Best Spots Madurai?

SitaParityaga

Starting early planning a trip to the South and would like to hear from people who have recently been to Madurai...Would love to get some "must see" stories and good places to stay. Looking for friendly staff, clean, midrange and close to the temples. Goor reviews, bad reviews....all welcome!

steven_ber

When we went to Madurai we just sort of relaxed around the town and didn't do much.

The Minakshi Temple was absolutely amazing.

We stayed at this place it was a good hotel, (and good bar, by 'permit room' standards)

We stayed in one of the more expensive A/C rooms, it was facing a courtyard at the back of the hotel, I used to sit down on the window-ledge and watch a Tamil family doing all the hotels laundry, they worked so hard.

Across the road and to the left, there is an entrance to a 'slum' area, there are lots of streets with kids living and playing in awful conditions, yet all they want to do is talk and look at you, it is so thought provoking.

This may not be exactly what you were looking for, but these images are what always come to mind when I think of Madurai.

It is a friendly (hot and dusty) City; I enjoyed just walking around, not really looking for anything, just wandering.

Beware of the friendly (but annoying) touts all over the city (especially around the Minakshi Temple), they are always trying to get you into shops, some Rickshaw drivers are in on it too, offering cheap tours of the city to entice you into the shops.

ajnit

i used to go to madurai on work for an architect in 1997. used to stay at a really nice hotel with views of the meenakshi temple from the roof top restaurant. forget the name of the hotel but the bar in the basement was called Apollo 96. If you want to get some drinks, this is one of the most interesting looking bars you're likely to visit. ask around- its 2-3 blocks from the railway station. once you find the bar you'll also find the hotel i mentioned.

the celebrated sri lankan architect geoffrey bawa's madurai club is a beautiful building on the outskirts of town. unfortunately i couldnt find any pictures online: http://archnet.org/library/sites/one...l?site_id=7302

i helped design the interiors of the TVS head office across the road from the railway station that has a 1950's car in the shop window. peep in as you walk by



ok

chrissawka

i just was in madurai in april and when u come outta the train station.straight ahead across the parking lot and a bit to the right is a road that leads all the way down to the temple<need i say which one!?> anyways bout one block up that street on right hand side is a bunch of hotels round 100rps/night
it is on a side street<to the right side....50 feet off main road> but u can't miss it<above a liquer store/bar> and actually there were nicer and cheaper places all round there
forget name but 5 or 6 story building and was clean and secure and great location
wow madurai never was hasseled in all the south like i was in madurai.......all to visit this little shop with view of back side to temple<north side>...........shop owner told me touts are payed for every tourist they bring in the door<anyone else hear that?>

here's an idea if tout want to bring u there to see the view<and many will trust me> tell him to split his comission with you and u'll go in........beat him at his own game...........
the temple will take yer breathe away<as will all of india if first visit!> and is worth going............spend at least 4-6 hrs going through..at least !
enjoy and let me know if splitting the commision trick works.......either it will or they'll stop hassellin you so it's a win-win situation

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Tomi

I enjoyed my room at the Aarathy Hotel (look in any guide) because it ovelooked a smaller temple and I could see movement day and night, but it's far from a great hotel, just ordinary.

Do not stay at the Supreme; it's overpriced and full of busy-looking staff who do nothing and try to rip you off; it's the hotel Ajnit recommends above, and many guides too, so it must have taken a turn for the worse under new management. My friend had bronchitis and they got a taxi for us, don't worry, sir, please have a seat, sir, he'll take your friend to the clinic, sir, and then they proceeded to charge Rs 200 one-way for a one-mile trip. Despicable people, taking advantage of illness. And the views of the temple are irrelevant; it's too far.

On the same street as the Supreme (not far from the railroad station) is the Park Plaza hotel, where the rooftop restaurant serves good non-vegetarian meals and beer. The service is bad, and there are mosquitoes, but the food is good and the setting nice, if you ask for a mosquito coil under your table. I don't know about the rooms, but probably similar in price to the Supreme (Rs 900 with A/C), and the lobby was being renovated in January.

