Boats going out to sea early morning…

Sunrise at Mahabalipuram

So a friend and I drove off to Mahabalipuram last weekend. It was a nice scenic drive via NH4. We started off at 5 am in the morning (after sleeping at midnight, such good children we are). It took us about 7 hours and with Shibs’ awesome display of the Tamil language in Chennai we found ourselves cruising on the scenic ECR.

Mahabs was hot and humid but still not totally unbearable. We got ourselves a nice room with a view. Mostly we lazed, ate (a lot of bread and cheese!), read and gazed at the sea and were most reluctant to return. On Sunday morning, we paid a visit to Mahabalipuram’s most famous monument – the Shore Temple. Shibs had last been there when she was much younger and couldn’t believe there was one temple (there were definitely more of them, she kept saying!).

On the way back we dropped in at this place called Dakshin Chitra – an artisan’s village and there was some nice handiwork of craftsmen from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. We also got a glimpse of a Theyam performance in the premises. If you’re on that road, this is a nice place to spend a few hours. If you like Indian handicrafts, jewellery etc. it might also put you back a few thousand rupees as I discovered.

I bought 3 sarees for reasons I have not been able to figure out yet thus proving that women are indeed mysterious creatures. Then by some stroke of chance (and asking a few people for directions), we got onto the highway again around 5 pm and made our way back. Of course, we didn’ t realize which highway we were on until we had paid toll at 4 toll booths (now that ‘s a heavy toll!) and then realized that this was definitely not the way we had come. This was NH7, the super express highway. But it was a good chance to get onto it since it got us back home by around 9.45 pm.

Sigh. Another weekend gone…

The trip pictures