Blessed

[posted 05/11/09]

In Kumily we got up early and had a three hour trek (with a guide) in the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. Didn't see any elephants or tigers, but I did walk through the web of what our guide said was South India's largest spider – causing H to freak out a whole helluva lot. I was okay, but that's because I didn't realise I had the spider on the back of my head. That was fun!

Then we drove out of Kerala state into Tamil Nadu, and on to the town of Madurai, which took us most of the day.

In Madurai in the late afternoon / early evening we had a guide by the name of Raja who at first seemed like a nice guy. He showed us around the Tirumalai Nayak Palace, and then around the Sri Meenakshi Temple, rattling off historical dates and events that we immediately forgot. Towards the end he brought us across the street to the 'temple viewing point' which he said would give us a good view of the whole temple complex. Indeed it did. But it was actually the roof of a five story shop, and the price of getting out was to listen to the sales patter of this asshole carpet sales guy.

The prices started at $1,000 USD which I laughed at and said there was no way we were buying a carpet! But the carpets kept on coming. There was the carpet weaving demonstration, then the explanation of thread-count and how the colours looked slightly different from each end, and when he started to throw out bigger and more elaborate carpet after carpet after carpet with the prices quickly escalating to $6,000 USD and beyond I decided we'd been held captive long enough. I grabbed H and we marched out. But this meant rushing down four or five flights of stairs (we'd initially been taken up in an elevator) with the sales guy hot on our heels urging us to look at jewellery, textiles, sculptures, this, that, blah de blah de blah. "No thank you. Not interested. We're leaving, thank you GOODBYE!"

And then to add insult to injury our wanker of a temple guide, Raja, who had been waiting outside said "Wow, you're out quickly!" "Yeah, don't need a fuckin carpet!" I said. The motherfucker had basically placed us in a hard-sell situation hoping to get a percentage commission on the sale! Sod that!

So if you're ever in Madurai and you meet a short stocky cunt of a guide by the name of Raja, steer the fuck clear of him. He's a conniving shit and deserves a good kick in the balls. Asswipe.

Anyway, this is inside the Sri Meenakshi Temple, a Brahmin priest blessing the pilgrims to the temple.

Raja of Madurai, you're a cunt.