Mamallapuram

A stone mural. The carvings earned Mamallapuram a "National Heritage" title.

trees, rice paddies and ocean

the other two angels are just not as quick on the draw as I am, that's all...

Will and Ross choosing an interactive tour of the carvings...

This gigantic boulder, perched seemingly precariously, is actually called "the butterball." This was Kim's favorite, and she really enjoyed saying "butterball" over and over throughout the day:)

Kim and I with our first coconut. Not at all what I expected coconut to taste like - the milk was almost salty to my Americanized taste buds and the pulp was a bit too slimy, although dried out I think it'd been fabulous.

part of the "Five Rathas," a group of Pallavan rock cut temples excavated 200 years ago by the British.

the shore temple, striking with green grass, red dirt, grey stone, black blue ocean and baby blue sky.

A couple weeks ago, a few of us took a day trip to Mamallapuram, a coastal village boasting an aesthetic shore temple, ocean side seafood cafes and stone carvings ranging from murals etched into cliffs to intricate hand-size figurines of elephants or gods.

The road to the beachfront is lined with shack after shack offering stone carvings, bangles, and other knick-knack Indian paraphernalia. As the conspicuous foreigners, we are urged to enter every shop and if we accept the invitation, items are flooded before us. A few members of the group entered countless bidding debates with shopkeepers trying to gauge just how low they could go. Between shopping and negotiating transportation fares, my bargaining skills have improved in India, and I think Grandpa Dave would have been proud. Stone carvers sit and chisel curved lines into sandstone or marble, giving birth to statuettes, the most popular being replicas of Ganesh, the god with an elephant's head, and small elephants imprisoned by a mesh-work of stone within the belly of a larger elephant.

We wandered through the park housing many large stone carvings which we enjoyed posing with, and then folllowed a rocky path a short distance away from the village where we found ourselves above fields and paddies, lakes, ocean, palm trees, and sky.

Afterwards, we returned for coconuts and sunset on the beach. The ocean was warm, but we didn't venture too far - partly because of the time, partly because donning a bathing suit would have been inappropriate for the female contingency (a few Indian women were swimming in full saris) and partly because we'd been warned that the riptide claims a few lives each year.

After a two hour drive, we were delivered safely back at the Ananda around 10pm, topping off an exceptionally long and fulfilling Sunday.