MAHABALIPURAM, INDIA
2017-03-13, 10:40, JASON
BUDGET
Mahabalipuram is about 60 km south of Chennai, and makes for a great day trip. We take a local bus to CMBT, the main Chennai Bus Terminal, and on the way I look out of the windows, looking at the life of Chennai roll by me. People doing all sorts of things, but each with a story.
We pick up some local food from the stands in the main station. Everywhere you go in India, there is food, and so we indulge in the pooris. We also get some filtered coffee from the man who has a worn face, but such deft hand-work when doing the coffee.
The bus we take goes down the beachside highway, which is well paved but full of traffic. The road is built slightly inland such that a view of the beach isn't possible until the last few kilometers of the journey. Still, there is so much to see outside the window:
When the distant beach comes into view, we know we are arriving.
The bus drops us off on the side of the road, and from there it's about a 2 kilometer walk into Mahabalipuram proper. There are many rickshaw touts at the front who try to see you the tour package of 'going to site X, X, and X' for a fixed amount, but we only want to negotiate a rickshaw to the center and do the rest of the walking ourselves. A man tries to take us for 200 Rupees (4 SGD, 2.5 USD), but we flatly decline. He doesn't budge, so we say we'll walk. His competitor then comes in and offers us a ride for 50, and so we take his offer and go. Normally, we wouldn't fuss for 4 SGD in Singapore, but in India, a 150 Rupee difference is our next snack. When we arrive, pay the rickshaw driver, we see another coffee stall and this time order a tea. We also help ourselves to some biscuits that are freshly baked and stuffed into these glass jars. They're not sweet at all, just a very basic biscuit. When we eat it alongside the sweet tea, it's a perfect combination.
The man who makes our tea chats with us for about 5 minutes, asking where we come from and what we're doing. He asks about our opinion about India and how we're enjoying it (we love it), and he makes some pleasantries. He gives us a very hearty welcome to Mahabalipuram as we head out, almost forgetting to pay since they don't collect the bill until the patron leaves.
Mahabalipuram is most famous for ancient stone relics that were carved in the 7th and 8th centuries A.D. The relics have taken forms of rock temple, rock cave sanctuary, or just having been directly carved out of the rock (what I understood to be called a 'rock relief'). Paired with its tropical climate, the rock carvings give a deep, historical and rustic feel to the area. The town itself isn't super developed yet, with most construction being low-rise, but it does hold UNESCO heritage status and thus has become somewhat of a popular day tourist destination for both Indians and foreigners. Everything is walkable, and so we crank our legs and get walking.
To be honest, since this was just a day trip, there isn't really much other than the pictures of the day, which will probably speak louder than any descriptions I can provide. We hiked to go see the old lighthouse, stumbled upon some cave temples all alongside a 'trail' to see the different sites, saw some Indian folks playing drums and dancing under the shade nearby all the temples, and even ran into some students who were raising awareness in the neighborhood by holding 'recycle!' signs in Tamil and English. The people playing drums and laughing and dancing did so for about an hour, women and men both joining in to dance whenever the percussion started.
While walking further along, we come across the infamous Butterball, which is a large standalone rock that seems to defy gravity. Many Indians are sat under it for the shade it provides, and the huge stone stands there, almost asserting almost the depth of history that you feel here just walking through.
At one point, when we reach the end of a trail, an unsuspecting guy comes up and asks where we're from. We engage him slightly but keep walking, taking pictures of the nearby area. When it comes to an elephant etched into the wall, something we can't help but to really take a picture of, I ask him to take one of us and he agrees. After the picture, he explains the details of the carving to us, and I ask how he knows so much about the carvings in the area. Turns out, he had studied stonecarving at university for 4 years and carves some of his own stuff, and then asked us whether or not we wanted to go check out his shop. He led us outside of the sightseeing area and into his house. Shelves absolutely filled with stone carvings, everything from Hindu gods to secular things like lizards. He carved candleholders, paperweights, and also small figurines, each with such intricacy to detail and precision and a unique design. When we asked him how he came up with the designs, he said he just thought up of them in his head, and we were blown away by the dedication to his craft. Actually, after walking around, there were many people selling little trinkets of stone carving, so it's hard to tell whether he was genuine or not (he did try to make a sale to us), but I'm still glad he invited us into his studio to look at his work. Mahabalipuram has such a rich history of stone carving, and so it wasn't uncommon to see every Tom, Dick, and Harry doing some carvings alongside the road and in their house. I didn't have the heart to take a picture of his work without buying something from him, so we just thanked him and left. He kept trying to get us to stay and buy something, but we really didn't have the money and were on our way. Next stop, Shore Temple.
While walking to the Shore Temple, which is located nearby the beach, you sense the idyllic nature of Mahabalipuram, and how the seabreeze cools the area. The seaside in India is different than in Southeast Asia. There's a desert-ish quality to the climate here and so the beach, when viewed in tandem with the aridness of the region, gives it a different feel. It's not really a beach resort or party, but rather kind of a duller, more functional beach. There are some fishing boats docked onto the nearby beach to the Shore Temple, and people just sitting on the shore, fully clothed. A place of relaxation.
The Shore Temple is now a UNESCO site and some restoration has been done for the area, but it's managed to preserve a deep historical feeling to it. It's hard to believe that 1200 years ago, this was built here as a place of worship, and 1200 years later, here we are walking across it, alongside many other Indians, to appreciate and savor the history of a civilization
The Shore Temple and the Five Rathas have one entry ticket, and so we walk our way over to the Five Rathas. On the way, we pick up some Indian pick-n-mix snacks along the road; a various assortment of dried cassava and other crunchy snacks
Along the way, there are also loads of stone carvers, much like the one we met earlier. Some of them are working on various religious statues (Buddhas, Hindu gods, etc), and some of them are just chilling in their shop, surrounded by these magnificent stone workings
When we get to Five Rathas, we happen to coincide with a school tour who is there at the same time. There are hundreds of kids in the Five Rathas site, which is considerably noisy but incredibly lively. I'm very glad we went when the kids were there. Actually, one thing I'm always touched by is when I see children from all over the world go to school. At the expense of sounding very creepy (I love watching kids...), there's something very universal about the importance of education in many parts of the developing world. It's that notion that education is your way up in the world, and how devoted they are to studying. When I see the kids all messing around at the Five Rathas, I'm glad they're enjoying their time on their field trip. How lucky it is that they get to see -- and, not only see, but to touch, feel, and be among -- history, at a site where people travel very far to see. I don't know if they realize it, as to them it may just be another stone structure (hell, to me it was just a stone structure, and I'm not so clear on the historical bits to it). But as a tourist, coming to a more remote part of the world and seeing students learning about their country and history through experience is something to be celebrated. As a result, most of our shots have kids in them:
Overall, Mahabalipuram is great for a day trip. Everything from the journey there (the bus ride down the main beach road), to the sites are worth seeing. There seemed to be some great street food along the way as well, but we didn't get to try any. You really get a sense for the historical depth to this area just walking around; a kind of cross section of early civilization and religion.