IndiaClaire2006

An archive of stories and photos from our family trip to South India.

Name:
Location: Seattle

20060210

Mahabalipuram

We're spending four days in Mahabalipuram, just down the coast from Chennai, to reset our body clocks to India Standard Time. This little town has served us well, a perfect place to alternate swimming in the Sea Breeze Hotel pool with taking little walks down the street to poke in the handicraft shops and bargain for earrings and trinkets of various kinds.

Mornings we walk the beach and admire the 1400 year old carved stone temple silhouetted at the end of the beach, and fishing boats coming and going. Today we found a dead turtle washed up, and we have been collecting some fabulous shells.

Just up the road there is a very large ancient temple complex, and we spent a whole morning exploring it. A whole complex, with rooms and friezes carved right into the rocks and ornately decorated with Hindu gods. From the top you have a broad panoramic view of the entire region, and when you reach the end of the complex you are at Krishna's Butterball, a large boulder perched on the hill in a seemingly gravity-defying way.