Travels to India, part two!

Sorry for a delay of over a week. Distractions ahoy here in Bangladesh. More hartals, the start of term, lamp-shopping... it's kept me away from blogging. This is going to be more picture-heavy, so be warned. 

Cows, boats, and the Indian ocean.

So I left off finishing up Chennai and moving onto the next city on my list: Mahabalipuram. But first, I had to get there. I got a tuk-tuk to take me from my hotel to the bus stand and there I ran to catch a bus south. Literally running, actually, but bus never stopped, just slowed down as it drove past me. I had to take a running jump to get up the steps and boy is that less than fun with a heavy backpack and tote!

Have another boat.

 I settled myself down for the two-hour ride. No window seat, unfortunately, but all the windows were open and so was the door to the bus, so at least it wasn’t at all stuffy on the bus. I made sure to repeat my destination Mahabalipuram at least a dozen times so both the bus ticket guy and those in seats around me knew where I was supposed to get off. I guessed (correctly) that there wouldn’t be a stop with the name printed clearly in English to warn me when I hit the town. The bus ride really wasn’t bad. The biggest annoyance was the constant, drilling noise of the horn. Imagine giving a kid a tin harmonica and giving him permission to blow it into a megaphone for hours, and you’ll get the idea. Thankfully I had an ipod full of books and settled back to watch the unchanging countryside.

Surprise! More boats.

My fellow passengers did not fail to let me know where my stop was, and I was able to hop off right outside the town and head to drop my stuff at my hostel. Immediately I could tell this was another “Backpakistan,” the kind of little eclectic villages that cater to a largely foreign presence, but not the kind of foreigners who stay at Hiltons. Rather the type of foreigners who travel and discover themselves while not having to part from access to decent coffee places, WIFI, and places that sell hippy-hammer pants. Please know I’m not judging these people. These are my people.

One of the wall carvings on the outside of the complex. Each figure is life-sized. 

 Mahabalipuram is famous for their elaborate ancient temples and statues carved out of single, huge granite boulders. My first day was spent wandering about one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites. It was pretty amazing, the detail and effort it must have taken carving out whole hillsides to fill with detailed sculptures and carved columns.

Here's a photo of some of the interiors, you can see the intricate carvings all over. 

Woman walking in front of temple carved from a single piece of rock. 

Life-sized elephant.

After a night spent in a little restaurant on the beach, eating noodles and drinking local beer, I woke the next morning to check out another ancient temple, the Sea Temple (really creative names).

Holy cow!

Sea Temple!

 It was pretty fantastic considering how old and detailed the place was. During the major tsunami that hit the region over Christmas a few years back, the water nailed this place and went almost 1/4 mile inland, but somehow the temple remains without much damage.

Hey look, cows. 

Chilling with the sea temple. Yes, I wore this pants almost every day. You would have too if you knew how comfy they were. Plus, pockets. 

Part of the five brothers (I think that's the name) a series of temples with huge animal statues. Again, carved out of single pieces of rock. 

After checking out all the major temple sites in town and buying a few hard-carved statue souvineers, it was time for me to head further south to Pondicherry. 

Indian men sitting out front of a cathedral

 Pondicherry was to the French what Chennai was to the British - a place of operations earlier in the colonization of India. Clearly the British won that battle but the result is a little French-style town right off the Indian ocean. It's probably one of the most idyllic cross-cultural spots I've had a chance to go to. Women draped in silk saris walk by French buildings, holding the hands of children wearing cute school uniforms in the afternoon. It was really quite lovely, and very colorful with lots of that French Mediterranean mustard yellow.

CNG or tuk-tuk or autorickshaw. Different names, same machine. 

Gorgeous pink cathedral. 

Elaborate white cathedral. 

 There was one temple I wanted to go to in town, mostly because of the temple elephant they had that would come around and bless people in the afternoons. I got my blessing and spent my time there wandering the shops and having coffee and ice cream. My little heritage hotel was gorgeous and right in the middle of town. Overall I'd give Pondicherry high marks except for the amount of Europeans there. It's clearly a vacation hotspot for middle-aged people from Western Europe, and the prices there matched to reflect that.

That's all for now. Next time BIGGER TEMPLES. Another elephant. Another cathedral. And hitting.