Day Six

The Whirlwind went on a day trip! We are up and running again! Wahoo!

Hena and I went to Mamallapuram (south of Chennai) accompanied by Sofie, Azha, Joline, Lahira, and Hiba. The seven of us had a taxi driver for the day to take us down there and drive us around whenever we needed a ride. :)

Our first stop was Arjuna's Penance, a huge bas relief carving of the biggest single rock I think I have ever seen. Basically he was doing penance to Shiva because his family was embroiled in a war with his cousin's family (that he was fighting beside) and no matter which side he fought on he was killing his family. This was the best I could do to get the two pictures combined. There is a single column of repeated figures and the alignment may be a little off but I worked for an hour or so and this is my frustrated beyond belief result. [Also this is the largest I can post it so click on the image and it should open larger in a new window...] Why didn't I just take a VIDEO!?!?! Bah, I tried folks! The second photo is a close up of Arjuna in the penance stance.
Then we all wandered around looking at the Mandapams scattered around the site. One of the most detailed was one with Krishna who is represented lifting up the mythical Govardhana mountain to protect his kinsfolk from Indra.Next we viewed the lighthouse, because the town is on the coast it still has a lighthouse. :) That's a tiny Hena, me, and random stranger who wouldn't get out of the frame...... X-[ )

By this point I was very, very warm and we went in search of water. We found water- and I tried coconut milk straight from a green coconut. The juice is extremely sweet and quite bitter at the same time... don't ask me how that works- I just report my impressions. : ) I also tried the raw fruit and almost gagged- the girls got a kick out of it. Evidently they "failed" to warn me it's an acquired taste. Hena told me later that the coconut probably wasn't quite ripe and that explained why mine was bitter instead of sweet like it should have been. Ah well, live and learn!

Then we went in search of a toilet- we found one but you have to pay to use it- which means it is clean! There was a Western toilet- however it was clogged. So! I had my first success with using an Indian closet!!! I was thrilled!
So lunch was next on the menu- go figure with seven girls! We ate lunch at Moonrakers. The creepiest thing is if you get seafood- you get to pick your mackerel, lobster, and /or prawns (giant shrimp) off this platter- I almost gagged again taking the picture. [The restaurant is maybe 600 ft. from the ocean so everything is fresh and barely dead... eeep] Hena and I split a mashed potato with cheese and mushrooms, steamed rice, and beef with lime mint sauce. It was all woooonderful! Weeeell the beef was way over cooked, but still edible. Then we went to Blue Elephant for dessert. Hena and I split two "pancakes" which looked and tasted more like bastardized crepes with chocolate and chocolate-banana fillings. Yum! Sweet with texture and not sickeningly sweet! [They disappeared too quickly to photograph... sorry... wait... not really, they were good! *giggle* However Sofie was faster with the shutter. Lucky ya'll. : ) That's Joline by the way]

After lunch we went to the Shore Temple. This is a temple that was rebuilt the last time circa 7th century AD dedicated to Shiva (mainly) and Vishnu. The girls had a looot of fun here. We ran around, got whistled at (told to move on) by the guards, and generally made mischief! Hena almost killed herself- almost severely injured herself- by losing her balance very badly at the top of these very narrow, 15ft or so stairs! Ok, maybe it only seemed 15ft when she was about to fall... I was like "breathe Susan- Hena is ooook."
From Left the people are: Lahira, Hiba, Azah, Joline, Sofie, and myself- Hena took the picture, she later almost fell off.

[Rs. 10 note to the one who guesses closest to their ages!]

After that we went to view the Five Rathas. Since there are too many to put pictures of each on here I'll simply describe them. Oh yeah, the girls got in a fierce argument here- more later. The Rathas are rock temples that look like chariots. The first belongs to Durga and has a huge lion outside. The next belongs to Shiva that has a huge bull carving near it. The next belongs to Vishnu but I couldn't get a picture of inside :( the guide book says Vishnu is carved inside in repose- but I couldn't see a sculpture or a relief- I think it has been eroded by people laying "beside" him as I saw half a dozen people do in the short time we were there. The next is Indra's with a elephant beside it. This elephant is considered to be one of the finest life-sized sculptures of an elephant in all India and I stood on his trunk- silly American! LOL!
Anyhow the argument was about these guys that they thought were taking pictures of them without their permission. This is a growing trend in India that upsets most women because they feel it is an invasion of their privacy. However in the end they argued longer about the fact that one of the girls had insulted them when in fact they were innocent. All of this I had to have explained to me later because it went on in two or three languages. Only a small part of the whole thing was in English- and that wasn't pretty. But oh well.... later on when we drove past them the guys smiled and waved so I guess we didn't offend them too badly!

Next was Krishna's Butter Ball- I kid you not on the name. Go figure I crawl under the thing! :)
Krishna was born a cow herder and he loved butter, so yeah when a huge round bolder is found it makes sense to call it Krisha's butter ball. : ) There is also a "natural" slide created over time beside the ball! It was fun to go down. ; ) I briefly viewed the Ganesha shrine on the grounds as well. There is video of each of use going down the slide however it will take hours and hours to upload it so since I went by myself you get to see that video. :) [later note: The video is refusing to load- so you get a picture... sorry : ( ]


Last but not least we all headed to Sofie's parents' beach house for evening prayers and to see the beach. I can't imagine scheduling life around five prayers a day- but I guess if you grew up doing it there would be no deal to have really....
The house is under renovation since the tsunami hit whenever it was and I was grateful for the western toilet that was working! I taught the girls how to hang upside down by their legs on this hammock stand. I spotted them all as I helped them climb up, get their legs right, hang upside down, and then get down. Afterward they were jumping up and down celebrating, hugging me and each other- I was so surprised! They were so so happy about something I thought nothing about it was amazing. They made it exciting again! I can't show you most of them because they said I couldn't since they didn't have their scarves or burkas. However Sofie said I could! So here she is!!
Also I had the best chai I think I have ever had in my life when the housekeeper made chai before we went out to the beach.

We walked to the beach in the dark with one cell phone to light the way. The girls were making ghost noises and Hena wound up scaring them under a banyon tree with a bunch of vines hanging off it. They shrieked so loud! I was laughing so hard, especially when a guy on a bicycle rode up out of the dark to the house we were walking by just after they had calmed down and they all screamed again!
We played ring-around-the-roses for some reason in the loose sand on top of the dune. LoL, that stuff gets everywhere! Then we just ran, skipped, and generally played on the beach.
I wish my camera could have captured the beauty of the surf at night. The tide was coming in so the waves crawled higher and the sounds grew louder it was beautiful. There wasn't a way I could figure out to get the flash to turn on and stay on so I could video, but I do have audio of the waves! So enjoy the small clip...

After that we all got dropped off at our respective homes.
I took a bath, plan to eat dinner, take my meds, and crash as I have dozed a couple times while trying to post this.

G-night all- will add pictures tomorrow morning.
Next morning: Pictures added and spelling and grammar corrected as best I can. I really had fallen asleep twice while writing this last night...