Day 616 - Mamallapuram's monuments

Compared to the touristy towns we've been to over the last month, Mamallapuram is a nice mixture of some tourists and lots of locals - often it's been the other way around with more white faces than Indian! Here the streets are lined with men chiseling stones into masterpieces - inspired by the huge stone temples and carving scattered around town. The other main presence are the nylon nets being repaired by the weather beaten hands of fishermen preparing for their next catch.

After brekky we followed Peter the leader into Talasayana Perunai a small temple where for a revitalising change we were charged the Indian price of 1 rupee for entrance. It was such a peaceful place with Brahmins and priests giving blessings as we wandered around the place as the only tourists there.

From here we went to a beautiful park full of small temples carved out of huge rocks and hidden amongst the trees. As Adam held up "Krishna's Butterball", some teenagers on a school trip came rushing to join in the photos and fun - the boys (Adam included!) then proceeded to skid down a slippery section of the rocky playground. We were on our way out, convinced we'd seen everything (even the ocean from a high temple), but came across many more temples hidden from view.

Afterwards we went to have a look at the Shore Temple but the ticket was more than we could afford, and we'd had an awesome view of it from the beach yesterday. With the day so hot we decided to retreat to a seaside cafe for drinks and fresh seafood caught that morning, before doing some last minute shopping as we are sleeping in the airport tonight for our flight to Sri Lanka tomorrow!!!

Adlibing carvings.