Madurai and the Sri Meenakshi Temple

Jeff here writing my first blog entry, so be patient with the non-blogginess of my language.  Claire and I arrived in Madurai late Tuesday evening in a light rain storm.  After a solid nights rest we left early for the Sri Meenakshi temple.  Evidently it opens at 4:00am, but we decided to forgo the dark and waited until 8:00.  The biggest Hindi temple in India, the architecture is truly amazing...

 

The above is an image of the South tower of the temple from the interior golden lotus pond,

built in the mid 1500s.

There are four large towers at North, S, E, and W sides of the temple.

Claire making friends faster than she expected!

Once these ladies saw our cameras, they swarmed Claire and reeled her in for a photo op with huge smiles.

This Indian elephant will bless you for 10 rupees!

This guy stepped in front of the frame as Claire was snapping a photo of the North tower.

 

A close up detail of some of the statues of the North tower.  The towers each have over seven hundred individual statues in them.  Very colorful too!

Munnar the cool, cool hill station

Hill stations are throughout India in the mountains and were named so by the British, wanting to escape the heat in the cities.  Munnar is in the state of Kerala and is filled with tea plantations and spice plantations.  It was so green, cool, and beautiful.

 The photo above is a little hard to see, but there are nine people in that autorickshaw.  I thought that was by far the most that could fit in that little 3 wheel vehicle, but later that day I saw at least 12 people in one!

Kerala Backwaters - the real Jungle Cruise

The Kerala backwaters are like a series of canals through the jungle.  Only minutes away from the bustling cities/towns of Cochin, the backwaters feel completely untouched by time.  And the only place yet with no trash in the water! It was a beautiful day, slowly floating through the greenery.

At the end of the boat ride a giant hippo popped out and the tour guide shot it!

We made it!

We have now been in India almost two days, staying in Fort Cochin - a sleepy beach town by India's standards.  It is beautiful here with lots of green foliage and walks along the beach.  The town is known for the Chinese fishing nets that dot the coast.  It takes 4 men to operate one of these nets.

So far we have just been walking around and trying to get used to the sounds, smells, and tastes of this place.  The smell of burning trash is by far the worst and I can only imagine what the bigger cities will be like.  My mom says we will get used to the smells eventually.

Fort Cochin is in the state of Kerala, with the largest Christian population in the country.  Christmastime brings lots of tourists to the area and the town is covered in Christmas lights and paper star lanterns that light up at night. We were told that last night during the carnival they burned an effigy of Santa Claus.  We unfortunately were too jet lagged to make it though! The following is a picture of some of the lights in the town park, which was packed with people last night.

Above is Jeff's first meal - masala dosa.  Absolutely delicious and cost about $0.50!

Tomorrow we are taking a boat ride through the Kerala backwaters and the day after we plan on heading to Munnar, a hill station about a 5 hr bus ride away.


We are still figuring out the best way to upload pictures, so stay patient with us!

We're almost off!

The apartment is cleaned out, the storage unit is packed 15 feet high (let's hope for no earthquake), the cat is with her grandma, we've said most of our goodbyes, and we are almost packed for the trip.  Another 36 hours and we fly out! (And then another 30 hours of travel time before we actually reach India.)

Best Day of Our Lives!

Jeff and I want to thank everyone for making our wedding day so special. The feeling of love, family, and happiness continues to flow over us. I will make a flickr account as soon as I get all of the pictures together and will email it out!

Registries

We have three registries set up:

A travel registry for our time in India - also includes some info on what we plan on doing:
http://www.honeyfund.com/wedding/mccluskey

At Crate&Barrel:
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/Gift-Registry/Guest/ViewRegistry.aspx?grid=4573603

At Macy's:
http://www1.macys.com/registry/wedding/guest/?registryId=241034