driver. The traffic in Chennai is chaotic and loud. The streets are packed with cars, motors, buses, cows, dogs, people… They don’t use traffic lanes. Everybody just honks and tries to squeeze through. Once out of the city, traffic got a little bit better and the road itself a lot.
Our first stop was the Mahabalipuram Shore Temple, a small temple made of stone. We noticed that there weren’t a lot of Western tourists, and a lot of people looked at us even though we adapted our clothing style (this is something we often experienced during our first days). At one point, a family asked us for a photo. Assuming they wanted us to take a picture of them with the temple, we agreed. It turned out they actually wanted a photo with us! Somewhere, an Indian family now has a picture of us in their album.
Still slightly confused, we continued to our next stop, Auroville. This is kind of an independent city where people from multiple nationalities live together. It aims to demonstrate how a peaceful and harmonious global community could exist together with a different economic system. It is difficult to explain but worth the visit. The city is built in different sections for each continent, situated around one ancient tree and a massive golden shpere-the Matrimandir. This impressive structure serves as a place for deep meditation and focus.
We ended our first full day in Puducherry, a city with a strong French colonial influence, often referred to as “Little France”. It felt like a different country than Chennai, except for the traffic. The buildings had indeed a lot of French architecture. There were even multiple bakeries, street art from the Eifel tower and a French monument. Promenade Beach was a nice end to our first full day.
We woke up ready for breakfast and learned that breakfast isn’t as early as we are used to and is very different from our breakfast. We received a traditional Indian hot breakfast with lots of flavours. Arnaud loved it, but Delphine isn’t a big fan. She already missed her ‘boterhammetjes met choco’.
Our driver was ready to take us all the way to Madurai, with a quick stop at Sri Ranganatha Swamy Temple. Maybe quick isn’t the right word. Even though we knew dress code was important and certainly at sacred sites, we overlooked something important. At the entrance, Arnaud wasn’t allowed to enter in his shorts. So, we had to find a dhoti—a traditional Indian garment. After purchasing one and wrapping it around him, we left our shoes at the entrance and were ready to explore. Arnaud wasn’t exactly comfortable until a kind local approached him and adjusted the dhoti properly. How he did that was not clear, and Arnaud will need some practice and YouTube videos.
Inside the temple wasn’t any information displayed, unfortunately. We walked around and enjoyed the many colors and statues. Before driving to Madurai, we stopped at a local restaurant for lunch. A typical Indian lunch, without the spiciness, served on boiled banana leaves. We had to eat the traditional way, with our right hand. Eating without cutlery and only with one hand is not easy, but we’re sure it will get better over time.
After driving for five hours, we arrived in Madurai, one of South India’s largest cities. Again, there was a lot of chaos, a bit more tourists and still a lot of people who stared and bothered us. Delphine needed some quiet time, so we took the opportunity to stay in our hotel for a few hours to plan our next moves and prepare to go out again.
In the late afternoon, we met with an English-speaking guide. He took us around the city and showed us the main buildings. What a difference! Once people saw us walking with him, they didn’t bother us so much. We spent three hours exploring the city’s oldest streets—some dating back 500–600 years—and learning about its unique features. From all different kinds of bananas to Belgian glass windows in the local church. Something that amused us (as we had also noticed in Cambodia) was the way certain streets were dedicated to specific products. So if you need spice, you can go to the spice street, or if you need onions, you go to the onion street. Funny, but also practical!
During the tour, we passed three important buildings in the center of Madurai. First, there was the church; like we said, the windows were made with Belgian glass. Second, we entered the Thirumalai Nayakkar Palace, once an enormous palace with different parts. Nowadays, it is still big even though the grandson moved large sections elsewhere, and later modifications by the British. We could still admire the pillars, paintings and details in the stones.
Our tour ended at the Meenakshi Temple, maybe the most important site in Madurai. Originally a small temple built to protect a sacred Shiva stone found in the forest, it expanded into one of the largest temples in India. This time, Arnaud came prepared with long pants but had forgotten his dhoti! Because phones aren’t allowed inside the temple, we left them behind in a local store known by our guide. This also means that we couldn’t take any photos. If you are curious, you will have to go and see it yourself.
From the outside, the temple is similar to the Sri Ranganatha Swamy-thousands of pastel, colorful statues decorate the different towers. We have some pictures of that, but the gates were fully covered for repainting—a restoration process that happens every 12 years. Of course, it had to be our luck to visit during this period. Inside, there are also a lot of detailed statues, some of them with beautiful curves. The ceiling is covered with floral paintings, some of them more than a hundred years old.
The guide recommended us to come back to the temple at 7 PM for the daily ceremony. A moment where they walk around the temple with the elephant, Shiva and statues, pray and bring offerings. Curious to see the ceremony, we went back in the evening. Upon arrival, Delphine was shocked to see a real elephant coming through the gate. She expected a statue and not a real animal. It broke her heart to see the elephant passively walk through the crowd. Once we got in front of the parade, we noticed there was a cow. Behind the animals, multiple statues were being pushed along by some people. From our understanding, a statue can only be pushed by a certain family, so the ceremony changes sometimes.
The ceremony marks the end of our stay in Madurai. We were happy to learn more about their Indian culture and Hinduism. To be honest, it was a challenging week for us. Delphine definitely has some difficulties adapting to the Indian culture, mentality and food. Every day, we try to grow a connection with our driver and local people. Unfortunately, English is less known than we expected, which makes it difficult to communicate sometimes. We hope to find some more connections and maybe even some quiet, green places in the coming days!