Mahabalipuram Temples and Pondicherry

It has been one heck of a day. I woke up early and set off for the bus station which proved to be much more challenging to get to than I had anticipated. It took me nearly 2 hours to travel 15km, but I made it on local transportation, without the luxury and ease of simply hailing a taxi. After grabbing a great breakfast at the station and figuring out which bus I needed to be on (all while simultaneously talking to my dad and Linda!), I grabbed a window seat on the left hand side of the bus (I wanted to make sure I got a good view of the ocean!), and waited for our departure to Mahabalipuram. The 2 hour journey to Mahabalipuram was uneventful, if not the most crowded bus I'd ever been on. Typically inter-city buses pack passengers on like sardines, but long distance buses usually have designated seats. Not this one. People were hanging off the sides, smashed against windows, and for those lucky (or maybe unlucky) enough to have a seat, they had at least 2 people sitting on their lap.

Mahabalipuram is the half-way point between Chennai and Pondicherry. The once sleepy fishing village now crawls with tourists who flock to its beaches and its ancient temples. I enjoyed the temples and never made it down to the beach, although by the time I got there the sun was blaring and the place was filled with Indian school children, tour groups, and dozens of families picnicing. I couldn't walk 5 minutes without being asked for a photo, and at one piont I had at least 15 teenagers posing with me. There were plenty of other western tourists, but they weren't getting any of the attention I was. Maybe it was because I was alone? I don't know, but I felt like a celebrity.

After a few hours of celebrity status, I'd had enough and flagged down the bus to Pondicherry, the once French capital of Tamil Nadu. Here I met up with Sebatian, rented a bike and rode along the beach, which looked surprisingly enough a lot like Santa Cruz, sat and watched the waves, drank coffee, and purused the shops. I do have to say that it was nice to be amongst westerners again. After Sebatian finished work, we went to the home of a few of his friends for a BBQ. There is a very large French community here and the majority of people at the get-together were French. Despite the language barrier, I really enjoyed myself, especially when it came time to eat--kebabs, couscous salad, delicious and varied finger foods, French wine, and plenty of chocolate. We stayed until nearly 1:30am, laughing, drinking, and eating, and then, get this, had to ride our bikes to Sebatians house. This was no small bike ride, close to 10km with my big backpack strapped to my back. I had be traveling since 7am and was utterly exhausted, but had no other option than to pedal myself those 10km. The bike ride turned out to be not that bad, but by the time we got to Sebatian's I was in desperate need of a shower and a serious dosage of sleep!