South India Full Day 3 - Mamallapuram monuments & Pondicherry

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Jeff’s birthday at Mamallapuram monuments site-Shore Temple, Five Rathas & Arjuna’s Penance. Secret men's bar, Pondicherry French Quarters, fun elephant blessing and parrot astrology. South India travel video. Overseas Adventure Travel group tour Soul of India - the Colorful South, Friday 10-24-14: The day started with Jeff's birthday celebration by Krishna's butterball at the amazing Mamallapuram Unesco World Heritage monuments site. Sudha, our tour guide, explained to us the differences of the cave carving process where whole temples are carved out of rocks. We could see practice walls and caves by the roadside where young sculptures trained in the art. I guess people would really be upset with you if you made a mistake and messed up a whole temple and years’ worth of work. We also saw the amazingly intricate rock art called the ‘Descent of the Ganges”, with myriad of carved designs, including cobras, huge elephants, baby elephants, monkeys, real people, mythical beings, etc. This is where Arjuna’s Penance is carved. Sudha gave us background on his story, which is part of the Mahabharata, the longest known Hindu epic poem. Watch for the story of the sneaky cat with the full belly :) We then visited the Five Rajas. A set of temples modeled after chariots (it's also called The Five Chariots). It's mind-blowing that people would even think of carving out that much rock to form these huge structures. They are not built - they are carved out! even the negative space between the temples and the huge animal statues has been purposely flattened. Next stop was Unesco World Heritage Shore temple, believed to be part of what sailors used to call the "Seven Pagodas" which they used as navigation landmarks. The temple faces the Bay of Bengal and must look like a pagoda from the sea. Warning about an incident of abuse towards a dog. We have to remember that in some countries/areas treating animals with kindness is an emerging idea. It needs to be taught. Kindness IS contagious. We then visited what Sudha calls "secret men's bar" because that is where men go to hide from their wives. They tell their wives they are going to work and then go to the bar to drink with their friends. We tasted the local beer and got to see how they serve the liquor - the water comes in a little plastic bag! Afterwards, we had a wonderful lunch at Le Club in Pondicherry, enjoying the succulent fresh fish that we were served so often in South India. We walked the French Quarter of Pondicherry, seeing the beautiful Eglise de Notre Dame des Anges (Church of Our Lady of Angels) which was built by French Missionaries in 1865 and is modeled after the Lourdes Basilica, policemen wearing kepis, the French military caps with the flat circular top and visor, and streets with names such as “Rue Dumas”. The police station, labeled in French “Maison de la Police”, actually had a pretty little garden in front of it. We saw a genuine 'chaiwala', tea selling vendor, rickshaws, tuk tuks, and men and women picking up their kids from school on scooters. Sudha sawed us how he used to make whistles out of tree leaves when he was a boy. We then walked by the Pondicherry Promenade. Kids were having fun climbing up to the statue of the 'Father of India' Mohandas Gandhi and people were starting to get together for pleasant strolls and to watch the beautiful sunset. Goubert Avenue (Beach Road) that runs by the Bay of Bengal turns pedestrian in the evening and comes alive - the whole promenade fills with vendors selling food, drinks, and all sorts of things. Great people watching place, but unfortunately, I was too tired to return – maybe a reason to visit Pondicherry again :) Several of our travelers were told their fortune by a parrot. Parrot astrology or fortune-telling used to be very prevalent in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Nowadays the practice is in jeopardy of disappearing. The astrologer has a trained parrot in a cage and stacks of special cards in front of him. There are 27 cards with images of Hindu deities, Buddha, Jesus, or the Virgin Mary. He lets out the parrot and, with his beak, he selects a card from the stack, and hands it to the astrologer / fortune teller who interprets it for you based on the image that is selected. It seemed pretty accurate! Then, near Ganesha's Temple, we had a very fun interaction with Lakshmi, a smart and adorable necklace wearing elephant that "blesses" you by tapping you on the head. Sudha bought greens for us to give her, but she really preferred money. It's unbelievable how delicate elephants can be with that big strong trunk. She hands the bills to the mahout so smoothly, she could have been a pick-pocket. Nearby is the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a Hindu meditation retreat, that had a lovely garden and was full of people, but we were not allowed to take photos or video.