Mamallapuram and Pondicherry

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Mamallapuram

Mamallapuram is a fishing vilage about 3 hours south of Chennai. We spent a couple of days there relaxing on the beach and reading books, as well as looking around some of the few shops they had in town.


On the bus to Mamallapuram from Chennai... surprisingly more comfortable than it looks.

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Mamallapuram is famous for stone carvings. This is a beach temple created by local carvers in the 8th century.

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There are many man-made carvings in the park around this rock but believe-it-or-not the rock is a natural formation. Lauren is sitting on the right-hand side of the rock.


A cute puppy that we met near the park.

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An example of some more intricate carvings.


A family of monkeys we noticed on the side of the road. (Yes I stayed away from them this time!! 😉

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Pondicherry

... is a former French colony and beautiful beach town (no swimming though) in the south-east that is apparent from (some) local French-speakers and also the many French style cafes and restaurants dotted around the city.

Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures from Pondicherry, I think we were getting a bit sick of the camera for a few days.


Lauren in front of the Park guest house which is actually part of an "ashram" as well as being a guest house. The exact definition of an ashram is vague but could be thought of as an "intentional community formed primarily for spiritual upliftment of its members, often headed by a religious leader or mystic" (I got that from Google). The guest house had a wonderfully relaxing "garden of healing" which overlooked the beach and was great for book-reading.

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Sri Aurobindo who founded the ashram (and had a huge influence on both Pondicherry and Auroville) is a famous politician turned spiritual leader in the early 20th century.

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His spiritual partner was a French woman called "The Mother".

Their pictures are displayed in almost every shop/restaurant/hotel in Pondicherry and Auroville. It was a little bit creepy!

I think she looks like a James Bond villain in this pic. I shouldn't be mean though; they undertook many philanthropic projects for this area of India.

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This is taken in Auroville, near Pondicherry. The town of Auroville was set up by The Mother and is meant to be an experimental international community founded as an alternative exercise in ecological and spiritual living. It's not based around any religon, as such, but hinges on the idea that everyone in the community helps each other and pools together their resources and money (kind of like a commune). It was founded in 1968 and is still running smoothly now (unlike a lot of other hippie projects from that time) which we thought was quite impressive.

That large gold sphere is supposed to be the "spiritual soul" of the town.


Mark on the scooter we rented to get out to Auroville for the day in front of one of the commune gates. The facilities where the residents actually live are restricted from tourists and have interesting names such as Certitude and Sincerity. The town is quite large and spread out so you have to have your own transport. Currently there are about 1,400 residents but the goal is set at 50,000.

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Sorry there weren't too many exciting photos this time. We will try to do better!

Off we head to our next destination - Varkala in south-west India. Tune in next time for another exciting episode!!

M+L

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