Mahabalipuram

Breakfast at Saravana Bhavan. Traditional South Indian food. So good!
see all photos »

Friday, April  4 we got up early for our first real outing in India.  Sishir's dad drove and we headed south down the coast to Mahabalipuram, an ancient city and site of the famous Shore Temple and beautiful rock carvings.  First we stopped for breakfast at a little restaurant.  I had puffy rice and sambar - lentil soup - and a fried doughnut with green chiles in the dough.  OMG so good.

We managed to negotiate the TOTALLY INSANE traffic of Madras and escape with our lives.  It took about 1.5 hours to go the 50 km, best guess.  Once we got there we wandered around and took in the sights.  The civilization flourished in the 600-900 ADs.  I'm not sure how because it was HOT.  They must have jumped in the ocean a lot.  We were only out for a couple of hours but it totally wiped me out; I slept all afternoon.  Nevertheless it was a wonderful day.