Mammalapuram

November 22
Mammalapuram - a beach town on the eastern coast of India. A small population and sandy streets. I didn't know really what to expect, and a change of scenary is welcomed. As we rode the local bus from Chennai central bus station to Mammalapuram, only about 60 km south of Chennai, we started to see palm trees and soon, the ocean. Oh, what a sight, seeing and feeling the sea. India is such a vast country, with soo many different parts to it, each with it's own culture, smell, and beauties.

First I found a place to stay, as I wanted to spend a few days by the beach. Found a place that was a little off my budget at 400rs a night. Not the best deal, but I decided to stay there a few nights, three, as it was close to the beach. But the beach, as it proved was quite dirty, with loads of garbage washed ashore, and a lot of other dirt elsewhere. So not the best place to swim. This town is known for the stone temples, and we did a day tour of it. As which seems to be a growing trend, tourist are charged ten to twenty times more for visiting touristic sites - they say it's for maintanence - sure it is. Having paid 250 rs to see all the stone temples in this area, we set off to see what they had to show. After observing them, we found the rock carvings in the park (which is free for anyone) had the best things to see, and it had the greatest value for the money - free haha. The blanced huge rock boulder "the butterball" was a sight to see. As dawn approached, my friend headed back to Chennai and I stayed, gearing up for a few days on the beach.