We were planning to begin our adventures in Tamil Nadu with a quick visit to Mamalapuram to catch up with a friend and see the ocean and the World Heritage 6th century stone sculptures. However we should have been warned by the fact that our friend had already spent six weeks in this small touristique village. She arranged a room for us in her beachside guest house, and we were still there ten days later. I found a place to get daily physiotherapy in a rather dirty hospital, and the day was structured around morning walks on the beach, regular meals ( chapati and omelette for brunch, often Fish and chips for dinner!)at the same friendly cafe each day, and these visits to the ultrasound machine (never washed since the last customer which was hopefully me!)The ocean was too wild for swimming, with crashing waves and lethal rip tides. One young man drowned while we were there so the reality of the sign warning of 162 deaths in this area was brought home to us by distraught groups of his friends, and the keening of his family.
The main tourist street was lined with Kashmiri shops and constant invitation to look inside. Beyond this was the Indian town where we found the amazing sculptures and temples that the town is rightly famous for. The noise of stone chipping was everywhere and we were shown around one of the workshops where sculptures are still produced in the traditional way.
It was a gentle restorative time and we left by taxi having been warned of the horrors of the Tamil Nadu busses - racing madly along roads that can barely cope; quarter of the drivers have false licenses; standing room only; constant horn blowing and a scary death rate. Whereas our quiet cabbie dropped us in Pondicherry, a couple of hours down the coast, without incident. The town itself was noisy, dirty and full of French pastry shops and inflated prices. There is a nice promenade along the seafront which was fun for watching the locals and 1000's of Indian tourists. I spent a day in Auroville, an international community founded in the 50's, exploring this vision of progressive society which felt enormously dated.
Having had our fill of croissant and salad we risked the 'luxury bus' on the Tiruvannamalai...hot, noisy and dangerous but at least we had seats and arrived safely...
