bright shades in tamil nadu

Colours is the most accurate word to describe Tamil Nadu, a state in South East of India. I know, this country is colourful in general, starting with the traditional clothes of local women and ending with the street shops, but this time bright shades are reflected on the architecture as well. Every city I’ve visited in Tamil Nadu had temples with colourful sculptures on top, a thing you would never see in European architecture, shades of palette are on every single house, including the slums and poor areas. The seaside cities looked more like paradise than in Kerala, filled with, again, colourful boats, jetties, ships, guest houses just on the seashores!

I have visited one of the most beautiful architecture building in a pretty big city, a center of Tamil Nadu named Madurai and went back to Kerala for tea plantations in Munnar. Coming back to the mountains and running away from the heat was such a blast! It was a great place for relaxing, being with your own thoughts even in touristic areas, walking around those million shades of green surrounded by the mountains. Then I headed towards another pilgrim city Ramshwaram, famous for its temples (as every other city in India basically – except this one had an interesting story about how one of their Gods Shiva saved people) and it was only 30km away from Sri Lanka! Got soaked wet while walking to the temple which was on the island in the sea - worth every penny, cause there was no one on the road and I first time in this county I was alone.

My highlight of the trip was celebrating Christmas in Pondicherry, a former French colony which is still full of French people, their cafes, foods, moods. I found a guy on couchsurfing I stayed with – he invited me to a Christmas party with his friends and colleagues, so I ended up drinking punch until 4am and having an amazing time with those guys! The rest of the days have passed with local beers, meals and a mixture of a French culture with Indian one. We traveled around the city with scooters and motorcycles and I got a lot of European spirit before heading back to the north. I met those guys again on my way to the airport a day before my flight in a small town on the seaside (I can never remember its name) and had one hour journey in the middle of the night on a bike to the airport:D I liked this part of India the most!

By the way, happy New Year guys! 

Facts:

• There’s no need to go to the zoo: you have sacred cows walking in the streets, goats, dogs, cats – even pigs. If you are lucky, while visiting temples you might see an elephant inside.

• Women in the south wear real flowers in their hair as accessories.

• If you visit a temple, avoid guides who work there – they will give you a friendly 5 min tour and then ask money from you for their services. If I want a guide, I would find it myself, right? There’s no need to help me wandering around the building.

• People will always try to help you since they believe in karma.

• Indians are very religious, it doesn’t matter which religion they belong to.

• And it is completely normal to wear only traditional clothes.