Mahabalipuram
lovely beaches and warm breezes
09.12.2008 - 11.12.2008
We are now in Mamallapuram (also known as Mahabalipuram)- city of ancient rock temples and our first tourist destination. As well as the many impressive and beautiful structures here, there are far more hawkers and vendors hoping for business. The clever ones are subtle – we’ve now had three different men simply be friendly and helpful… only to learn that they are rock carvers and perhaps would like to sell us something!
We are staying in a “guest house” – 3 rooms in a family home down a long labyrinth of streets. It’s fun to see what the residential area is like, and what a residence looks like – several small buildings in one courtyard area, so we don’t actually enter the rooms used by our hosts. It’s nice and quiet if not as clean as we might prefer.
Yesterday we had a fabulous day visiting Crocodile Bank - Emil held a small croc, we watched as some big ones were fed, and watched as snakes were milked for their venom! We also heard about a volunteer opportunity with the same organisation in the Western Ghats... we'll let you know what comes of that. Christian is very excited!
After the crocs, we proceeded to Dakshina Chitra - a collection of reconstructed traditional homes from the 4 southern states, and examples of the traditional crafts - including some demonstrations. We all enjoyed that... and when the history/crafts got dull for some, there were lots of birds to see.
Today as we walked along the beach, I had fun helping a fisherman untangle his net and prepare it for storage. That's what happens when you stare at someone... you end up working! We'll try to upload more photos soon.... it's a bit cumbersome but we hope you like the ones from Kaliyampoondi! We haven't quite decided whether or not we'll leave tomorrow - our next destination is Trivanimanihali (or something similar). There's a 10 hectare temple there.
Posted by MogenStoft 11.12.2008 00:41 Archived in India Tagged family_travel
Wow! sounds like you are having a wonderful introduction to India! It's been fun to read your blog and see your photos so far - wish we could hop over and join you.
looking forward to your next entry
xo, Jean & Marc
11.12.2008 by jamogensen