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Mamallapuram: a few hours wandering the temples and caves

Enroute to Pondicherry from Chennai is Mamallapuram, home to some very old rock carvings and temples.

We took an ECR bus from the Thiryvandmur stop in Chennai, which was a bit hard to find as it is just a covered bench near the MTC station vs. a bus station for longer distance buses. It cost Rs. 27 each and took about 1 hour to get to the junction where you enter Mamallapuram from the ECR. From the junction, we got an auto. Quotes were high, so we initially started walking, but since we had our backpacks, we eventually shelled out the cash. The driver suggested a 2 hour tour where he would drive to the 4 locations of monuments for Rs. 500. Wikitravel noted Rs. 150 for this and everything is quite nearby, so really didn't make sense to do for more than Rs. 200, which he was amenable to.

First we saw the Shore temple. I tried to get the Indian price using my PAN card, but he said Nationals only, so shelled out the Rs. 500. The temple has been quite battered by the elements being so close to the water, but still quite beautiful to see.






Next we walked to the area where a number of rock carvings, Krishna's butterball, and the lighthouse are. On the way, we passed a large pool and some women were heading down to the water all in red saris. Still not sure why we are seeing so much red.




It would have been useful to have a guide or more info on the carvings as there are rather complex. It was fun to see all the people at Krishna's butterball and wonder how it stayed in place for so many years.




We decided to climb the lighthouse for an extra Rs. 50. It was a nice view, but a bit complicated to get up as halfway to the top was an area where you wait for people to come down and it was packed. In addition, the ticket checking woman tried to extort additional money from us for cameras. Clearly everyone has a camera on their mobiles, but we were the only apparent foreigners.



From there, I went back to the Butterball as there was a woman selling water refills (instead of new bottles) from a large water container and I wanted to support this for Rs. 6. She was gone for the day though.

We headed to the Five Rathas via an auto as it was getting to be closing time. I would have spent more time as they were interesting buildings and many people were there, but was concerned about getting the bus to Pondicherry after getting stuck in Sri Lanka with no bus.
We had a group of students who posed in a few photos and we joined them for some too.






Turned out not to be an issue as buses come every 10 minutes and run until at least 10pm according to some guys we talked to. The buses were totally packed though. We let two go by, tried hitchhiking and then got on an express bus that only had about 10 people standing for the 2 hour ride to Pondicherry. Six guys also hailed what looked like a private car and paid Rs. 100 each to get a ride.

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