Mamallapuram - Stoned at the Beach

We seem to be travelling just ahead of trouble as I've already said. And so it continues. Because of the potential for traffic disruptions from the Maoists in Kolkata and because our guide book said it took two hours to get to the Kolkata Airport (affectionately? known as DumDum because it's where the British developed the DumDum bullet), we left our hotel by taxi at 10:00 am three days ago.

The trip took all of 45 minutes (the people from the guide book must have been travelling by human powered rickshaw, of which there are lots in Kolkata) so there we were, over 8 hours ahead of boarding time of our plane - in an airport that didn't look that friendly to waiting passengers, noisy, not many places to sit down, and very few places to get any sustenance.

Geordie sent me off to find out what might be done, and I finally talked to the check-in counter for our airline, Deccan Air, who, after consultation told me I might be able to get into the fancy first class lounge. I was guided there and found out to my joy that because I have a Gold MasterCard, I qualified to hang out with the hoi polloi. What a pleasure it was - I wasn't there too long when I began to feel like a rich person, annoyed when someone left the door of the lounge open to let in the gabble of noise outside. (How snooty!)

Really though it was a little bit of heaven for our 8 hour wait. I must remember this again when I am at foreign airports, and maybe I should check my credit card plans more closely. We got lovely cappuchino's, free food (pizza would you believe and ginger cookies), comfortable seating, peace and quiet, all because of a little plastic. Just to pass the time we actually dared go out into the airport a few times just to mingle.

Our flight left exactly on time to Chennai and we passed from the turbulent north of India to the more relaxed south. Like Kolkata, we have really not been hassled over much at all, there are few beggars, we have found a place that does a wonderful expresso right across the street from our "resort", and we are quite happy being here over Christmas.

Arriving was a bit of an adventure though. Our flight got in at 9:40 pm and we were met outside the airport by our driver whom we requested to get us to the Resort here in Mamallapuram. We are so thankful for that. It felt so much more comfortable to know that our driver knew where he was going and we could leave the worry to him.

But it was raining and there was construction on the road we took to get out of Chennai - it took a half hour just to get away from the incredible traffic tie up - here it was, 10:00 pm and from the airport we had a half four of four-lane, bumper to bumper traffic. Incredible. And it was another hour in pouring rain to Mammalla.. When we arrived the rain was coming down even harder and we were shown to our room by flashlight since there was no power. The kind guys who led us there did light a candle for us, and got us a bunch of the sweetest small bananas and two bottles of water to slake our hunger and thirst.

The beds were a little clammy too, but we managed to fall asleep, to be awakened about 3 am by the most incredibly noisy thunder and brilliant lightning. If it's true that you count seconds between lightning and thunder to find out how many miles away the storm is, we were in the midst of it, because they were nearly simultaneous. It didn't last too long though, and we did get back to sleep, even if we were awakened again when the power came on with all the lights that had been left with the switches in the on position.

This morning we discovered from the paper that this unseasonable weather (monsoon weather) has caused much grief in the state of Tamil Nadhu. Thousands of hectares of ready-to-be-harvested crops are underwater, hundreds of homes have flooded and many people in the state are without a place to live - a little Hurricane Katrina-like since they have been placed in schools and gymnasiums to wait out the relief efforts. We are fine, there is little concern here although we did pass by a house today in an alley that had indeed been flooded, as we were making our way to the ruins of Mamma... We had to backtrack at one point because we couldn't wade the street of water without getting our feet soaked. It must be very difficult for the people of the state although it does sound like relief efforts are taking place. By the way, this area was also damaged by the 2004 tsunami with much loss of life, so I'm sure they don't need more trouble.

The reason for our trek through the partially flooded streets under the midday sun, was to see the ruins of some fine sculpted temples here in Mamma... This is a world heritage site and with good reason. Check out the pictures on this website to get a good idea of what we have seen or will see tomorrow when we go off again.

The first site is called the Shore Temples and I would have great pictures if my batteries had not decided to die after I took two photos. And it was a one time visit only ticket of course which cost 250 rupees for foreigners like us. You can content yourselves with knowing that someone has already done the work of recording the sites in the website I mentioned and I don't have to spend ages uploading photos for you. (I must do this more often, really - I know you don't get to see pictures of the two of us that way, but you at least get the flavour of the place.) I did buy new batteries to continue on to the second site included in our day ticket, so I do have good photos of that area.

The giant elephant was my favourite carving. From what we can gather, these monuments were carved from the living rock, so have not been moved here (which would have been a monumental task in itself.) So that fine elephant used to be just a boulder and the huge temples were other even bigger boulders. These carvings were carved sometime in the 600 to 700 AD period I think, so the work must have been a long time in the making.

The whole area is still alive with stone carvers although now they are more aimed at the tourist trade. There are still some big carvings done of course, including a wondeful hippopotamus we saw at one shop that must weigh half a ton - we decided it would not fit in the back pack to be brought back to delight our hippo loving friend Midge in Kamloops - she'll have to be content with the photo when its downloaded to send to her.

We are staying in Mamma.. for a week - we will explore more of the carved ruins tomorrow and maybe I'll be able to post a picture or two later. Again, these old fashioned computers have the USB ports at the back. I may do a little searching to see if I can find another place where they are more up to date. The speed is fine though so I'm not complaining.

What we won't be doing much of it I think, is walking along the beach or swimming in the Indian sea. The waves are quite rough for one thing and the beach leaves a lot to be desired in the cleanliness category. What a wonderful world it would be if someone had not invented the plastic bag or any other disposable plastic object. The beach is littered with the stuff and we imagine it comes from garbage being tossed or even deliberately disposed of into the sea. It makes one feel the need to begin ta campaign to eliminate the plastic bag. I think we should do our part here and refuse any bag we are offered. It's easy enough and I've certainly done it, but here it is brought home with such force, that it becomes essential to be part of the solution.

Nuff for now, I'm climbing down off my podium and finishing off this message. Christmas is a-coming, and no doubt many of you will be enjoying your Christmas turkey soon. We'll miss it, which is always one of the saddest things for me about our being away at this time of year - so we must remember to have a nice Christmas feast when we get back in March. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, turnip, gravy, Christmas pud with my mother's recipe, oh my, I'm missing it.