Sterling Mahabalipuram Kanchipuram

... by the<br>authorities, it remains a treasure house<br>of art, architecture and sculpture,<br>equalling the best of Dravidian heritage<br>monuments.<br><br><br><br>T he elderly and most erudite priest,<br>willingly provides interesting<br>information about the temple. Thanks to<br>him, we looked for and found, the<br>remnants of the damaged frescoes in the<br>meditation cells that line the inner<br>walls of the complex ...

... midday heat. I walked in the unbelievably quiet roads and was amazed at the monkeys, which run around in groups. They might come town at that time to look for food. <br><br>So I went to the Kamakshi temple, one of the smaller temples, after having read about lots of scam at the big temples where tourists will be charged for every little thing....I try to avoid that because it will spoil the experience and I know in Madurai I will not be able ...

... gemacht, zuerst einmal an einem einfachen Stand guenstig 'watt frittiertes' gefruehstueckt und einen Tee fuer 6 Rupees getrunken. Dann haben wir uns ein bisschen den Strand angesehen, der jetzt nicht unbedingt eine Sensation ist (und auch Indien-Like ziemlich zugemuellt ist), aber dafuer kann man hier die Inder beim schwimmern in voller Montur beobachten (teilweise in Stoffhose und Hemd!!), oder die Fischer bei ihrer Arbeit. Der Strand wurde 2004 auch vom Tsunami getroffen und ...

India will sweep you off your feet..either you land soft or hard aka you love it or hate it. We are absolute lovers and still can't get over that first wow-feeling. We admit that we were nervous before getting here having heard so many crazy stories....but the craziness is what makes it so charming. When we arrived we experienced our first Indian head-wobble by the immigration guy and it ...

... was one room with a small tv in it. They laid out straw mats for us and we sat down and our guide translated for us as we talked to his wife. Both the mothers were very shy, but seemed happy to have us there. The room where they all sleep,(husband, wife, mother in law, and three children), was smaller then my bedroom at home. They sleep on straw mats on the concrete floor. This was very surprising to my friends and I, as we knew they were part of the top caste. We ...

... town, and I think it's pretty much universal law that beach towns are just laid-back, awesome places to be. There was also a lot of local art in the area, the area is especially known for stone carvings. Excellent food, I had my first seafood since being here. Ooh and there were cows on the beach, there are cows everywhere! Although in general there were a lot more tourists in Mahaballipurum than Mysore, we still got asked to have our pictures taken ...

... a room of mattresses with hundreds of sarees (traditional dress for indian women) and shawls. Then salespeople start unfolding and showing each client dozens of different items on the mattresses. It's interesting to see the way people here shop. They like to have things shown to them unlike westerners who mostly like to be left alone while they shop. What I'm trying to say is, it's really hard to shop here because salespeople are constantly "all up in your business."

... in the river below. Passing by small villages, children run alongside the train waving frantically, the women looking up from doing their laundry, the men pausing in their chores, watching as we quickly move along, so as not to intrude and overstay our welcome. The train is anything but anti-social and often my fellow Indian travelers are quick to engage in conversation as well as the posing of the general stream of questions: where are you from?where are you ...

It took some commitment to make us move from Kerela, but we thought we should try to squeeze one more place in before our flight home. We caught an overnight train to Madurai on the western coast in the state of Tamil Nadu, where we had to change to get our final train. The plan was that we would have a few hours here, enough time to dump our bags and have a wander around the Sri Meenakshi Temple, a Hindu temple from the 16th Century. Unfortunately, the train timetable ...