Mamallapuram

Mamallapuram is only 2 hours South of Chennai by local bus, and it's mentioned as a highlight in a Guerba tour brochure for this part of India, so I decided to stop off there on our journey south. It turned out to be a lovely wee town really, although the beach was disappointingly dirty, and so we only ended up staying 2 nights.

Our bus from Chennai was quite straightforward (after quickly rectifying our mistake of getting on the bus going the wrong direction), and Sarah found a nice place easily enough (Hotel Lakshmi). The town is famous for it's carved temples, caves and sculptures. But the first day was just spent relaxing mostly, and checking out the beach and local environs.

The next day we hired bicycles (Sarah heading off before me), as the temples and carvings are scattered about a bit, so having the bikes made exploring the town really easy and relaxed. After seeing the mad precarious Butter Ball rock and the huge bas-relief carvings in the town I rode out to the Five Rathas. From there back to the main temple, called the Shore Temple, which was nicely set right on the sea, although it's actually fronted by a protective sea wall, and again the beach here was crowded and very badly littered. I didn't bother to pay the rather hefty admission price for the temples though, as you could see them easily from the fencing around them, and the admission price was 25 times what locals pay (the biggest difference I've seen so far is 30 times!).

Having the bikes meant we even got to check out Tiger Cave a few kilometres outside the town, where I had a lovely wee swim in the sea from the nearly deserted beach (the waves were very strong, and there are dangerous currents around, so I didn't swim far or for very long). So yet more great food in really cheap local eateries (we ate one night in a Westerner-backpacker-type place, and it was the only disappointing meal we've had in all of India so far - generally you're always better off following the locals rather than the tourists of course!).

So having seen all the temples and carvings and stuff it was time to move on again (I was kinda tempted to stay another day just to chill out, but I'm hoping to find a more relaxed, laid-back beach place further south). Next morning it was a local bus for the 2 hour trip down to Pondicherry, but poor Sarah awoke to discover that her trekking trousers had been stolen from the clothes line outside our room overnight. After the fury and disbelief of that little incident (who robs someone else's trousers?!?), we arrived in Pondicherry in the early afternoon.