Munnar

We left the state of Tamil Nadu and after a long trip by bus in the mountains we crossed to the state of Kerala. Our first stop is the mountain city of Munnar, a place surrounded by tea plantation. The city is at the altitude of 1500 meters so the heat of the day is not as strong as in the valley but the nights are chilly.

The road to Munnar is 7 hours long and most of it is on mountain roads. We did the trip with the public bus which was a nice experience however frightening sometimes!

When arriving on top we discovered the tea plantations, they cover the mountains which makes this palce so special.

Munnar is a little city with its noise and constant activity, here are the local riskshaws awaiting for clients.

Of course we had to try the tea which is amazing, it comes in several flavours: cardamon, ginger, lemon and masala which is the spiciest. People also drink chai, a mix of tea and milk which is steered to give it some foam.

Madurai

Madurai is west of Trichy, it is one of the oldest city of India. We visited the Temple of Sri Meenakshi dedicated to the goddess Meenakshi consort of Shiva.

The inside of the temple is full of colours and details, one of the nicest temples we have seen so far.

This tower is one of the 4 entrances to the temple, it holds many status of deities.

Each status seem to have a role.

Here is Ganesh, the good of good fortune with his elephant head.

Trichy

We tried to find a hotel room in Trichy before we went to Tanjalore but we couldnt find anything because of a "wedding" or a "festival" depending on the hotel, that's why we first went to Tanjalore. Few days later we tried again with more success this time. Trichy holds the biggest Temple of India (Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple) it is a temple city, made of 7 gates, the highest one is 73 meters, in its center it holds the heart of the temple.

This is the first gate to the temple with the happy chaos from the street. 

After passing the 7 doors we finally got to the temple, with columns and buildings with statues of the deities.

The 1000 columns room. 

Elephants often are present in the temples.

The statues are very detailed and impressives.

Tanjalore

Tanjalore is south of Pondicherry, it is famous for its sandstone temple (Brihadishwara Temple) which changes of colors depending on the time of the day. We were surprised to see that these temples have commons characteristics with the ones from Angkor in Cambodia, actually the civilizations who build them were related. Contrary to Angkor the Indian temples are still used by devotes which make them much more lively.

The inside of the temples are beautiful with vivid colours. Unfotunately we couldnt get any closer of the holy places as only Hindus are allowed to enter. 

Temples are usually surrounded by a wall and contain towers. You must take off your shoes if you want to enter (the floor is not always very clean!).

The main tower of the temple was impressive with many incrustations.

Pondicherry

We landed in Chennai which is the capital of the state of the Tamil Nadu. Straight after arriving we went to Pondicherry as many people advised. Pondicherry is an ex french colony some parts of the city still keep traces of these times. This was our first contact with the Indian culture: chaos everywhere, bazaars and animals in the streets, but it is an amazing experience!

The cows have priority on the roads! They are also very friendly animals who tend to follow you everywhere! 

Each Indian city has its market or bazar, it is a noizy place with differents smells that are not always good!

The streets are always busy with horns honking constantly and people walking everywhere. Surprinsingly this system works pretty well!

Kuala Lumpur

Our next step being India we had to go further south and catch a (cheap) plane in Kuala Lumpur. We expected a big messy city like Bangkok but Kuala Lumpur is actually more charming. Indian, Chinese and Malsian communities live here in harmony which makes it a special place. It is also very developed with modern means of transport and a lot of sky scrappers.

The famous Petronas Towers in down-town Kuala Lumpur. 

The Batu caves hosts the Hindou Thaipusam festival every year, it usually attracts 1.5 millions people. The statue at the entrance is 43metres high.

Sadly (or not) we missed this festival of a day, but the place was full of offerings and litters brought by the devotees. This wasn't lost for all as the numerous monkeys from the mountains came for a free lunch.

Koh Lanta

After the Gulf of Thailand we crossed the country to go to Koh Lanta, a quiet island in the muslim part of Thailand. The beaches are not the best because of many stones, the places was also hit by the tsunami in 2004, therefore many corals were destroyed.

The beach was very nice with shallow waters and little pubs. 

Pili watching the sunset.

Many crabs go out at night, this one seemed surprised to see us!