Temples and Takes

Another early morning as we awoke to the alarm again...this time to leave by 7:30 for our weekend trip.

Stephen had hired a car and driver for Marcia and Greg, Montana and LuRue, then fortunately came along to act as our guide. We were headed for Kanchipuram, a famous city in the state of Tamil Nadu, nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Temples". It is considered one of the seven holiest cities to the Hindus of India.

Stephen was a fount of knowledge about all the fables connected with the various Hindu gods carved in stone that we were viewing. Apparently every Hindu god (and there are millions) rides a creature from the animal (including bird) kingdom. The dominant god we saw represented today was Shiva, who rides a bull (an ox). Many of the temples we saw date back to the 7th or 8th century & at least one took about 500 years to complete. 

Stephen is actually a practicing Catholic, so has gained his knowledge from taking courses.

At the first temple place we visited, an elephant was just inside the entrance. Montana and Marcia stepped forward with coins. The elephant took the coins from each and tapped each on the head with its trunk.

As we were walking sock-footed through the final temple, Stephen explained why we weren't wearing shoes. Yes, it was to keep the temple clean from dirt outside, but it was mostly to walk on the pebbly, knobbed surface in order to stimulate the acupuncture points on our feet, which serves to promote better health.

After leaving the temple town, we spent another three hours driving to Pondicherry, now renamed as Puducherry. Stephen says that Indians like to change names...Mumbai was once Bombay, Chennai was once Madras, etc. We volunteers speculated that it might be throwing off the last vestiges of colonialism.

Statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Puducherry

Puducherry is a resort town on the Bay of Bengal. Huge boulders lie between the breakwater and the ocean, so there are no beaches, but there is a very nice boulevard that runs quite a distance along the shore. It is closed off to traffic after 6:00pm, reserving it for pedestrians.

After Montana and LuRue had settled into their room at the Lotus Hotel, they took a walk along the boulevard & explored a bit. When returning to the hotel, they saw a crowd on the street corner there & of course wondered what was going on. There seemed to be some scuffling going on, but no one seemed particularly angry. Then Montana said, "There's a camera!" Then it was clear...there was a scene from a movie being filmed. Montana & LuRue watched for several minutes and several takes were required for a guy to confront a young woman, show that her purse was empty, then beat her on the head & kick her away as she stomped off toward the camera.

Everyone met in the hotel lobby, then we took off down the boulevard...to a Baskin & Robbins. Stephen knows how much Montana and LuRue like ice cream. The evening finished at a French & Italian restaurant near the hotel.

Tomorrow morning is sleep-in morning, with breakfast delivered to the room. Yayy!!