Last weekend Laura and I went to visit Murugan Temple in Viralimalai, India. It was a nice short little bus ride from Trichy. The town was not that exciting despite what the many Tamil Nadu travel websites told me. The town was very small, seemed industrious, and had some fruit vendors. We walked around the whole town in about 20 minutes. Of course people watching is always pleasing. We went up to the temple which according to some websites offers and abundance of peacocks meandering about or dancing around in search for the perfect mate.
We climbed the stairs up to the temple and spotted our first peacock (and our only) it was absolutely the most beautiful bird creature I have ever seen. The colors were so vibrant and the slow elegant movements of the peacock are something almost from a story book. Well, enough about the peacock because about a minute later this little monkey comes storming down the stairs and sits down near the people gathered to watch the majestic peacock. Instantly, I became infatuated with this dear little monkey. It is so strange to watch a monkey. Their mannerisms truly are so similar to humans - it made me laugh aloud several times. This little man was not alone. Soon several beautiful little monkeys were climbing about everywhere. We finally moved on to proceed to the temple. It was nothing to spectacular but definitely a nice excuse to get out of Trichy and the dirty city air for a little while. We saw many more monkeys once we got to the top. Some of them even come quite close to you which made me excited but nervous all at the same time.
We did realize, as two women going into a more rural area, that men are not shunned as much for their negative behavior toward women compared to in the city where there are many eyes watching. Several times men would makes remarks at us and a few men even followed us around. It seemed like socially constructed values of how men should interact with women who are strangers did not apply in this area.
We ended our journey home by accidentally taking the bus to Trichy which was not the express bus so we got to stop in every small town along the 30km trek back home. It was nice because we got to see many school children hop on and hop off.
Here are the pictures from the temple: http://s1150.photobucket.com/albums/o602/kyliejedwards/Murugan%20Temple%20Viralimalai/
We climbed the stairs up to the temple and spotted our first peacock (and our only) it was absolutely the most beautiful bird creature I have ever seen. The colors were so vibrant and the slow elegant movements of the peacock are something almost from a story book. Well, enough about the peacock because about a minute later this little monkey comes storming down the stairs and sits down near the people gathered to watch the majestic peacock. Instantly, I became infatuated with this dear little monkey. It is so strange to watch a monkey. Their mannerisms truly are so similar to humans - it made me laugh aloud several times. This little man was not alone. Soon several beautiful little monkeys were climbing about everywhere. We finally moved on to proceed to the temple. It was nothing to spectacular but definitely a nice excuse to get out of Trichy and the dirty city air for a little while. We saw many more monkeys once we got to the top. Some of them even come quite close to you which made me excited but nervous all at the same time.
We did realize, as two women going into a more rural area, that men are not shunned as much for their negative behavior toward women compared to in the city where there are many eyes watching. Several times men would makes remarks at us and a few men even followed us around. It seemed like socially constructed values of how men should interact with women who are strangers did not apply in this area.
We ended our journey home by accidentally taking the bus to Trichy which was not the express bus so we got to stop in every small town along the 30km trek back home. It was nice because we got to see many school children hop on and hop off.
Here are the pictures from the temple: http://s1150.photobucket.com/albums/o602/kyliejedwards/Murugan%20Temple%20Viralimalai/
Enjoy the peacock; I think it's much more itself than the monkey.
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