I had a very eventful New Years Day here in Madurai!! Everyone from all 3 sections boarded vans to travel to another temple!! Along the way we saw a lot of very cool things... like monkeys, shanty towns, a college and the residential school operated by the same people running the schools I'll be working in for the next two weeks.
During the bus ride, we drove by the snake temple... this is the temple we can see the back of from our hotel. I photographed it from the hotel balcony on the first day here, and I finally got to see it up close and from the front. It's pretty awesome! We didn't actually go inside and I didn't learn what it's purpose is, but it's a giant cobra with a couple gods sitting on the snake's coiled body. We also got to see a lot of the country side and many, many small communities along the main road. It's still a bit of a shock to ride in their traffic. There are people and animals walking everywhere and cars, trucks, wagons, rickshaws, and bikes sharing the road. It amazes me that they're able to get by with so few accidents (I have yet to see a serious accident, and fender benders are brushed off as if they never happened). These things would NEVER happen in the U.S. I've seen people get upset about someone leaning on their car in the states. One of our vans hit a car head on while pulling out of a parking spot yesterday and the guy just waved .. no yelling, gesturing or anything! It's remarkable! The honking is something I'm not used to... they use their horns as sort of a turn signal and a "hey I'm coming up behind you" warning, but people just move out of the way and even help other drivers to get by. I can guaruntee there would be f'bombs dropping all over the place if people used their horns and cut other drivers off like they do here!!
The drive to the residential school was probably around 30 minutes (although I can't be sure because my concept of time is completely off here - I didn't bring a watch). The school grounds are easily the most beautiful land I've set foot on! The residential school is part of the Mahatma Montessori Private School system, but the students live on campus and the tuition is quite a bit more than the private schools in town that we are observing in. They were all founded by the same woman and we got to meet her on our visit. The students were gone on winter holiday. The grounds have dorms for the students, the school building, a temple and acres of gardens and recreation space. I've posted some pictures over on my Facebook page. It was stunning! We all got a fresh from the tree coconut -- we drank the juice through a straw, then the Indian men cut them open for us to eat the fresh coconut inside. It didn't taste like coconut we are used to in the U.S. This was very bland. I think the juice would have been better if it was cold, but the men literally took the coconuts off the trees and cut them open for us with a machete! It was quite an experience!! The head principal (and founder) invited us out to the school for dinner sometime later in our trip and wants to have the students share their winter festival dances. I'm looking forward to that so hopefully we'll be able to work it into our schedule.
After our coconut juice break at the school, we continued into the country hills to visit another temple. This temple is built around a waterfall. As the Hindu story goes, the water here is pure mineral water that has been running down this mountain for 3000 years, but no one knows where the water comes from. Indians come to this temple to bathe in the water or just to splash some on their faces. I also saw many people filling large water containers from the falls. Usually, only the faithful are allowed in the temple, but Raj arranged for us to be able to enter. We each got to wash our faces in the falls. It was pretty cool. Some people even drank the water, but I decided to play it safe! There were tons of monkeys around the temple and in the towns and hills leading up to it. I got several pictures of monkeys just hanging out on the side of the road, sometimes in the middle of the road and anywhere and everywhere you looked!
As many amazing things as I got to see on this trip, it was still probably the most stressful situation I've ever been in. For anyone who knows about my biggest fears, you'll understand why. When we pulled up to the temple there were hundred of huge bats flying around!! I didn't even want to get out of the van! I HATE bats more than anything else in this world! They are disgusting creatures and they completely freak me out! And most of that fear comes from the bats we have back home... the ones whose bodies are the size of mice and have wingspan of maybe 6-7 inches. These bats were the size of small dogs and had a wingspan of a couple feet! Or at least that's how it seemed to me! They were HUGE! And there were hundreds of them flying overhead in broad daylight! My heart was racing and I felt like I could vomit! I was in my own personal episode of fear factor, but I overcame it, got out of the van and visited the temple! The stress of the situation was exhausting though!
By the time we made it back to town it was nightfall and we went to the Tirumilai Naik Palace for a sound and light show. It sounds like something that might be cool, but to be honest, it was nap time for me. It was a story projected over a loud speaker while lights lit up different parts of the palace at random. I think the palace itself might have been cool, but we didn't really get to see much besides the small parts that were illuminated for brief parts of the story.
Afterwards we went to a different hotel to eat a buffet dinner. It was ok, nothing seriously impressive. I was definitely ready for bed!
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