Next we headed east over the Western Ghats into Tamil Nadu and the views were stunning
Our destination was Madurai, famed for the Meenakshi Temple, dedicated to the goddess Meenakshi (considered a form of Parvati) with a sanctum for her consort, Sundareshwarar (or Shiva).
We visited during the day, and saw the gopurams or temple towers that stand at each gate and are covered with brilliantly painted sculptures of gods and here are Parvati and Shiva sitting on Nandi bull.
The temple complex is huge, with Golden Lotus Pond, a popular meeting places for locals and lots of shrines to minor gods linked by corridors and also the two main shrines which only Hindus can enter.
At 6pm we went to the Surya Restaurant at the Hotel Supreme to watch the sky darken and the temple towers light up with flashing lights as it had a great view. 
We returned later to the temple to watch the daily ceremony, where the statue of Sundareshwarer is taken from his shrine, amidst music from drums and a kind of oboe, to just outside Meenakshi’s shrine where it is cleansed in wafts of incense, then taken inside, so just as any other married couple, they can spend the night together!
Next stop, back over the mountains to Kumily.
My husband Chris and I decided to go away to celebrate our two big birthdays which meant we needed to be away six weeks to take them both in … and since funds aren’t unlimited, where better to go when it’s chilly in England than Southern India.
Off Travelling Together 