Mamallapuram

On Friday we drove into Mamallapuram (or Mahabalipuram), where we spent the day exploring many different sites of ancient stone carvings. We weren't able to make it to all of the famous sites, but we did visit Five Rathas, The Lighthouse, and Shore Temple. The statues were amazing, and the unique part was that they were each carved from a single enormous rock. In the afternoon we checked in to our hotel, which was a very nice resort on the ocean. The single best part of the hotel stay was the food, which was served buffet-style. After struggling to find safe things to eat earlier in the trip, we ate enough at Mamallapuram to gain back any of the weight we lost in the first 3 weeks. We even got to see part of the opening ceremony of the Olympics! Dr. Jay and his wife stayed with us at the hotel and were of great help. They took us shopping for stone carvings (something Mamallapuram is famous for) and Gandhi t-shirts. We spent a lot of time just sitting and talking with them at dinner, and heard all about Dr. Jay's first visit to America in the 1960's.
The trip to Mamallapuram was a great relaxing weekend, and we very much enjoyed seeing the historical sights and carvings and learning about that part of Indian culture.