Do not plan to use Madurai as a center for trips, as I had before I got there. The main bus station is miles away from the city center, and nobody there, least of all the station masters, know where the next bus to Rameswaram will berth. The train station is one of the worst places in India (in the world?), where all the touts and coolies have gotten their lying act together so their deliberately erroneous information is the same no matter whom you talk to. So getting to Kodaikanal, Palani, Rameswaram, Tanjavur, etc. from Madurai can be an ordeal, especially since finding an honest rickshaw driver in this city is difficult.

The temple is great, but a bit touristy and the neighborhood around it is full of touts. I actually hated Madurai (in case you hadn't already figured out), the only place I didn't like on this last trip, and many of the westerners I met and spoke with on the trip shared this opinion. Besides the awful predators on tourists, who are everywhere, the town is incredibly dusty, dirty, and smelly beyond what I would consider charming dust, dirt, and smell. But there were lots of different things to see, I must admit.

My favorite place in Madurai was the market, just northeast of the temple. It's not particularly colorful, it's selling in bulk, you see lots of grains, potatoes, legumes, loading trucks, real heavy duty stuff in an amazing setting of straw huts that looks of another era despite being in the center of a city of a million. No tourists there, and thankfully the only place in this godawful city where people were friendly and let you breathe.

There is a comparable temple, in size and importance, in Trichy, but I didn't get to see it. Trichy is a spread out there's-no-there-there kind of city, many separate hamlets and centers adding to 800,000 people! I guess it's less interesting overall than Madurai, but a more pelasant experience.

wonderwomanusa

I spent a couple of days in Trichy -- mostly in the bazaar around the temple, which was quite amazing. Nobody was terribly friendly, and there were no hassles. so I got to do my own thing without interruptions.

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The map is not the territory. --Alfred Korzybski

pquekel

May I be an advocate for Madurai? Must say I travelled there with an Indian friend for a few days, liked the same Aarathy hotel as mentioned above, saw a moon eclips behind that small temple from my little balcony, was overwhelmed by the Meenakshi Kovil, which did not strike ME as very touristy, but it was in July (2000), maybe that made some difference...the touts got to me too, and when my travel companion returned home, the heat and overcrowded atmosphere became less bearable and so i was pleased to leave the other day by train to Cochin...still hoping to see Madurai again one day...

maree

I thought Sri Meenakshi Temple was fantastic (pay the R30 camera fee) and like Tomi I loved the veg/flower market too. On the eastern side of the temple there is also the Puthu Mandaparam - former pillared entrance hall, now jam-packed with tailors on their treadle sewing machines amongst beautifully sculpted images. My friend and I stayed at the Ruby LOdge, which only cost us R50 each - very basic and peep holes in the wall which we had to block up!! There are lots of people wanting to take you upstairs to see the view over the temple/and use their tailor service while you wait!! I thought the Hanuman kids were pretty scary and annoying. I remember having some of the best thalis ever and yummy idli for breakfast.

Dmitri

Madurai is one hell of a crazy place ...

Was there during my south india trip a couple of months back . Was just a transit point for me ..was heading towards rameshwaram and had abt 4 hrs to spare with nothin better to do . Decided to check out the meenakshi temple ...and regretted every moment of it ! The temple ...no doubt is gr8 ..an astounding peice of architecture with those long passages etc ...but what spoils it ..is those touts . They chew your brains out ...incessant haggling .
Moreover ..if one is intrested in temples ...i'd suggest tanjavur n chidambaram . Must less touristy and definately cleaner than Madurai !

Tomi

Ok, I'll put aside my hostility towards this city and mention a few other joys in it and its temple.

The Puthu Mandaparam that Maree mentions is beautiful and atmospheric, a must, and quickly done if you want, along with other architectural vestiges right nearby.

There are two kinds of temples for me: the ones that are throbbing with the faithful, or at least of great religious importance, and the ones that are beautiful architecturally, or in a gorgeous setting, and they are both very high on my list as I travel through India.

The Meenakshi temple in Madurai has a bit of both, but it is primarily a religious/human experience, and it was not the best in either category for me. (I won't get into other great temples, as it is off topic, but hope to in another thread sometime.) I went 3 or 4 times to this temple over a period of 5 or so days and was always happier there than outside. The tank was impressive, though not always open. It was great to see people throw butterballs at Shiva to cool him down while he dances. The classic barechested pilgrims in their black lungi can be seen here as well as anywhere else. The small museum in the middle of it is worth the small entrance fee, and it is a quiet spot. The usual elephant giving blessings, if you like elephant snot on your head, is at hand. The great variety of stalls, selling brass ornaments, jewelry, big plastic toys of a non-western design, all inside the temple, must be like what our western cathedrals were like in the early days, not the silent prayer notion of today.

