Saturday, Feb 22nd, Madurai, India

Greetings!

So what happened to Friday, you ask?  First, it was the day we traveled from Sri Lanka to India.  Many hours driving to Columbo, getting through the security checkpoints, and waiting for the mid-afternoon flight.  Short flight later, and even more checkpoints and customs to enter India (for the second time on our new visa).  And then, to our surprise, when we switched our sim card back to the one we were given on first entering India three weeks ago, it wanted a pin code we didn't have.

It turns out that sim cards from India routinely block phones upon re-insertion when interrupted by other sim cards.  And since new India sim cards are not easy or quick to get, our tour company is right now still trying to get a new one over the weekend before we leave this Indian state.  They sell them by state, and it has to be activated within the state before you can use it in another.

So no active sim card, no photos.  Not that there was much to photograph.  Just a two-hour special prayer ceremony with 2,000 worshippers walking in circles around the insides of a 1,300 year-old temple with a decorated massive female elephant and brahman bull.

Returning to the Mandara Resort, I was convinced I could not do many more temples barefooted on this trip.

Fortunately, today's itinerary was not more temples.  And even more fortunately, Pat figured out a way to resurrect her Mini-IPad's power cord so i could use it as a substitute camera.  We started off the day at the flower market, and then walked the nearby antique shops.  It felt like we had stepped into an episode of American Pickers when we came across classic old business signs, including bicycle shops, and a bench with my high school mascot (the Pointers) on it.

Our main stop for the day was one of the huge old merchant mansions in Chettinad, where we had a cooking demonstration which prepared our lunch. 

I took far too many photos, and most out of focus getting used to the IPad, to adequately show how much fun it was for Pat and Marie to learn from Mr. Pardiyan and Ms Annapoorahi, as they prepared the shrimp, chicken, rice and potato entres and lots of other chutneys and sauces.  We can't more highly recommend The Bangala in Karaikudi. 

Finally, we did visit two more places where my sandals came off, and we saw more of the current state of the class socialization of India.  The temple was an almost hidden town treasure, maintained by the town, and restored by it every twelve years.  The last merchant mansion (there are many) has been abandoned, is almost unvisited, and serves only as a reminder of the disparity of the wealth between classes.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Saturday, Feb 22nd, Madurai, India.