Mamallapuram

English - We Landed in Chennai at about 9am on the 5th of Feb and decided to make our way straight to a place called Mamallapuram about 80km South. We didn't really want to head into a big city and are quite comfortably with the quiet life for now. However, quiet India is not! From the moment we left the airport our senses were overloaded, everywhere you look there is something that puzzles you or is quite simply unique - for example have you ever seen a bicycle puncture repair assembly line? Well we have! Robin told us about these and they are everywhere, someone finds the hole, someone has the glue, someone the patch and finally someone putting it all back together again in the most efficient manor like a well oiled machine. I am sure we will get use to all the sights and smells after a month or so but in one way I don't want to. It makes the day pass like anything, there is so much to take in at one time that it is impossible. Back to our travels. We are now in a place called Mamallapuram which is famous for its Rock temples dating back 3000 years and tradition of sculpturing. The town wakes every morning to the sound of chisel against rock, wood or even cement. There are sculpture shops everywhere and temples for that matter which we have seen many. The buses in India are much like those in Sri Lanka, you have to be clinically insane to drive one, know where the horn is and a driving license is strictly optional. In order to get a seat you have to throw something through a window onto a seat when it stops and all manor of goods can be purchased on one. Since arriving here we have also undertaken some day drips. The first was to a Crocodile farm and a place where they make snake anti venom, of course for this they need lots of snakes! The Crocodile farm was a bit over crowded with Crocodiles, not tourists but very educational all the same. 16 of the worlds 20 something crocodiles can be found here and some are re-introduced back into the wild. We got to feed them and I held a small one who was a lot stronger than he looked! Klarka was very apprehensious about going but didn't get much choice in the matter, but after a couple of hours enjoyed it too. The snake place was also educational, out of the 4 kinds of snake there, 3 will kill you within 4 hours and 1 in 2 days without anti-venom - the keepers were very keen to show off their 2 bites each...nutters!!! Today we visited the Vedantangal bird Sanctuary, home to 30,000 breeding cormorants, egrets, herons, ibis, spoon-bills and pelicans. While we were there a monkey even tried to steal my ruck-sack which we got on video. The food here is also pretty dam good. As everyone knows I love chilies!!! At home I could get away with 2-3 curries a week. Here I eat curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner without any cutlery and that is normal!!! I like it although Klarka is taking some persuading. The other thing that has caught my attention is that everything must be carried on your head here, water, rice, shopping, chair and even TV's. It is not un-common to see up to 5 family members on one motorbike without protective clothing and in my opinion cows should definitely have road tax with the amount of time they spend on it. Hope you enjoy the photos and we look forward to updating you all next time.

Alex aka Steve Irwin

Alex at Tiger Caves

Arjuna's penance

bird Sanctuary

Chengalpattu bus station

Cobra

Croc lunch time

Crocs at Croc farm

Five Rathas 1

Five Rathas 2

Goat

Head Carry

Help, this is heavy

Klarka and Czech freinds

Klarka at Tiger caves

Klarka Mamallapuram

look out post (natural)

Monkey stole water

Rock temple

Sculpture Colledge

Sculptures

Shore temple

steal bag

Street outside hotel

Sun rise 7am

Woman hearding goats

Woman in rice field