Animals and Enlightened Shopping

Enlightened Shopping

We left our hotel and headed out to see more of the sites of Mamallapuram. This area is covered with ancient temples to the many Hindu Gods. Some of the temples are still in use to this day. The people of those days were mainly illiterate and the stories of the gods were carved in stone. They could read the carvings and understand the significance. The temples are amazing, most cut from a single giant granite hillside.

The entire area is essentially flat land with granite outcroppings that were carved. We saw rice fields and the harvesting of salt from the sea by evaporation. Even though it is Feb. the temperature is very hot and humid. We drink an amazing amount of water! We are drenched to the skin when we are out side of our bus.

We have always read about the red earth of India. It truly is red. The other thing that we have always heard is about the smells of the food. We have never been anywhere where the air was so fragrant with cooking. It is an incredible experience to smell the tandoori cooking and the other flavors wafting everywhere.

The animals are another thing. As you pass through the villages ox-carts are everywhere. Goats roam the streets and are extremely cute. If it wasn’t for the fear of cayotes we would get a goat or two for our backyard! They are adorable. I don’t know if they are a different breed of goats from what we have previously seen but these are definitely cute. They roam everywhere and you can walk up to them and pet them at will.

We went to an Ashram of Sri Aurobindo. We know nothing about him but he sure has a following. We will find out more latter. They did however have a great gift shop!

We then drove on to Pondicherry. We are travelling South (it gets warmer and warmer) along the eastern side of India. We are travelling next to the Bay of Bengal. The road is a two lane road which is traveled but huge trucks, busses, Ox-carts, Tuk-Tuks (called Auto-rickshaws in india),motorbikes, bicycles, horse drawn vehicles, and people walking. Everyone is driving like mad and honking all of the time. You travel through what appears to be the poorest villages you can imagine. Yet the people appear to be happy. We will probably never understand!

Our destination is Pondicherry. This amazes us. Everyone knows about the Brits and India. Well Pondicherry was a French city rules by France until 1957 when the Indians finally took it over. Think of a New Orleans. All of the streets are named Rue this and Rue that (with French names) and the buildings along the sea are in a French style. In fact, we were approached by an auto-rickshaw driver who was Indian and asked in French if we wanted a ride. Our Hotel overlooks the sea. We went to a temple for devotes of Ganesh. Ganesh is the portrayed as an elephant and the Temple had a live one outside! The promenade by the sea is swarming with thousands of Indians trying to get the cool water breeze and they walk up and down its length It is like a carnival. We ate dinner outside on the roof of the hotel watching the people by the sea. We did NOT expect this delightful experience.