We pack up, check-out, and hail a tuk-tuk for a ride to the Chennai Central Bus Station. Finding the right bus is a bit tricky as there are so many. With the help of a local fella, we find the correct platform. The bus takes a while to actually break free of sprawling Chennai; enough time for Shejal to strike up a conversation with a chap who’s heading our way for a training course in the next town. I’ve started getting used to the fact that random people like to chat, an old man in Chennai walked across the road, shook my hand and then started asking about how my Mother & Father were doing! This bus takes around 2-3 hours to get to Mamallapuram. It’s a local bus, so no room for our luggage really. I sat with my sack on my lap - probably something I should get used to doing.
We had booked a guest house which is run by a French lady. It’s really cheap, so no frills. Luxuries like towels, toilet paper, bedding etc - not available. All cool as we’ve come prepared with travel towels & sleepping bag liners (thanks amazon.co.uk). There’s two excellent ‘non-rabid’ puppies living in the guest house grounds which were fun to play with. Shejal was scared of them - probably the right attitude to have to all Indian dogs (even the cute ones).
The main draw of Mamallapuram is the ancient temples. It’s a world heritage site. We took in all the main attractions. Tourists pay 250rps for a ticket. Locals get in for 30rps and don’t queue correctly. There’s a fair few school kids knocking about - they look super cute in their uniforms. Bald white man = lots of shouting and high-5’s all round. Loving it.
The ‘five rathas’ is a one of the more impressive temples. Five monoliths carved from one massive rock. Each temple is dedicated to a Hindu god named for each of the Pandavas, the five hero brothers of the epic Mahabharata. We thought it may be useful to have a guide for this, so paid 100rps for Mr. Varadarajan "Poetry is stone…English/Hindi special tourist guide". His English ain’t up to much, so he goes for Hindi and Shejal translates for me. He insists on taking photos of us with my Nikon - scared he was going to drop it.
The next day we got up relatively early to see some of the other sites. One is called ‘Krishna’s Butterball’, which is a massive stone boulder - immovable, but apparently balancing precariously.
Next up is Pondicherry. Another State bus ride necessary!
We had booked a guest house which is run by a French lady. It’s really cheap, so no frills. Luxuries like towels, toilet paper, bedding etc - not available. All cool as we’ve come prepared with travel towels & sleepping bag liners (thanks amazon.co.uk). There’s two excellent ‘non-rabid’ puppies living in the guest house grounds which were fun to play with. Shejal was scared of them - probably the right attitude to have to all Indian dogs (even the cute ones).
The main draw of Mamallapuram is the ancient temples. It’s a world heritage site. We took in all the main attractions. Tourists pay 250rps for a ticket. Locals get in for 30rps and don’t queue correctly. There’s a fair few school kids knocking about - they look super cute in their uniforms. Bald white man = lots of shouting and high-5’s all round. Loving it.
The next day we got up relatively early to see some of the other sites. One is called ‘Krishna’s Butterball’, which is a massive stone boulder - immovable, but apparently balancing precariously.
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| Shejal having a crack at moving the butterball |
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| Shejal on the beach selling things. 3-4-2. |
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