This week, The Musafir Stories speaks to returning guest, Sahana Kulur from https://vacaywork.com

Today's destination: Madurai, Tamil Nadu!

Nearest Airport: Madurai International airport, IXM

Nearest Railway Station: Madurai Junction, MDU 

Prerequisites:  NA

Packing: Pack according to the weather conditions, summers can be hot.

Time of the year: October

Length of the itinerary: 2-4 days

Itinerary Highlights: 

• Sahana starts the episode  with some backstories about her travels to Sri Lanka, the inspiration for this trip - from a world famous architect, Geoffery Bawa to the coolest drink in South Inida - JigarThanda. 
• We cover the history and background of Madurai as well as the popular legends about the city and its main attraction, the Meenakshi temple. 
• The points of interest include a visit to 
• Meenakshi Amman temple - the most iconic structure and soul of Madurai 
• Koodal Azagar temple - an experience going to the rooftop of a temple and observing the gopurams up close. 
• Thepakkulam temple - the floating temple
• Tirumalai Nayak Palace - the palace of the Nayaka king and location of some very popular songs from Guru to Bombay. The palace has a museum and a sound and light show as well.
• Markets of Madurai including the Pudhu Mandapam, Banana market, Sungundi sarees, Madurai Malli or jasmine, the kumkum and the dasara golu or dolls
• The cuisine of Madurai includes the variety of idlis and dosas, ragi puttu, Kari dosa, idiyappam, keerai vada, mutton chukka, bun parota, jigar thanda, paruthi paal among others. 
• Other options include a visit to the archaeological site of Keeladi, Vellacheri doll village and a number of jain caves and rock sculptures
• We wrap up the discussion with other points of interest in the vicinity including Chettinad, Tanjavur, Chennai that one can plan for an extended itinerary. 

Links:

Link to the blog post: https://vacaywork.com/madurai-travel-blog/

Link to Sahana’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sahana.kulur/

Link to Sahana’s website: https://vacaywork.com

Sahana’s previous episode on Bijapur: 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0sfbo4CGkeJJImd1Acx5K1?si=luN1sAtdSo63QvhK_fqTeg

Photo by Ben Chobot on Unsplash

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