June 23, 2007
On the way to Mahaballipuram we stopped by a crocodile conservatory, which breeds endangered crocs from around the world and then sends many back to their native countries for release or educational purposes. We got to hold a snake and a baby croc, which was a lot of fun.
We arrived in Mahaballipuram and inspected our first hotel which turned out to be very nice and still reasonable cost. It was only about ½ mile from the ocean. After checking in we walked out to the beach and enjoyed about 5 minutes of peace before we attracted every vendor on the place from horse-rides to coconut sellers to fortune tellers. The last, a woman who kept insisting she read my palm, would not be driven off with kind words or even impatient ones. Finally we just ignored her and hoped she went away. She did. After my father in law headed home, we walked down the beach again and watched the sun set. There was an ominous sign warning of a tidal pull and listing the number of drownings per year at this beach. So far this year it’s been 11 people. There were other signs saying not to swim. In spite of the warnings everywhere, a large group of German tourists were out swimming in the water.
We had dinner and went back to our room and I got the girls and I ready for a shower. There was no hot water. I called and they sent three men to fix it. An hour and a half later, after much tinkering and banging on the pipes, flushing the toilet, etc, they left. Instead of cold water coming out of the hot tap, we now had no water coming out of it. I called them back and two more men came back and worked for another twenty minutes and left. We now had hot water, but if I turned on the shower it was very temperamental and would without warning switch from ice cold to scalding hot water and back again. We all survived.
This morning we had room service breakfast, waited for my father in law to come back (he didn’t want to stay the night and preferred to drive), and he took us around to see the sights. Since my last visit 9 years ago the place was totally developed. Nine years ago we could just drive up to the monuments and go see them. Now they had this expansive lawn and an entry fee in front of the shore temple, and a well manicured walkway between the other monuments further down. Somehow it took away from the experience of just walking up and seeing it as it existed in nature. Now they all look like tourist attractions and it really took away from the character of them. On the other hand, the guards and fences probably served to protect them better from vandals. My father in law tried to buy the 10 rupee tickets for Indian citizens but they really, really doubted I was from India and he was sent back to buy the 250 rupee ticket for me.
The Shore Temple was built in the 6th century AD by a certain King but the site goes back even more. They have found ancient Roman coins and even older shards of pottery. The shore temple has many details which have been lost over time by the sea and wind. It was initially mostly buried in the sea but was recovered and is now protected behind a stone and tree barrier as best it can be. Still, it seems only a shadow of what it once was. Vandals had dessicrated parts of it including a beautiful black lingam in the main sanctum. I had been able to enter and photograph these on my first trip but now they are gated and locked. I found some ancient red brick parts of buildings that had been excavated since last time, still covered with shells and barnacles. I was told that this is one of seven temples, the others are still buried in the sea and only visible by scuba divers and satellite technology. It reminds me a little of the story of Atlantis.
The other sites area also made of carved granite. Some were functional temples while others were just practice for the carvers. One was an ancient lighthouse, which still stood in the shadows of a more modern version built by the British and still in use today. Some of the temples were used for a long time but are not used anymore, their deities either moved or destroyed by invading people. Most of the wall carvings survived, but one temple showed shadows where the carved figures used to be. As we came out onto road we passed “Arjuna’s Penance”, the life-sized elephants dwarfed by the hundreds of figures. A tour guide near me was explaining that these carvings were so important in temples and outside of temples to help pass down traditional stories to the next generations. Even though the whole place was very touristy, I still couldn’t help but to imagine what it would have been like to grow up in that community of stone carvers near the sea, to worship at the Shore Temple or these smaller cave temples, to see the ancient lighthouse working.
On the way home we drove near the shoreline for awhile and I was looking at the houses and other buildings near the sea, and thinking about the tsunami that touched those shores. There were a few abandoned houses but most were bustling with life. I saw only one sign of lost life: a large grid of concrete foundations where there used to be the thatched huts of fishermen and their families. Surely they were all washed out to sea that horrible day. At the hotel they had a piece of driftwood set up as a bench, wood that the flood had brought in to the hotel campus. I asked there if the wave hit the hotel and they said it came all the way to the parking lot but did not touch the buildings. The Shore Temple, which was right next to our hotel and very close to the water’s edge, was covered by the wave. But that same wave that took so many lives also uncovered even more of the temple complex that had been hidden for so many centuries.
Many more photos and two video clips here : (Album Mahaballipuram ) http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa115/abiramineha/Mahaballipuram/
On the way to Mahaballipuram we stopped by a crocodile conservatory, which breeds endangered crocs from around the world and then sends many back to their native countries for release or educational purposes. We got to hold a snake and a baby croc, which was a lot of fun.
