Kristy's Blog

Today we went temple-hopping – a sport practiced here in the along the coast south of Chennai.

We went to the Ekambreswarar temple at Kanchipuram. This ancient city of temples is one of the leading centers of Shakti worship in Tamilnadu. This temple was part of a cluster of temples and was over 3000 years old. The temple was like a Greek temple, but every part of it, and it was all made of black granite was covered with different designs. Breath taking.

At Mahabalipuram near Chennai, is the Stalasayana Perumaal temple. Nearby are Tiruvidandai and Tirukkalunkunram, all three temples are over 1200 years old.The Shore temple once sat on the beach – but after the tsunami of 2004 – it sits back on the mainland due to the changed shore line.

Also at Mahabalipuram are the rock carvings. Oh yeah, so what, right? Rock carvings. Well – it’s actually astonishing. These guys carved an entire cliff wall into something resembling a Greek temple in Athens. How did they even know the thing wouldn’t collapse? We had packed a lunch for the trip and ate it in the shade of the trees and watched hundreds of Indian tourists go by.

There was more than one request for me to pose with the Indian tourists – so we were almost as big as an attraction. Everyone was staring and staring – most of the children would shout out “hello” or “hi” and want to come up and shake your hand.