Today was a play day. We left at 8 am for a visit to Mamallapuram, a city about two hours away on the coast. It has touristy shopping and several nice private beaches. We first went to several gift shops. Maybe the neatest thing I saw was a globe made of carved stone, about four inches in diameter with a zillion little holes carved in it. It’s neat to look at, and you can put a candle in it and it is a cool lamp. I had just about convinced myself that I couldn’t live without it, and was moving it to the guy’s counter to discuss the matter further, when I dropped it and it smashed into a jillion pieces. I may or may not have used inappropriate language. The good news is that the shopkeeper gave me a 200-rupee discount because he felt sorry for me (it’s not like I had room to bargain on the price once I’d smashed it), and I think because he was relieved that I didn’t try to get out of paying for it.
After buying a few trinkets, we got some lunch. I had tiger prawns, some of which were so big that I swear they were more like baby lobsters. Tasted more like lobster than shrimp, too.
Then we went to the beach, at a nice private resort. The water was perfect, maybe 76 or 78 degrees. I think it might have been the first time in India that I’ve been outside and comfortable. It was fun to play in the water for about an hour and a half. It cost 500 rupees to go on the private beach but it was worth it.
On the way home we stopped so I could get some of the yummy-looking fruit that we had seen on the way to the beach. I bought some grapes for about a dollar a pound. The lady selling fruit on the side of the street had an old-fashioned scale with weights for 250g, 500g and 1 kg. I bought all she had and then a bunch from her neighbor. Then another guy in the group bought some from the next vendor over. I think the vendors were puzzled at the giant American grape freaks.
One of the girls in the group wanted to stop and get mangoes on the way home too, so we did. I don’t like mangoes much. But I always want to have an interesting experience. So I told the bus driver to pick me out the best mango on the cart. He did and the mango selling lady gave me a free slice of it to try. Holy cow, that was delicious. So I bought a kg of those too. Yum. We also stopped at the regular grocery store and I bought a few veggies and some various kinda weird Indian treats—little chips and cookies and stuff.
We came home to a standard yummy curry-based dinner, then it was just relaxing for the evening. I took some grapes up on the roof and sat on the edge of it. It started to rain, which cooled things down a tiny bit. I ate grapes and looked out off the roof as I sat in the rain, and it was just peaceful.
Cows are everywhere--it's quite common to have them in the street
Lily and her friend Bailey at the restaurant where we ate lunch
The beach resort where we spent a little time today
Mamallapuram is famous for its stone workers, and there were quite a few we passed as we drove into town
