My travels

Mamallapuram/Mahabalipuram : Mabalblablapuram – the easiest way to say it (or was that Mallampuam?? another town 700km from Chennai…) Squished in the bus, along with many people and a whole school of children and our bags full of shopping. On the way we made our first friend in India, laughing at us on how we pronounced Mabalblablapuram. In the bus station he helped us to find the right bus to go to Mabalblablapuram. We got good seats at the back of the bus near the ticket conductor. At the beginning the bus was empty the further we drove the more full the bus until it was so full you could not even fit a flea. We get off the bus in the small town of Mabalblablapuram. Getting down off the bus right outside the main temple, we immediately enter a throng of people and are surrounded by candle light and the heady smell of incense in the air. We walk around and find our way to the little guesthouse- Sakthi family guesthouse- where we stayed for the next two days. That night we go out for dinner and blow some cash on the biggest tiger prawn you’ve ever seen (almost a lobster!), a BBQ barracuda and a beer that tasted like cider down by the beach where all the westerners hang out. In the morning we ate breakfast (masala tea yummy J ) in a French run café called Nautilus down by the beach. We discovered the town, although small, was full of travellers like us and most of them were in the same café. This place was serving proper coffee (maybe that’s why was so full of westerners!). After filling our bellies we set off to do some sight seeing. Despite being a small town (still 50,000 people living there) it was full of archeological sites of interest. Numerous temples, water tanks cut out of rock, rock carvings, ruins and caves cut into the rock. We started with the amazing shore temple down by the sea, with two towers plenty of cow sculptures and rock carvings. It appears to be a favourite place for school trips, with scores of neatly dressed school children running around the temple asking to be included in our photographs. After which we went down to sea along a road full street vendors and local villagers going to and from the beach. This is the beach where the locals hang out. We reached the sea and took off our shoes and joined the throng of locals enjoying the sea refreshing our feet with a “lifeguard” and his whistle warning people of large waves and dangerous currents that could take people off the beach. Marc and his bravo wanted to challenge the sea by going a bit further in to take some good pictures but the sea won as a large wave broke and soaked him (and his passport and money!! thank goodness for waterproof euros). To dry off on the way to the westerners beach, we went to do some bouldering, climbing over the rocks lining the sea shore near the temple in the midday sun. We returned to our room to dry the rest of our things and to chill out before heading to the local park full of temples, caves and ruins. After that we walked to the famous five rathas, just outside the village. We got there for sundown and a beautiful pink light covered the stone buildings. Unfortunately we were too late to enter, it was already closed. Whilst waiting for dinner we made our second group of Indian friends. We walked down to the locals’ beach and watched a large group of school children sitting in circles (girls and boys separate) playing games. Then a group of teenagers arrived and stood in the middle of the boys circle, the girls quickly gathered behind the boys to watch. The teenages turned up the volume on their mobile phone and made impromptu dance show for the kids. Marc jumped up to film the whole scene, franticly trying to change his camera memory card to record a video. Whilst recording, more friends of the teenagers arrived and came to watch Marc’s video (with great delight) over his shoulder. When it was all finished, the ENTIRE group of teenagers crowded round Marc to see themselves and their friends dancing on video. Everyone was laughing a lot. Our new friends then invited us to join them for a group photo, when the time came for them to go, everyone wanted to shake hands to say goodbye. We stayed a while longer on the beach, since it was Saturday night many of the local youths (in groups of girls and boys but not mixed) had come down to the beach to hang out and paddle in the sea. They were all making a lot of noise and thoroughly enjoying themselves. We both really enjoyed the experience and really appreciated the warmth and sense of fun of the people from the south of India. After our beach experience we went to a local restaurant for a food experience. We ate super spicy noodles and other classic south Indian food from a banana leaf. The next day we packed our bags and after a few final photos we took our backpacks and hiked to the “bus stop” (corner of the road) to catch the bus to Pondicherry. Mamallapuram was badly hit by the tsunami but the community has recovered well. It was amazing to stand on the beach looking out to sea trying to imagine what it was like. In many ways Mamallapuram is the opposite of Chennai, a small town with lots of history that attracts many tourists, western and Indian alike.