We arrived in Mahaballipuram and inspected our first hotel which turned out to be very nice and still reasonable cost. It was only about ½ mile from the ocean. After checking in we walked out to the beach and enjoyed about 5 minutes of peace before we attracted every vendor on the place from horse-rides to coconut sellers to fortune tellers. The last, a woman who kept insisting she read my palm, would not be driven off with kind words or even impatient ones. Finally we just ignored her and hoped she went away. She did. After my father in law headed home, we walked down the beach again and watched the sun set. There was an ominous sign warning of a tidal pull and listing the number of drownings per year at this beach. So far this year it’s been 11 people. There were other signs saying not to swim. In spite of the warnings everywhere, a large group of German tourists were out swimming in the water.
We had dinner and went back to our room and I got the girls and I ready for a shower. There was no hot water. I called and they sent three men to fix it. An hour and a half later, after much tinkering and banging on the pipes, flushing the toilet, etc, they left. Instead of cold water coming out of the hot tap, we now had no water coming out of it. I called them back and two more men came back and worked for another twenty minutes and left. We now had hot water, but if I turned on the shower it was very temperamental and would without warning switch from ice cold to scalding hot water and back again. We all survived.
This morning we had room service breakfast, waited for my father in law to come back (he didn’t want to stay the night and preferred to drive), and he took us around to see the sights. Since my last visit 9 years ago the place was totally developed. Nine years ago we could just drive up to the monuments and go see them. Now they had this expansive lawn and an entry fee in front of the shore temple, and a well manicured walkway between the other monuments further down. Somehow it took away from the experience of just walking up and seeing it as it existed in nature. Now they all look like tourist attractions and it really took away from the character of them. On the other hand, the guards and fences probably served to protect them better from vandals. My father in law tried to buy the 10 rupee tickets for Indian citizens but they really, really doubted I was from India and he was sent back to buy the 250 rupee ticket for me.
The Shore Temple was built in the 6th century AD by a certain King but the site goes back even more. They have found ancient Roman coins and even older shards of pottery. The shore temple has many details which have been lost over time by the sea and wind. It was initially mostly buried in the sea but was recovered and is now protected behind a stone and tree barrier as best it can be. Still, it seems only a shadow of what it once was. Vandals had dessicrated parts of it including a beautiful black lingam in the main sanctum. I had been able to enter and photograph these on my first trip but now they are gated and locked. I found some ancient red brick parts of buildings that had been excavated since last time, still covered with shells and barnacles. I was told that this is one of seven temples, the others are still buried in the sea and only visible by scuba divers and satellite technology. It reminds me a little of the story of Atlantis.
The other sites area also made of carved granite. Some were functional temples while others were just practice for the carvers. One was an ancient lighthouse, which still stood in the shadows of a more modern version built by the British and still in use today. Some of the temples were used for a long time but are not used anymore, their deities either moved or destroyed by invading people. Most of the wall carvings survived, but one temple showed shadows where the carved figures used to be. As we came out onto road we passed “Arjuna’s Penance”, the life-sized elephants dwarfed by the hundreds of figures. A tour guide near me was explaining that these carvings were so important in temples and outside of temples to help pass down traditional stories to the next generations. Even though the whole place was very touristy, I still couldn’t help but to imagine what it would have been like to grow up in that community of stone carvers near the sea, to worship at the Shore Temple or these smaller cave temples, to see the ancient lighthouse working.
On the way home we drove near the shoreline for awhile and I was looking at the houses and other buildings near the sea, and thinking about the tsunami that touched those shores. There were a few abandoned houses but most were bustling with life. I saw only one sign of lost life: a large grid of concrete foundations where there used to be the thatched huts of fishermen and their families. Surely they were all washed out to sea that horrible day. At the hotel they had a piece of driftwood set up as a bench, wood that the flood had brought in to the hotel campus. I asked there if the wave hit the hotel and they said it came all the way to the parking lot but did not touch the buildings. The Shore Temple, which was right next to our hotel and very close to the water’s edge, was covered by the wave. But that same wave that took so many lives also uncovered even more of the temple complex that had been hidden for so many centuries.
Many more photos and two video clips here : (Album Mahaballipuram ) http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/aa115/abiramineha/Mahaballipuram/
2 comments:
thanks for sharing the details of your fabulous trip! i followed the link from your mothering.com siggy...and will be a regular :). good luck with your mil...truly a universal issue :). take care
I love the photos - the relief sculptures look so much like the ones I saw at Angkor Wat in Cambodia it's rather eerie. Of course Angkor was a huge Hindu complex in its heyday, the cultural differences in the art representation makes it its own, but Angkor was still heavily influenced by its Indian origins. Fascinating!
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