Day 25

I wanted to go for an early bus to Madurai, but it was so close to the sunrise time that I decided to wake up earlier to try once more to catch it. Somehow I managed to pack everything from trolley bag to new touristic bag. I went to the sunrise spot and already at this point I felt how heavy is my new backpack. There was certain reason why to take trolley bag, even though I'm still of the opinion that backpack is more suitable to uneven terrain of India and kind of trip I have with changing my location often. I was almost ready to leave the spot to hurry to my early bus, because I saw that there are clouds low at the horizon. Just before I wanted to leave, the sun started to appear and the crowd cheered the occasion loudly.

I went to the bus stand and it was already after bus to Madurai apparently left. I got some instructions that there's no direct bus to Madurai, but I could get there by one transfer. While leaving Kanyakumari I was paying attention to beautiful landscape cropped with monumental rock mountains, but otherwise landscape blended in my mind with everything what I saw other times while traveling through Tamil Nadu.

I left at the big bus stand that on the map looked like being very close to my hotel. And indeed it wasn't very far, around 2 kilometers, but walking with whole baggage, in the beating sun, was a little daunting, but out of stubbornness I didn't want to take any tuk tuk. My hotel room was quite small, but good enough.

I contacted Harini, Haran's sister (yey, cute matching name; Haran is my Tamil friend from Poland). I had some time before she was free to meet, so as usual I didn't want to waste the time after the travel and left the hotel. I checked what's interesting in reasonable proximity and decided for Gandhi's museum. I just was recently in Gandhi's mandir in Kanyakumari, but it didn't deter me. There was some renovations going around, but there was still things open there. Gallery, with Gandhi's life presented, similar to Vivekananda museum I saw in Kanyakumari. There were also Gandhi's ashes grave and reconstructed Gandhi's house from some period and it was interesting to see on its own. I roamed for a while in the memorial bookstore, but didn't decide on anything.

Harini supposed to come there and I didn't really know how to recognize her, but I found on WhatsApp her photo. It end up being rather confusing, because on photo she had long hair, but currently she has short ones. She came in the car with other person and as it came out he's Shiva, Haran's friend who supposed to take me to his village after two days. I expected that he will be in Madurai only next day. I learned that they didn't know each other before, they met just today.

Harini has big eyes, so common for ladies in South India, and short hair, so uncommon - in effect striking combination. Through her few remarks I felt that she displays healthy scepticism, exactly like her brother. Another impression was little dose of melancholy, but with warm character. Taking into account her profession as medical doctor I couldn't help, but compare her to particular fictional character - Shani, as depicted in Witcher 3 DLC Heart of Stone.

Shiva was very talkative, willing to explain various details that we saw when we visited one temple. I learned about yali - mythological hybrid creatures that are carved into pillars of South Indian temple. According to some people's beliefs, they actually existed in the past, but there is no scientific proof for that - Shiva explained. He explained that the bull facing the temple is Nandi, mount of Shiva (the god, not the friend) and guardian of Shiva's temples.

After visit in a temple we sat at the small wall circling lake that Harini described as her favorite spot in the city, where she often unwind after the work. She said that I can use her phone for making photos of this place. It become dark already and colorful lights were beautifully reflected in the surface of the water. The difference between photos taken from my phone and hers were staggering, so I thought how much more I could capture during whole trip with better camera.

After that we went to restaurant that looked quite fancy, but Shiva, knowing polish realities (he lives in Warsaw, that's how he met Haran and he speaks quite well polish too), joked that for barely 40 złoty, even less, we had feast for 3 people and everyone is filled. Our food was like creative variation on common staple foods from South India, but everything was amazing, even side dishes, every chutney was great. They explained that Madurai is famous for its cuisine, especially for its non-vegetarian, so one of items I taken was veg dosa that originally is made with chicken, but here they used soya chunks instead.

They got me back to my hotel. Harini said that she has work and can't guide me during the day and can meet only in the evening. She found me guide instead, her friend Hari who will take me for a ride to some temples next day.

.