My hotel is within walking distance of Madurai’s largest shopping mall. What’s a girl to do? Hire a tuk tuk because it may be within walking distance but I wouldn’t say it’s walkable…
I was able to find something suitable to wear for temple visits. (The sleeves were either non-existent or too short on everything I brought with me.) And I had a fish pedicure – the kind where you submerge your feet into a tank of tiny fish that immediately nibble off all of the dead skin. It was weird but not unpleasant.
I decided to scout out my neighbourhood for fruit and I’m happy to say I found a filtered coffee shop and my favourite bank in the process. The coffee shop is a neighbourhood joint, and I’m certain they don’t see many tourists. Every person in the place talked to me even though none of them spoke more than a few words of English. They were horrified that I was drinking black coffee and encouraged me to add sugar. I got more than a few looks of incomprehension, and I’m not surprised that diabetes is a big health issue here.
I’ve booked a rickshaw tour of Madurai for the morning which includes the Meenakshi temple but since I saw it six years ago, I won’t be upset if we don’t spend a lot of time there. I’m more interested in the stuff that surrounds it. Madurai may have two million people but it’s just a village at heart and I’m eager to see those winding alleys, markets  and textile shops with all those cows at the heart of things, including the major intersections.
My hotel is positively luxurious. That’s what you get for $36 a night compared with my usual $15-20. The bed is like a cloud compared to the one in Chaudi. I’m going to make the most of it because I have a feeling the ashram beds won’t compare.