There is beautiful silk in shops all around the temple, mostly to its west. Unfortunately I bought my silk elsewhere, as my patience for touts is not what it used to be (experience doesn't always make you better), but I'm sure that if you can bargain you can get great stuff at cheap prices.

It is very much a dirt road sprawling town, with lots of fun narrow streets lined with shops; if you have never been to India before, you are getting a high profile place right off the bat. If does not have the charm of the Fez medina (Morocco), nor the bustle and beauty of the Jaipur old town, but it's in that league. It feels much more provincial and small minded than Jaipur, with roaming goats and junk shops a short block from the temple. Little business seems to be transacted in the overprofusion of shops, a common Indian trait that is particularly noticeable here.

We bought dust masks in a surgical shop in the maze of narrow commercial streets somewhere between the Aarathy hotel and the main temple. You can also sometimes get them in motorcycle shops, as sometimes you see cyclists wearing them. A dust mask is useful in Madurai, a definite 10 on the dust scale.

SitaParityaga

Thanks to all of you who took the time to reply to my querry... candid answers are really helping me build a framework of where I'll be off to in the south. This will be my fourth trip to India and my new husband's first...and I prefer to not overly test the poor man's mettle too much the first time around! And Tomi....anytime you want to start a thread on temples, I'll be there...I picked Madurai as a potential on the trip list because of the Meenakshi temple. I was hoping Madurai would have that wonderous, spiritual, humanity throbbing feel of Varanasi (my personal favorite)

Tomi

Introduction to the richness of Tamil Nadu?
No question about it: Rameswaram.

A nice temple, not old, but fascinating to watch the people inside bathing in Ganges water -- somehow the Ganges flows in here, ask the experts.
A fascinating beachside, with people again ritually bathing, and full of oracles, gurus, sadhus, salespeople, floating dhotis and saris in the water (left behind or did their inhabitants drown?), bicycles, goats, cows, procession items.
A well contained collection of beggars, who mostly sit on the streets around the temple and don't follow you around. The Indian tourists are relatively generous with them, which is a nice thing to see.
A tourism that is primarily Indian, and more middle-class than Palani; it's probably the same people who then go on to Kanniyakumari to see Gandhi, Vivekananda, and the sunset.
A few old streets with cute houses and courtyards that you can spy into if you have voyeur genes.
An extraordinary fishing port where you can mix with the people, see women drying fish, men unloading and selling it, oxcarts, kids hanging around -- nobody minds you, and very few onepens; they only want their picture taken.
The only bar in Tamil Nadu which is not dark and accessed through what I call the stairs of shame, in the indolent state hotel.
A pleasant mix of Hindu, Christian, and Muslim.
A nice drive and hike (hitchhiking possible) out to the tip of the island, where it faces Sri Lanka, and seeing incredibly rustic hut villages, beautiful beaches, and the mystique of Hanuman's rescue mission.
And... it is a small and lazy town.

Lots of little hotels, but they can be full.

wonderwomanusa

Do you have any idea where the "downtown Rameswaram" church might be?

I was there for Christmas Eve and heard the singing, but hadn't thought about it and was too tired to go out looking for it in the middle of the night.

Tomi

Sorry, G, no. I noticed several churches, but only remember the odd-looking pagoda-like one at the south end of the fishing port, and I don't remember hearing music.

A surprise for many visitors to Tamil Nadu is that there are many Christians and Muslims in the coastal villages, in this reputedly homogeneous Hindu state; it even has a major holy site for each: Velangani and Nagore. You hear lots of awful canned music blasted from temples, with bad speakers, starting as early as 5 AM (good reason for an A/C room), but the churches don't stay behind: they broadcast the whole mass to the whole town! I heard singing from churches several times, but not in Rameswaram, sorry.

wonderwomanusa

That's okay, Tomi... I have to decide eventually where I'll be for Christmas and thought I might go back there, since the town is such a trippy place... and so easy on travellers.