INDIA TRIP PART 2: Mahabilipuram – July 23, 2011

However, the next day, all the complaining went away… the day started with a birthday cake for Cherian. And as a gift from Sonny Chayan and Kochery Kochama they rented a 10-seater van and we went on a day trip 50 km south of Chennai. We were amazed at how the driver just cut through the chaos of motorbikes, cars, people walking, bikers, goats, cows, dogs and much more… On the way, we stopped at a “Crocodile Bank” where we got to come close to the Gharial crocodile… 

Before setting out for a day in the hot sun, we stopped for lunch at a local restaurant for some south Indian food.  The waiters came and gave us banana leaves as plates, and then served us food on the banana leaves.  The waiters complained that Sofie did not know how to eat with her hands, and was urged to learn how to eat with her hands. So, she was taught the fine art of squeezing the rice in her fingers and using her thumb to push the food into her mouth.  The waiter wanted to know if she would continue to eat with her fingers when she got home…

We then went to Mahabalipurram and got a tour of the oldest hindu temples in India that are now a World Heritage Site…  We saw the “Five Rathas” site, which are five temples with 3 animal statues all carved from one stone.  Each temple was built for the Hindu gods, Durga, Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma & Indhira by the Pallavas who originated from Sri Lanka but settled in Mahabalipuram to make it a port city between Sri Lanka and Calcutta.  The animals were a lion (pulls Durga’s chariot), an elephant (pulls Indhira’s chariot) and a bull (“nandi” pulls Shiva’s chariot). 

It was interesting to see this 1400 year old (built in 600 AD), monolithic structure, World Heritage site get turned into a playground for our kids and the mass of uniformed school kids.  To quench our thirst, we bought some tender coconuts and drank the juice from a straw.

After seeing some more sites of monolithic carved structures, we started to head back to Chennai and stopped at the beach, where the kids got blasted away by the crazy power of the waves of the Bay of Bengal.  The undercurrent was so strong that we were very conscious of letting the kids go too deep.  We were fortunate to have a cousin’s house down the street, where we got to shower off the sand before heading back to Chennai.