Mahabalipuram

This weekend I ventured down to Mahabalipuram (Mamalapuram) with David Lee. Another med student that I met on the interview trail. His medical training is somewhat unique though in that he applied to a US program that is based in Isreal. We headed out early on saturday morning and got to our first bus transfer in Kanchipuram. From there we managed to get onto a direct bus that went through Chengleput, but didn't require us to get another bus from their to Mahabalipuram. Overall it took us about 3.5 hrs by bus, not bad. On arrival into town were landed next to a public demonstration against the violence between the Sri Lankans and the Tamil Tigers (Tamils in Sri Lanka who want their independence, if I understand correctly). It was a very vivid image for someone who doesn't speak tamil and can only derive information from facial expressions and other visual clues like demonstrators dressed in black and waving black flags... I thought about taking a picture, but my better judgement won the arguement so I have no visual aid to offer. Next we headed towards the beach to try and find a place fairly close to the shore. By about 1 pm. we were checked in and looking for lunch and we found it by wandering to the beach. After a feast of masala fried fish (deep fried spicey fish), french fries, and fresh lime soda (a wonderful drink i'm only now discovering that involves fresh squeezed lime that you mix carbonated water with sparring amounts of sugar... otherwise you create a momentary volcano, which is kinda fun too), we wondered down the beach in the direction of the only temple we could see. After coming to a fence that surrounds the complex and discovering we had to walk all the way around the fence to get in, we finally got to see the temple up close about a half hour after originally being within 100 ft of it. Instead of plagerizing Lonely Planet, i'll just include a link to a website that explains the temples ( http://www.mahabalipuram.co.in/shore_temple_at_mahabalipuram.php ). An interesting and understandable note, foreigners are required to pay 250 Rs. for entrance to the Shore Temple and the Five Rathas, citizens only have to pay 10 Rs. I was a little confused by the spectacle that I saw throughout the day as we visited the sights... it's my understanding that the temple and the structures like the Five Rathas are somewhat sacred, yet the entire day children and adults alike climbed around these ancient structures like they were a jungle gym. There were hordes of school children on field trips Saturday, so we're not talking one or two kids acting a little unruly. Combining this with locals hawking their goods more zealously than places i've previously visited before, I found my patience and basic trust in my fellow man wearing thin by the end of the day.  Along the way toward the end of the afternoon we came across a man trying to sell rock carved pendents. Mahabalipuram is world renowned for their trade of rock sculpting and are still commisioned world wide to work on temples and statues. Almost everyshop in town sells ridiculously ornate rock carvings, so this man selling small pendents while we were trying to sight see didn't have a chance at a sale. In our moment of weakness, as the man sat down in the shade almost as if in resignation, accepting that he was done selling for the day - the man struck up a friendly conversation about where we were from and what we were doing in India and even offered a few tid bits about the history around us. Eventually he somehow became our un-official tour guide for the remaining bits. At the end of which, he invited us to see his rock carving shop... conveniently located at the end of the tour. At which point he confirmed his previous story of being a teacher of rock carving to students that worked at his shop - we saw them in action. We even got to talk to one named Dilip (Indian for Phillip) age 19. The nail in the coffin was accepting the tea and cookies... we felt obligated to buy something, even though we swore off buying anything made of rock as the truly beautiful carvings had no chance of making it on a backpacking trip and the more robust pieces were too heavy. I opted for two small pendents and David chose a simple elephant... only after choosing all the pieces we wanted were we given a price ;-> Ah, I wish there was a way we could have just made a donation... I'd feel better about donating something to a good cause than walking away with our trinkets feeling hosed. After confirming the outragous prices we paid, even after bargaining for a good 15 min., with other street vendors - we chose to BELIEVE that everything we were told was true and that we were in fact helping support kids learning the trade at the local colleges! Later that day, as we were watching the sunset in the park we ran across Dilip once again. This time he and some other boys were flying kites and engaging in the occaisional battle... he stuck to his story and we got to see a spectacle not unlike the magnificent flying scenes from the Kite Runner. Other than the fact that it seemed like 19 was a little old to still be flying kites... I felt much better about my purchase earlier in the day- although I remained a shrewd bargainer for the rest of the weekend.

---

It's the same Hotmail®. If by "same" you mean up to 70% faster. Get your account now.