Feel the heat

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  Mamallapuram, India
Monday, January 28, 2008

So here we are, what was supposed to be the last leg of our trip - although that isn't the case anymore after our Visa complications - in the sweltering heat of India! We left the cold and damp of Hanoi with a strange sense that we were going home, however, after our stop off at Kuala Lumpur (surely one of the nicest airports in the world) and boarding the plane to Chennai, we were reminded that we weren't heading back to the big smoke, but onwards to the land of masalas and chipatis. The plane ride was like a three hour stint in kindergarten, filled with rawkous Indian men, who's attention was held mainly by the female air stewards, with constant staring and covert (although not all that covert) picture taking. We took this as a small introduction to the way of life we'd be experiencing over the next 6 1/2 weeks.

After landing late in Chennai (Madras) we found a cash point, which brought us our 6th curreny conversion rate to deal with, at least this time without the obligatory 000's, and another trip back to primary school to try and remember our 7 times tables. After a hectic taxi ride in the brilliant Ambassador taxi, we plotted down in Paraside Hotel down the back streets of Chennai, which didn't really resemble paradise, but did have the most friendly porter in the world who made us feel at home before we drifted off to sleep as it was around 2:30am Vietnam time.

After a short walk to the local shopping plaza the next day and Shell's first trip to a Subway for a aloo patty sub (yes, our first meal in India was a Subway sandwich - softly, softly, catchy monkey, or Delhi belly as will probably be the case) we decided that we'd had enough of city life after the last few weeks and would head down the coast to the beach resort of Mamallapuram, a town renound for it's stone carving. Not quite ready to brave the public buses, we hired a taxi to get us down, which on reflection was the best thing we could have done. We passed numerous packed buses on the way, and found Mamallapuram mobbed by local visitors, as it was a public holiday and the last day of a dance festival held here every year. Thankfully the taxi driver had a 'friend' with rooms available, and as we were born yesterday, we agreed to take it without looking around.

We've spent the last couple of days seeing the sights of Mamallapuram (or Great Warrior Town), which consist of a 1400 year old shore temple, and a park area with huge bas reliefs carved in to the rocks and a huge gravity defying rock called Krishna's Butter Ball (there'll be pictures on Facebook) and some other huge monolith temple structures carved out of single mounds of rocks.

First impressions of India are brilliant. The people are amazingly friendly, and we've been stopped loads of times by people just wanting to say hello and shake our hands. It takes a bit of getting used to at first, as does the staring. Shell, being the beautiful, blonde, blue eyed girl that she is, draws a lot of male interest, which includes general staring and the odd covert picture being taken by adolescent men (and men who should be old enough to know better.) Although so far, I'm doing a pretty good job of jumping infront of the camera and pulling stupid faces, which is a perk as far as I'm concerned :)

The climate is very different to what we've been used to in Vietnam for the past two weeks, reaching about 35 degrees in the midday sun, which we always seem to be trapsing about in. Although it's nice being by the sea as the breeze makes a big difference.

And last but not least, the food. After an amazingly dissapointing curry on the first day here in Nautilous (I'm sure it does great western food, but it was the most bland curry I've ever tasted) we've had some great dhal's, aloo gobi masala's, biriyani's, chipati's... the list goes on even after just 4 days :) We're back to our $30 dollar a day budget each including all accommodation, food and transport, and things aren't as cheap as we'd expected, but last night we treated ourselves with two of the biggest prawns we'd ever seen for about $11. They were about the size of a lobster, and absolutely delicious. Some of the best food we've had, and it's at The New Cafe within our hotel complex, so nice and close to roll home after stuffing our faces with some great Indian food (and not so much booze from now on, it's about $3 a bottle, so no more than one a night!)

Tomorrow we're going to try and head to Pondicherry, a French-Indian settlement just south of here, were we've heard there's some of the best food in southern India... we shall see about that :). Hope this finds you all well.

Hope you have a great birthday Dominic, hope you have fun, lots of love.
Peeps and Shell
xxx

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