Farewell to the Bangala Hotel. We loved it. But more adventures await.

On the road in our little van we had Mr Speedy with the nice hair as our driver. He took us yesterday and we found he was very ‘hair proud’. Every time we stopped he coiffed his hair!

The drive to Madurai was once again incident free. Quieter roads and plenty to see.

Madurai is big compared to our last few stops. Big, busy, noisey and dusty.

Our hotel The Heritage is set in large gardens. And has a beautiful reception area and pool. Designed by Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa it reflects is love of the natural landscape, the frangipani the symmetry of design.

The rooms we have are large so three to a room. Always interesting sharing with others! But good fun.

We left our bags and booked a driver to take us to the Gandhi museum. It cost 1200 rupee. The equivalent of $24. So cheap for a half hour drive. He waited an hour while we looked at the Museum and brought us home. Between 6 $4!

Prices here are so cheap in comparison to other countries. We are eating very well for a small amount of money.

The Gandhi museum was very interesting and helped understand just how much the people of India endured. I do wonder what Gandhi would make of present day India. There is still so much poverty. So much divide between rich and poor.

We made our way back to the hotel in time for a facial. Oh my. It sounded great and was bit in a different kind of way. The girl was lovely but quite rough in massaging my face. I had to ask her to go softly softly. But by the end my skin felt great. It was a Ayurvedic massage. Cost – about $35

Time the. Got a quick G& T on our verandah then dinner.

The Banyan Tree restaurant is good but slightly lacks something we found at the Bangala.

The manager had reserved a special table for us to make up for our rooms not being ready. It was decorated with flower petals. Ten we got a scroll which they requested we read out. I think they got us mixed up with another group. It was a message of Bon Voyage! Wishing us a safe journey saying they were proud of us for choosing to come to India. There were at least 6 points to read out. I could barely contain myself.

We ordered a bottle of wine and the manager came over and put on such a performance. He danced with the glass as he aerated the wine. Quite spectacular! And insisted on Shelley joining him in the dance!

The rest of the dinner went without too much theatre!

Our night was quiet after that as we discussed plans for tomorrow. Yoga, swim, breakfast and then when it’s cool a visit to the Palace a rickshaw tour of the city and then the Temple for the evening puja.