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Other entries in Māmallapuram

Mamallapuram

Took the bus to Mamallapuram and arrived in the evening. I (Emily) spread out all my stuff and tried to find my missing $$... with no luck.  We laid low for the rest of the night watching some tv.  The have Gilmore Girls and the OC in India!  Mamallapuram is a really lovely seaside town, that was hit by the tsunami, but has recooperated surprisingly well.  In the morning we met up with our guide, Steven, and all got on bicycles for a tour of the local sites.  Well, I haven't been on a bike in about 7 years so was a bit interesting until I got the hang of it.  The bikes looked like they were out of a 1920's movie, and are much different to ride than the ones we are used to.  We rode around to a series of local Hindu temples.  The temples in the area are really amazing, they are all carved out of granite.  We also saw Krishna's butterball... which is a large boulder that is perfectly balanced on a hill.  We have pictures of Lindsay trying to hold it up, while the rest of us try and push it down the hill.  Some guys dragged a dead dog past us, tied up by it's feet.  It was pretty gross.  We biked down to the beach and saw the stone carvers at work. 

We ate lunch at a really nice restaurant on the beach that supports the local orphanage.  The beach was gorgeous with about 90 brightly coloured fishing boats.  The town got a huge amount of support after the tsunami.  I guess they used to only have 8 boats... now there are 90, so most of them just sit on the beach.  In the afternoon we went shopping in the village and bought some clothes and jewelry.  We had fun bartering with the local shop owners.  We met back at the hotel that night to catch the bus for Chennai.

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