Chennai

After a few days acclimatizing in Bangalore (and meeting a few Infosys interns), D, K, M, and I flew to Chennai (formerly known as Madras) for the first big stop on our tour of India. I had travelled to Pondicherry - also on the Tamil Nadu coast, in the South-East of the country - but didn't know quite what to expect from this city.

After getting settled in the hotel, we braved the heat and humidity to see some of the sights in town. The deep religious connection of the people here showed through the many temples and churches we came across, the most promienent being Kapaleeswarar Temple and San Thome Cathedral. At the temple, we were lucky to observe to begining of the evening's ritual (broadcast via loudspeakers for those pilgrims too far from the action to hear well), while the church held a bone that once belonged to the apostle, St. Thomas. We also visited the beach - all hailing from California, none of us was used to the sun setting away from the water.

The second day, we took a day trip about two hours South to the ruins of Mahabalipuram. There, we explored 7th century temples and what our guide claimed to be the largest outdoor relief sculpture in the world. Krishna's Butterball is a boulder (see photo below) so massive that a team of seven elephants was supposedly unable to more it from its precarious perch. My luck was no better, but I had to try. The Shore temple was especially interesting. Aside from the fascinating architecture, the tsunami of 2004 revealed six more temples nearby that had been covered by the sea.

The almost complete lack of other tourists made for a quite enjoyable day. And we got some shopping in at the handicrafts store nearby.

On the way back, we stopped at the crocodile park and got to watch the attendents milking cobras for their venom. Not generally a fan of the slithering set, I enjoyed seeing the different kinds of snakes and crocodiles (such big teeth you have!).

Next, we're moving North and West to Mumbai.