Its Sunday and time for more sightseeing. Today was a trip to Mamallapuram. It's a 14th century temple complex about 30 miles south of Chennai. Of course to get there you have to brave about an hour of India style driving. First there was 20 minutes of driving winding around the local streets. Each street jam packed with people and small stores. The real fun started when we hit the high speed road. Now I don't want to give the impression that is was a highway. It was about the same type of road but the speed just picked up. As I mentioned earlier, the line between the sides of the road is a recommendation. This was certainly true today. My car spent about half its time straddling the line (half on each size). Motorcycles are just expected to zip into the shoulder at a moments notice. Several times we were passing cars the same time cars heading the other direction were passing. But some how, each time, head on collisions were avoided.
The temples themselves were quite impressive. The temple in the picture is carved from single piece of granite. Of course the carvings are of the complete pantheon on Hindu Gods. Perhaps that's why the temples are so large, its a very large pantheon. During the tour of the ancient temples we stopped at a functioning temple. The priest blessed my the whole family. The final temple was almost on the beach and was assembled of stones dragged by elephants.
After all the touring I returned to the modern world by having a late lunch a five star beach resort. I had seafood and listened to the waves crashing on the Indian ocean. I followed that with a leisurely walk in the surf. Not a bad way to end a day.
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