Due to a bit of bad planning we ended up spending 2 more nights in Madurai. It's the second largest city in Tamil Nadu so not a bad place to get stuck waiting for a flight. We survived the trip back down the hill from Kodaikanal. It only took 3 hours down (4 hours up) and the bus wasn't full so not to bad an experience. Only about a kilometre of the trip had vertical drops so no sphincter strain at the end. We decided to walk around the outside in the cool of the morning. We repaid a promise to the store owner who had helped us, by lending me a dhoti to enter the temple, in returning to his shop to have a browse. They have set up a viewing platform on the roof ... read more

Our last two stops, Ramaswaram and Madurai, are both dominated by significant temples. These temples are massive structures and very highly significant to the Hindu faithful. As tourists we have been welcomed to observe the devotees but there have been a few conditions of entry. The core of each temple contains an artifact that is sacred. In the case of the temple in Ramaswaram it's a small mound of sand that was created by Rama's wife Siva to enable him to worship Shiva. The temple in Madurai is built to honour Meenakshi, a triple breasted woman whose superfluous breast would melt away when she met her husband who it transpired was to be Shiva. Each evening an icon of Shiva is trotted around the temple to spend the night in Meenakshis's shrine. We managed to chase ... read more

Been visting many sites around the rural area of Kanadukathan. It's just a small village which at some stage in its past was occupied by some very wealthy teak traders. There a a large number of their palatial houses scattered around plus some really interesting temples. The selection of photos below is a snap shot of our two days cruising around.... read more

One last stone monument visit in Mahabalipuram straight after breakfast to the Tiger Rock. It's a unfinished shrine with carved tiger heads around the portal. It was also our first auto-rickshaw ride. We had a last swim then took a taxi to Pondicherry. The road down was good with light traffic. Disheartened by the queue at a bank we passed and the two ATM's I saw were shut. A potential problem looming as our funds we got in Chennai were dwindling away. We passed significant number of what looked like newly developed shrimp farms along the way and along the river banks rice farming was in full swing. Our taxi located Hotel Coromandel which is a european heritage house with about 6 rooms. Our first night unfortunately we had to sleep in a small downstairs room ... read more

Mahabalipuram is a small town ( pop. 66,000) south of Chennai. It's a 'resort' town with lots of development along the beach. We have met people on holiday from all over India here. It's also part of what is described as a 'backpackistan' - one of the Indian back packer towns. Geographically it's flat with a large ( approx 10 hectares) granite rock hill on the western side. It's here back in 9th century the locals mastered the art of stone construction on a large scale. Most of the individual temples are crafted out of a single rock or from a rock face. We took a wander around the hill monuments on our first morning and then down to the bench in the late afternoon.... read more