Excursion to Mamallapuram

On the Saturday before school started we went with the volunteers to visit the little seaside town of Mamallapuram, on the Coromandel coast. This area has huge granite outcroppings and is famous for its stone carving. They have protected a large area as a sort of park and people come from all over to visit. This is a photo of an interesting formation called "Krishna's Butterball."


There are several ancient temples and yoga contemplation caves carved right into the rock, usually with Hindu deities or figures from Indian legend.


This lighthouse looks out over the Bay of Bengal. As I took this photo I was surrounded by goats and monkeys that live in the area. I set my water bottle down and one of the monkeys grabbed it and took off with it. He dropped it against a rock which caused a small split in the bottle. The monkey promptly turned the bottle up on its bottom and drank the water as it poured out of the split. No wonder Darwin thinks we're related. Summer, this lighthouse is for you.


We made our way down a street lined with little shops selling clothing, jewelry, rugs and tapestries, and stone carvings. The volunteers had fun bargaining for purchases of Indian clothes and jewelry, and I dusted off my old haggling expertise honed in Silk Alley and the pearl markets of China to give them a little help. Vickie made a few small purchases, but we are waiting for awhile to decide what we really want for souvenirs.

The shopping street leads right down to the sea shore. The locals have long boats similar to the ones in Thailand for hire, and I also saw fishing nets in some of them. The surf was refreshing and everyone enjoyed cooling their feet. This photo shows two temples on a jutting point of land behind Vickie. She purchased the embroidered bag for about half the price the man originally wanted and it has been handy for lugging her stuff around.

Returning to the school's residential hostels can be traumatic for the younger children after spending six weeks home in the colonies with their parents. The older kids generally seem to enjoy being at school--it's like a year-long summer camp, I suppose. But brand new preschoolers are a little more skeptical. This beautiful little one felt right at home with Vickie Auntie. Our next blog will detail the beginning of school and scenes from a typical day. Feel free to comment below; we would love to know your thoughts.