Pondicherry and Mamallapuram...

So we get to Pondicherry feeling worse for wear, we are not quite sure what it is but with my man down we check into a decent hotel to get better. The decent hotel (hotel d'Orient - sorry its time to name and shame) just so happens to have the stuffiest room combined with the worst AC system one could install in this heat. You basically have to sit on the floor 10cm away from the unit in order to feel anything. Gavin has a restless night but we both eventually settle down and get some sleep. The next day we check the other rooms and swiftly check out to somewhere with better AC. We get a hotel close to the Manakula Vinayagar temple and as soon as we settle in it all catches up with me and I am out for nearly two days with Gav's bug.

Once we are better its time to explore, actually I am quite happy just to chill and take it easy. Pondy has such a good feel about it, the old French buildings, beautiful tree-lined streets, the beach is 5 minutes down the road and Gav's new friend - Lakshmi the elephant at the temple - which is 30 seconds away.

We instantly fall in love with the place, everything is so easy and it kind of feels like home so much so that even though we are only supposed to be here for a few days we end up staying the full 10 days until its time to make our way back up north to Delhi. The French influence in Pondi is everywhere. French buildings, french schools, french people, french restaurants. It's like wandering round a Parisien suburb full of Indians!

Our days in Pondy are spent going for long heritage walks in the morning, eating at what is probably the best restaurant in the whole of India - yes a very big claim but the line has been drawn and "Surguru Spot" is what everything will be compared to. We love it so much that at the very least we have our lunch and dinner at the restaurant every day! The food is a mixture of dishes from both the North and South but they are cooked to perfection, at a cost of just over a quid per dish! I ask the waiter if the chef would be willing to share any of his recipes and am thrilled when he obliges. Of course since most Indian recipes are according to eye and taste he tells me how to make the dishes and I cannot wait to try these out once I get back to the UK.

We explore a few local sites, the churches, museum and temples, a paper factory... but apart from that the pace is very slow. At one stage Gav rents a moped to zip about the french cobbled street boulevards. Believe me, it's not easy negotiating the roads here with hundreds of bikes, cars, cows, people, dogs, rickshaws etc all over the place. It soon becomes clear to Gav why the use of the horn is so essential in India! Without it, no-one knows you're coming. You see, you dont stop and give way in India at all. No matter where you are, a busy junction, a crossroads, a motorway slip road, the style is to continue, beep your horn like crazy and then adjust speed depending on the proximity of oncoming traffic. A kind of perpetual game of chicken where the prize is escaping with your life . Now, whilst Gav is no expert on Indian driving techniques, he did very, very well and we had great fun scooting off here and there, tooting the horn at anything that moved! That was until we fell off... and Gav no longer wished to ride around Pondi on a scooter! We decided it would be safer on two legs while we still have them!

We arrange for a rickshaw driver - Swami to take us to Auroville just outside for for a day. Pondi is full of shops and institutions which are dedicated to guy called Aurobind and some French lady who is referred to as the Mother. They basically shared the same philosophy on humanity that everyone should be able to live together in peace and harmony and created a village in the 1970's about 15km outside Pondi. Auroville is made up of people from all nationalities who work and live together to realise the dream of their guru. Gav and I can't really argue with the philosophy but it doesn't feel very welcoming since outsiders are only allowed to the visitors centre in Auroville, one cannot go to visit the farms, homes, community etc unless you stay for a long time and contribute to the society. So there are some bits of the whole thing we find cultish and a little creepy. We do however visit the visitors centre and then walk 2km (2km is not a lot but in the scorching heat it feels like 20k!) through beautiful forest, past giant ant-hills to see a giant golden golf ball. The golf ball is made of golden discs and is where the Aurovillians come together for meditation. It has a chamber inside which also house the largest cubic zirconia in the whole world! Wow! I hear you cry , but of course this being Auroville and all, you are only permitted to view the odd structure from a distance and if you want to visit the chamber you need to make a special application, watch the videos on Aurobind and the Mother, visit the visitors centre a number of times and be sure to get your stamps otherwise you have to start over again. Like I said a little bit weird and creepy.

As you must know by now we love our bus journeys so a visit to Tamil Nadu would not be complete without a trip on the bus. This time round we make it onto the super duper Ac Volvo bus but as luck would have it all the seats are gone so its standing room only on the two hour trip to Mamallapuram. Mamallapuram is a 7th century port city and houses some of the best monolithic and rock-cut monuments in India. We get a rickshaw driver - Ramesh to take us round some of the key sites. Our first stop is the five rathas.

(Hello all! Gav taking over now )

I had to do the part about Mamallapuram because I loved it so much. So anyway, we arrive at the 5 rathas, a site dating back to the 7th Century. In fact all of the collection of monuments in Mamallapuram are circa this time and as such are all Unesco World Heritage Sites.

The five Rathas is a set of magnificent monolithic rock temples. They are sometimes called the Panch Rathas as Panch is a Hindi world which means ‘Five’. They are basically rock temples located in a sandy compound, but they are so much more than that. If you're looking for examples of early Dravidian architecture I dont think it gets better than this. All five monuments are built in the shape of pagodas and Rathas in English means chariots. This is basically what the Rathas represent, they are the chariots of the gods. The five rathas are (i) Draupadi’s Ratha, (ii) Arjuna’s Rath, (iii) Nakul – Sahadev’s Rath, (iv) Bhima Rath and (v) Dharamraja Yudhistar’s Rath. They are each carved from one single peice of pink granite boulder (I'm serious, a single peice!). I'll let the photos do the rest of the explaining as to why I loved this place so much.

Just incase you're wondering how they cut massive whole slabs of mountain 1,500 years ago take a look at this picture. You see the series of small square holes in the face of the rock? Into those holes fits a wooden peg. Once the pegs were in place the masons would saturate them with water causing them to expand and with a bit of luck, crack the rock in two. Amazing huh!?

The next stop was an odd sight. Krishna's Butterball. A boulder placed inexplicably and precariously on a sharp slope. That's pretty much it...

Onward to Arjuna's Penance, a fantastic example of 7th Century relief carving, depicting Arjuna's vow to raise his arm in penance to Lord Shiva in return for the power to slay the most powerful gods and demons.

Next, possibly the most incredible place, not for what you can see, but for what you can't see. I'll explain...

The shore temple is undoubtedly beautiful, but much of a muchness after you've been to the Five Rathas and Arjuna's Penance. The real beauty lies in an amazing turn of events during the Sri Lanka Tsunami in 2004. Our guide Ali tells us that he was there when the ocean began to rise, and for 45 minutes there was an abnormally low tide (caused by the tsunami). When the ocean was at its lowest point, six new temples were revealed about 200 meters behind this one. They had been hidden beneath the ocean for 1,500 years. No one knew they were there and no one could believe their eyes. After the tsunami the ocean's level was permanently altered and now you can see six little white dots in the distance behind the shore temple. These are froth generated by waves hitting the submerged temples! I really could not believe it when he told me that story. It was just jaw dropping.

Leaving Mamallapuram thoroughly satisfied with the days sightseeing we returned to Pondi by bus and enjoyed dinner at our usual Surguru spot. The next day we leave for Agra via Chennai and Delhi and drive through the heaviest rain I have ever seen in my life. It's a taste of the monsoon to come and really defies belief...

Stay tuned