Day 2: Sat 11 Nov 17: Chennai

Fine and cloudy 24 to 29 deg

Despite a rather short sleep I awoke fairly refreshed. Met up with Phil and Bob at brekky where I enjoyed a traditional Indian morning curry with a nice cup of coffee. Phil and Bob’s luggage had failed to make their plane during a short stopover in Singapore. They were hoping that it would turn up tonight, at the latest. It’s just a pain when that happens.

After brekky we went off exploring Mahabalipuram, basically a Temple Town outside Chennai. They obviously picked this place over Chennai as that looked quite undesirable when we drove through it this morning.

The temples and monuments were stunning and mainly curved out of solid granite rock hills. The depth and detail of each piece begs belief, even more so when you consider that some were completed about 1,000 years ago. What dedication and perseverance. This place, being on the sea, was devastated by the 2004 Earthquake / tsunami and 1,000s of people here lost their lives. One bright point was that many very ancient temples or monuments were exposed from under sand.

Lunch saw us back at our Motel eating traditional Southern Indian Thalia and drinking tea. Most of the others turned up too, Baz, Simon, BJ and Mick.

Really dodgy WiFi at the hotel so it’s hit and miss when doing anything online, particularly loading photos.

Had another wander around in the afternoon and then met up with the Tour Leader, Mike for a beer and chat. Dinner was, yep curry, very nice. I believe I’m going to enjoy the meals.

A very colourful "God" atop the temple

An artist opposite our hotel

Massive religious carving

Carved out of solid rock

Hindu Temple

Pillars and carvings out of rock

Temple Grounds

Colourful local clothing

Another solid rock carving

Fresh corn seller

Local dried & fried veggie seller


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