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Other entries in Māmallapuram

"Can i get a mineral water?"..."You want a beer?"

Once i'd made a full recovery in Chennai, it was time to move on. We had planned to get a bus to Mahabalipuram (formerly Mamallapuram), but as we left our hotel we met the same rickshaw driver who had taken us to Marina Beach the previous day. A nice guy, if a bit of an opportunist. He smooth-talked us into paying him to drive us all the way there via his rickshaw - nearly 60km! We have become accustomed to being called "boss" by the locals, which seems to be a national way of saying "mate", but with more...brotherliness. Apparently the Indian version of Big Brother is called Big Boss - 'nuff said. We no longer refer to them as rickshaw drivers, or autos, but as Bosses. "Let's get ourselves a Boss". Or in this case, "Who needs to hire a bus when we can hire our own Boss?".

A couple of hours drive down a wonderfully scenic coastal road later, we reached Mahabilapuram, and got to our hotel which we'd pre-booked. Good job really because it was the last free room they had, and the other places we'd phoned were already booked up... Anyway, the drive from Chennai to here was really nice, so much better than a bus would have been, although we did pay significantly more than we would've done for the bus (but still very cheap). We had the coast on our left, along with mile after mile of beach/land that was hit by the tsunami. The odd tree still stands, but mostly it's flatlands now, the odd group of straw-huts but not much else. To our right, we had a great view of the sun going down.

Mahabalipuram is a quiet place, very small compared to Bangalore/Chennai, and absolutely teeming with Westerners - mainly French people. Our hotel is a stones-throw from the beach, which is strewn with fishing boats, fishing nets, restaurants etc. The methods used to fish vary from spear-hunting, to big nets...the boats they use sometimes have motors, but others are just a few planks of wood strapped together, with another plank of wood to paddle with. Some very skilful work goes on, and they seem to get up at around 4am, fish until 8am, and then sell their catch to the local fish market.

The restaurants all sell fresh fish - live lobster, calamari, crab, huge (and i do mean huge) prawns, shark, snapper...all of which is presented to you before it is cooked/purchased, just so you can, you know, meet your dinner before you eat it. Lovely stuff. We ordered tuna the other night...an hour later we were served a white fish that i am fairly certain was not tuna! Whatever it was, it was nice. Having said that, we seem to get a lot of cold rice around here which isn't nice at all. I'm kinda sick of seafood already, but at least i can always get a cheese & tomato toastie and a plate of chips, along with a lassi. Cups of tea aren't so hot though...a pot of milk tea is literally that - hot milk with a teabag in it, no water. Hmm. At this point i should point out that it's difficult to find a place to eat here that isn't ridden with flies. Within 24 hours of eating two massive prawns, Agent Dolac emerged sheepishly from the toilet, wisely proclaiming that "prawns and flies don't mix". Touché.

Right on the beach is the Shore Temple, which is pretty impressive. Hit by - but survived - the tsunami, probably helped by the big rock-shore that i believe was man-made. We have a looooong walk around the beach, around the temple, and around the Five Rathas today. The Five Rathas are really good...five buildings (not quite temples but similar) built right by each other. But they haven't been assembled as such, they have been carved from massive blocks of stone. Literally just carved from one massive block!

We're having one last night here this evening, and then we'll be catching a bus (no Boss this time) on to Pondicherry tomorrow. We've had no power in our room for the last two days so both of my camera batteries are flat, which sucks...but Chris has just come down and told me that the power is back on, so i'm going to end this here, upload a couple of photos, and go and get it charged!

EDIT: Back downstairs in the computer room. It's so good to have the fan working in the room again. Last night we were resigned to being completely at the mercy of the mosquito army in the sweltering heat. Today we have stocked up on ultra-strong (no EU regulations to pander to here!) mosquito spray. "It's amazing how quickly mosquitoes have replaced disgruntled policyholders as my mortal enemy", muses Agent Dolac. Touché.

Reading Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance for the fourth time now, and it is in fact one of the best books i've ever read. Which has just reminded me to comment about the Bollywood film we saw the other night, Guru. Couldn't understand a word of it, but it was pretty interesting anyway. Much more...erm...high budget(?) than i had imagined it would be...

One last thing for the moment - in Mahabalipuram, with it being such a tourist area...if we go into a restaurant and don't order beer, we get the distinct impression they are annoyed. Yes, you read that right. Everywhere else we have been, beer has been...available but by no means celebrated. But here, they practically force it on you. Probably because the tax on alcohol is still sky high here, although the food is miles cheaper...so whilst in Bangalore a beer cost roughly the same as a curry, here you can get a beer for the price of a curry, a pancake, a cheese toastie and a chocolate lassi. It's in their interests to sell you beer here. Not just any beer, either. Kingfisher. But not just any Kingfisher. Super strong Kingfisher. Measuring in at a "minimum" of 6% alcohol, compared to the standard Kingfisher's "maximum" 5%...it's pretty potent. Pretty horrible in fact. Nicely offset by the plethora of chocolate and banana pancakes...yum.

N.B. My pictures of the Five Rathas, and indeed of the stone-work that is going on outside every other shop here, are on my other memory card. They will be uploaded at a later date. Some of the stone work is incredible...they have tiny little models that are being chiseled away with the utmost precision...sat right next to 15 foot statues of Ganesh that would genuinely require a crane to move them. Fantastic stuff...

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