Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu, India

After the most wonderful bus journey through the Tamil countryside, we land in Mamallapuram to find a suspiciously agreeable rickshaw driver willing to drive us to town for 20rupees. This is, of course, because he drives us straight into the foyer of ‘Hotel Lakshmi’ (he looks shocked when I mention his commission) . Looking like something out of ‘the beach’, it has rows of small rooms packed with travellers all looking like their running away from something, looking for a party or dropping out of normal human existence. We like it. Its traveller staple but our corner room has a TV and is large but more excitedly our outdoor space has a hanging wicker chair. The hotel owners obviously want to keep things ’in-house’ and within 10minutes have offered us everything we need. 24 hour ice-cold beers are also available at a nod, just to keep you swing in that chair playing shit-head just a little bit longer…

We walk down onto the beach at sunset and its stunning. It’s a working beach and the boats and antics of the fishermen make Varkala seem dull. There’s a temple on the shoreline we think this will be a nice bolt-hole for a bit.

Mamallapuram

Beach bums

We spend a couple of days chilling out and enjoys the different aspects of Mamallapuram. Wander up the beach for five minutes and in front of a posh resort you can happily sunbathe in a bikini in relative solitude (bar a few hawkers of course). But Mamallapuram is also a world heritage site for all the rock carvings (folk-art from AD 630-728) dotted around and the town prides itself on a being a town of skilled stone sculptures. There are hundreds of the most amazing craftsmen chipping away everywhere.

Best sculpter on the strip...

Mamallapuram

The village is vibrant and although obviously the tourist cash is wanted just as much here, it feels like it co-exists with the fishing and sculpting identity rather than consumes it. A lot of tourists stay with locals for cheap and we vow never to be lazy again and check out a place before grabbing a room.

We spend a day round the park that holds the carvings and the green grass (actual grass) is littered with food stealing monkeys, crashed out people and couples sneakily being loved up in corners.

Secret smooching...

I’m sure this continues after dark…. There’s a lot of boys lurking at sunset…… We play with puppies and goats and photo monkeys doing interesting things like digging tasty morsels out of each others arses,

Yum!!

and I have great fun sliding down the rock by ‘Krishna’s butterball’ with some kids. The rock has been made shiny by little kids bums for probably decades. I think they think we’re a bit mad. Well maybe just me.

Wheeeee!!!!

A guy comes up to us resplendent in black lungi and shirt to talk to us. He calls himself Shiva Kumar and his English is so good because every summer he plays cricket at Exeter, after a scout watched him for a couple of months playing with a duct-wrapped coconut on the beach He’s hilarious. When he’s in England he lives in a caravan on a private estate that he bought for £500, the land owner getting a new marble fireplace carved in his stately home for the help. He’s made friends with English village police through cricket clubs and thinks they are brilliant because they commission him to carve intricate bongs for them (!) and they ‘don’t hit you with sticks’. His police friends told him that if ever he was in trouble all he had to do was call the police and be honest and they would help him. Apparently, he put this to the test when he was at a party when a girl he thought was pretty gave him a ‘clear liquid drug’ to drink and he found himself 6 hours later in a forest at dawn, not knowing how he got there or where he was. He only had his mobile so he called the police and told them everything, and that he was from India and didn’t know what to do. They got a helicopter out for him (found him through his signal) and took him home. Also, when he gets a bit lost on his moped or runs out of petrol, or just can’t be bothered he just dumps the bike and calls up the police, and they come and give him a lift home. Dan and I both say we don’t think this would work in a big city and advise him not to try it anywhere bigger than Taunton. He also laments the fact that the Indian girls don’t like him because he’s ‘too black’, and English girls don’t want to marry him or live with him in India. They just like the ‘kissing and the touching’ but he doesn’t like that. So ladies…..

Shiva Kumar...

But (SO luckily for us), we tell him that we’re moving on to Tiruvannamalai, and he tells us his friend Happi lives there and has an amazing big house with accommodation that looks right on to Mt. Arunchala. I call him at Kumars studio and he says we can stay for a couple of days, but after that he has friends staying for a huge festival and there’s no room. That’s fine with us, as we’re just quickly checking it out on the recommendation of the lovely Lydia and we’re grateful for the hint. We buy a lovely good luck Ganesh off him and his sculpture mentor ‘baba’ is like a dude from the movies. We promise to stay in touch.

The last day is supposed to be a long chilled beach day but (long story) I spend the morning have a HUGE and protracted row with a rickshaw driver linked to the hotel, when he tries to stitch me up with a ride to a cash machine. We have a screaming argument back at the hotel where he says he wants me to go to the police. I say that’s fine, and whilst we’re at it we’ll go to the rickshaw association as well. He seems to forget about that idea. I’m furious and am standing my ground, he doesn’t like me ‘shouting like a man’ and tries to intimidate me. I can tell he wants to hit me like he probably does his missus but I stand well over him and I’d like to see him try it. Poor Dan’s in the middle of it and it helps that by the gist of his arguments with the other staff that they’re in agreement with us. I am FURIOUS. But then I feel myself about to cry I’m that angry so I leave the arena and slip into the room leaving Dan to play good cop. Dan sorts it out with the help of a guy that works there that obviously have sympathies with us and the rickshaw driver goes without his scam fee. But after a quite frankly horrible morning with this idiot I’m pretty much hysterical and Dan is an absolute angel in calming me down, although I’m now mostly angry with myself for losing my temper and getting involved. I’m sure it wont be the last time we row about some scammer looking for the tourist bank.

Some quality time at the beach makes it better

Mamallapuram

and the place is starting to fill up now with everyone wanting to party over Christmas and new year, we see lots of crazy old hippies rocking up that obviously have been coming for years. Although, heartbreakenly, we find a huge and beautiful turtle washed up on the beach. It must have been at least 60 yrs old, and had a strip of plastic over its jaw and wrapped up in its back leg like a leash. Its obviously what killed it and its very sad.

HIPPIES!!!!

Quite brave really considering most of them were there when the tsunami hit really bad. Apparently the sea went out for kilometres and very few people ran, because they didn’t know what it was. There’s been a lot of work to restore everything but its obviously still in everyone’s minds. We both agree that if you were on the road for a lot longer you could definitely spend a while here. Its has heart, and community. But we already want to go and are looking forward to our next stop. I reassure myself that there will be lots more beaches and sea on our travels.