Barefoot and pregnant.....

Not us though... just lots of the people we see. And those who aren't pregnant are still definitely barefoot. It's amazing, seeing as we still have to do a sort of dance in the street to dodge cowpies, dog doo, and other unmentionables. Ahhh the brave locals!

So, last I left off, we were taking the 2 hour bus ride at 7am to Mamallapuram. What a wake up call! Well, for Ryan anyway. Oli and I conked out on the bus pretty quickly, and awoke to a mad dash to exit the bus in a small little village. Out of the corner of my eye, I spied some stone carvings... we had arrived! We grabbed out bags and headed out into the chaos. Immediately a tout latched onto us and tried to get us to come see his guesthouse, but we cunningly told him we had reservations and were meeting friends. He pointed us in the right direction (score!)and off we wandered, a bit shell shocked from the past 24 (or 36?) hours of travel. We found the place, a small little guesthouse run by a friendly man named Xavier, and he showed us to the room. Decent enough, for less than $4 each! We threw down our bags and looked at the clock.. 9:30am. Damn, we couldn't just pass out like we wanted to! We locked up and headed down to the beach, just a block and a half away down the dirt road.

Mamallapuram was hit pretty hard by the 2004 tsunami, and it was easy to see that they had begun to recover but that there is still lots of work to be done. Rubble litters the streets, and children run out of decrepit buildings begging for change, while piles of rubbish burn in the alleys. Cows swarm the roads, followed by goats and dogs. This is pretty typical of India as we have now gathered, but the rubble bit was definitely aftermath of the disaster.

The beach was strewn with fishing nets and boats, and we wove our way to the beach to dip our toes in the water. Delightfully warm! We then headed over to the Shore Temple, which we discovered was completely shut off by a metal fence, and we decided to leave that for later. Feeling pleased that we had at least ventured out, we stopped at a little cafe to have some pancakes, then headed back to the room for a short nap. Fast forward to 5pm- ahhh we overslept! Jetlag is harsh. We attempted to make sense of everything and set out once again, basically just wandering the streets until dark, then finding ourselves at the restaurant above our place having another delicious meal (this is a recurring theme- the food has been outstanding). Off to bed after watching Slumdog Millionaire on Ryan's iPhone.

Yesterday morning we woke up, headed out to see the Five Rathas, a group of stone carvings that were uncovered by the Brits 200 years ago. They each (apparently) resemble a wooden caravan of some sort. Lots of schoolchildren who were delighted to see some white people, especially one with shockingly red hair! We then ventured up to a hilltop monument to see over the entire town (a whole 2k people!), before heading down to the Shore temple for a quick wander. A local family asked us to take a photo with their teenage daughter- random!

We grabbed our bags and hopped on the next bus to Pondicherry- 2 hours south but still on the coast. More chaotic driving, interesting people watching, and varying landscapes. We decided to walk from the bus station in Pondicherry to our guesthouse, grabbing some samosas on the way. The guesthouse was full, and the next place was far overpriced, so we trekked back around town until we found the International Guest House- basically the same price as the night before but with private bathroom! We went on a walking tour (led by Oli) where we saw a poor elephant being poked with a stick, visited a tomb in an ashram, walked along the promenade by the bay, took pix of the Gandhi statue, wandered through a food fair, walked through the local park, and then grabbed dinner at a pretty great place! Early to bed, early to rise!

This morning we slept in until 9ish, stopped by the bakery for some treats, then hopped on the 5 hour bus ride to Trichy. We arrived in the afternoon, with Oli feeling poorly, so the boys napped while I read, and then Ryan and I wandered around this part of town before grabbing some dinner (mmmm paneer butter masala and garlic naan!). And that's the news!

Hope life is swell for all you readers. We are (unexplicably) enjoying India to the fullest! If you have any advice, or know anyone you can scam some advice off of, please let us know. Lonely Planet is a blessing and a curse! oxoxoxo