Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry

The kids had a few days off school for dussehra, so after changing our minds a few times about where to go we finally settled on Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry, a couple of places that we had been wanting to see. We told some friends of ours about the trip and they asked if they could tag along--of course!

We got stopped on our way to the airport by a herd of goats.

We flew into Chennai (sometime we'll have to actually see Chennai), spent the night, and then started our drive south in our mini bus. Our first stop was Madras Crocodile Bank--it should go without saying that Brandon was pretty excited about this stop! 

And first thing to see? Snake milking! This was so cool!  Hundreds of clay pots full of snakes, taking them out one-by-one to be milked. And we didn't even notice the cobra just chilling in front of the milking until they pointed him out. 

Then we saw the rest of the animals, but mostly it was masses and masses of crocodiles.

On our way to the hotel, we stopped at an 8th century temple complex, the Tiger Cave. It gave us a taste of what Mahabalipuram would be like.

The Tiger Cave!

We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and changed into swimsuits to play on the beach.

Kiddo found a crab and I basically watched it the entire time we were there.

Isn't this video he took cool?

And then it was off to find dinner. We had an idea of where to eat, but on our way there we opted to just stop at some place that caught our eye because--hello!--Franco-Indian food! It had a great view of the town and the dusserha festivities.

The next morning we went to Mahabalipuram. The carvings were so cool!

Then we drove to another location to see......even more ruins! And these were even cooler!

We drove to another location, but we had barely reached the ruins when the heavens opened and it began to pour. All the Indian tourists rushed into the temple ruin, but it was too crowded for us to join; we found some shelter under a tree, but it soon became clear that that wasn't going to cut it.  We ran back to the bus, and decided to cut our losses and went to lunch.

The rain stopped while we were eating and we had dried out a bit, so we stopped at one more spot before calling it a day. (Do all of these places we saw have names? Yes. Do I remember the names? No.)

Then we made the drive down to Pundicherry to spend the night.

Pretty views on the drive!

The kids loved having a personal pool along with our room.

Our hotel also had lovely mosaics at the car pull-through:

The next morning we drove into Pondicherry for a tour of the French Quarter. It was fun to see some of the architecture from back in the day.

We started with a tour of a Hindu temple; we've been inside several Hindu temples before, but never with a guide to explain all the gods to us. There was also an elephant out front taking cash offerings--it would take the offering in its trunk, hand it to its master, raise its trunk at whoever gave the money. If anyone tried to touch the elephant it's owner would yell at them. Poor elephant.

That pink scar on the elephant's back leg is from being chained up.

We went to the Pondicherry Museum, which was only ok, and then headed to the beachfront to look at the Ghandi  and WWI monuments.

We stopped into a couple of Catholic churches . . .

. . . and then to an old French estate that is now being used to teach and employ women to do cross embroidery.

And then it was a bit of a struggle to try and find a place to eat lunch. After going to a few places that didn't have any tables available, I'm pretty sure our guide pulled some strings to get us one quickly. But while we were wandering, we passed this colorful street that has two trees growing as an X across the road.

After lunch we were all ready for a break and headed back to the hotel. After swimming in the pool, we still had some time so we took a walk along the nearby beach.

Public beach

Private beach

And then we headed back into town again to search for dinner. We had decided on a bakery that we had read great things about, but the crowds were intense. Some of us were able to snatch tables when people left while the others stood in line and tried to take our orders. After about ten minutes of this, we realized it was just too crazy. Brandon picked a place nearby that he found online and we walked the few blocks to our new destination. So much better! Delicious good and, aside from one other table, we had the place to ourselves. We didn't realize until we were walking back to meet our bus that we had been on the 'X trees' street that we had seen earlier.

The next morning, we got on our bus to go to the airport and back home. Mahabalipuram and Pondicherry were so fun to explore and learn more about. India continues to surprise and impress.