We got on the bus in Chennai at 10am, and arrived at Daksina Chitra shortly after 11. What a neat place! It kind of reminded me of a cross between Bush Gardens and a Pioneer Villiage. They had the property divided into different states of India, and on each “state” they had houses and crafts people typical of the area. It was really neat to get an idea of what houses look like in other parts of India, since we won’t actually have a chance to visit those other states. In the Kerala section there was a woman doing Henna “tattoos” so Priyanka and I each got our hands done. It was pretty funny – we both got our entire left hands and parts of our forearms done, so then afterwards, while we were waiting for it to dry, we couldn’t use those hands at all – talk about awkward! Even reaching into my bag to get out 50 INR to pay the lady was tough without full use of both of my hands! The woman did a really wonderful job – mine is really ornate: on my palms are two peacocks and then my fingers and forearm have all kinds of swirls on them. It was really hard to wait for it to dry to peel off the henna!
I think my favourite artisan of the day was the glass blower. He wasn’t really a blower per say, so much as he worked with sticks of glass to shape animals, bells, and deities out of glass with a blow torch type thing. He even made me a little mouse on top of a stir stick (for tea or coffee) at my special request. He was super talented and it was really cool to watch him work!
We also got to watch a weaver work on a silk sari for a while, which was a treat. Apparently this man has been working as a weaver since he was old enough to reach the loom. He wove his first sari when he was only 13 years old! Priyanka also had a chance to try her hand at some pottery on a pottery wheel – I can definitely attest to the fact that it is much harder than it looks!
We ended up spending quite a bit more time at Daksina Chitra, and after a quick lunch (an onion uttapam for me, and a masala dosa for Priyanka) and a quick browse in the craft market (where we each bought some thread bangles) we were surprised to see that it was already 3pm! We still had so much to see before the last bus left Mamallapuram at 6pm!
We “Hopped” back on the bus, and took the bus the rest of the way to Mamallapuram. Our first destination in Mamallapuram was the famous shore temple. It is situated at the sea shore (obviously) in a big green park. It was pretty expensive to go in (250 INR for foreigners – Priyanka managed to squeek in on the “Indian rate” of only 10 INR though), but it was totally worth it. The temple is this massive, intricately carved stone structure – I can’t even imagine how it was all carved! You can tell that it has been worn down by sand, wind and water, but it only adds to the effect. It’s easy to imagine what it was like in its glory days. I can definitely see why it’s a popular photo spot.
Our next stop was Arjuna’s Penance – a massive, carved wall that is said to have been carved by the hero Arjuna to obtain a boon from Lord Shiva. Also, totally amazing – I don’t know how something like that could possibly have been carved by hand! Pictures don’t even really do it justice. Around the corner from Arjuna’s Penance is Krishna’s Butter Ball – a funny name for a funny structure. The Butter Ball is basically this giant rock that is perched precariously on top of another slab of rock, in a way that you wouldn’t think gravitationally possible. It looks like it’s going to fall down any minute!
The park where Arjuna’s Penance and the Butter Ball are is not closed off (you don’t need a ticket to see them), so the downside of that is that there are a million people trying to sell you something every time you turn around. “Madam, look at my carvings!”, “Madam, a guide?”, “Which country are you from Madam?”. It gets irritating after a while, but my motto throughout this whole trip has been “just say no”.
After we finished at Arjuna’s Penance and the Butter Ball I let myself peel off the rest of my Henna. It was oddly satisfying – like picking at a scab. When I peeled it off my palm was a bright orange, fading to almost yellow on my forearm, kind of like a sunrise. Pretty nice J
At this point we got back on the bus and headed to our last stop of the day, the Five Rathaas. The Five Rathaas are temples and large stone animals carved from monolithic rocks. I thought that they were very similar in style to the shore temple, only much smaller. Very cool, all the same. My favourite one was the giant elephant!
By the time we finished at the Five Rathaas it was almost 6pm – time to catch the last bus back to Chennai. There were a few more things that we would have liked to see (and ran out of time) but we had an awesome day all the same! I guess it will leave something for me to see on my next trip to India! ;)
On our way home it started “heavy pouring”, as the Indians say, and didn’t stop until we got home. We managed to get the bus driver to let us out in Thiravanmiyur, and caught an auto back to SPASTN. We were both starving and tired when we got home, and were kind of disappointed to see that we didn’t get any dinner delivered! Luckily for us we had PC instant soups to eat! Tomorrow we have a busy day of shopping planned, as well as a big ayeurvedic lunch with Anna, so I’ll probably wind things down for the evening soon (not to mention I’m looking forward to getting under my mosquito net – I’m getting eaten alive!). I’m pleased to report that my Henna has changed colour to a deep, rusty brown – very nice! It fades to a paler brown on my forearm. The lady said that it would last about two weeks – that would be great because it will give me some warm memories of India to tide me over on my first cold Canadian days!
Goodnight!
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