day trip to mamallapuram

Mahabalipuram is just an hour's drive from home, but i was surprised that we had not gone there more often. It is a pleasant drive along east coast road and not many bottlenecks in traffic. With friends for company this time, one hour actually just whizzed past.

I remembered an earlier occasion when we had gone there in the morning and had difficult time locating a place to have lunch. I think it was a sunday and peak holiday season. We had to come half way to chennai to finally land a good vegetarian restaurant.

I was wiser this time, so planned for a trip after lunch. The weather was mild and near the shore temple we just could not keep our dupattas in place.Suddenly the wind used to drop and it was surprising to be in and out of heavy bouts of breeze, as if somebody was switching it on and off.The climb up the entire range of rocks in and around light house proved to be exciting. We discovered new rock temples of mahishasuramardini where mahendra varma pallava used to pray. After a while we had truly lost our way and asked one of the men who was overseeing the cleanliness of the winding pathways. He pointed to both the directions of the pathway and said we could go either way, we would reach the main road. He really believed that the earth is round! We trudged a long distance before our driver spotted us and waved frantically to catch our attention. But then as it turned out, this unexpected trekking was the best part of the trip.Paul coelho would greatly approve of going out of the comfort of the tried and trusted path and attempting something totally different.

There are lots of shops selling figurines, handicraft items and souveneirs. Somehow bags of varied shapes, sizes and textures seemed to catch our attention. I guess one cant go wrong with bags as a gift item.We zoomed in on a shop selling brass/brone stautes and my friend found the ganpathi idol sitting and swinging comfortably in a jhoola.She was particularly looking for such a piece she said and closed the deal.Her bag was weighing two and a half kilos more as a result of this purchase!

The crowd was just right without being intrusive and uncomfortable. Yes one noticed a distinct lack of 'foreigners' this time.The shop keepers were lamenting thin tourist arrivals after the mumbai terror attack. In a week's time the annual dance festival and peak tourist season will start.

I plan to be there with a different crowd