Raja and Dan

If you look at the album called "Touring in Chennai," it chronicles my time in Tamil Nadu, the southeastern state in India. Saturday was our "free day," so I rented a car and driver, and rode 75 km or so to Kanchipuram, the "city of a thousand temples."

The first four photos are outside the temples, with one photo of me included, as per Betsy's request.

Then the photos are inside the temple. The dark stone pillars weren't that interesting to me, but the carved painted statues were pretty wild looking. My guide, who was Catholic (not Hindu), couldn't tell me much about them. In fact, when I asked how old the temple was, he said, "70 years." And I had to tell him that we weren't allowed into the inner sanctuary b/c we aren't Hindu. According to my guide, 30% of India is Catholic, 60% Hindu, and 10% Muslim. He may be right, but I'm not certain that he is too good with numbers. I saw as many Catholic churches (1) as other Christian churches (1) in Chennai, and I saw about 50 temples. Maybe all the construction workers were Hindu in the 1500s.

Anyway, look at the photos of the temples. They are interesting, and we can talk about them on the phone if you like.

Photo 12 is bad. Photo 13 is another "tank," which appears to fill with rainwater during rainy season, and slowly evaporate the rest of the year. It's interesting. They stock it with fish, and do acts of worship around it. I wonder if it represents valuing water as a source of life, especially as much of the water in the towns is stagnant and putrid.

Photo 14 is the first of many animal photos. Outide the city, there are livestock everywhere. And not everybody is a vegetarian. This is called a bullcart.

Photos 16 and 17 are elephants. Ganesh is a Hindu god that looks like an elephant, and elephants are used in temple worship. There will be more of that to come. More elephants up to 20. Interspersed are pictures of temples under construction and me standing in front of temples. Boring.

By the way, I videoed a bunch of this stuff, and we can look at the videos when I return.

21-26 is a silk loom. Kanchipuram is a textiles town, and I wished that I hadn't already bought the silk I was going to buy. The weaving is pretty interesting, and I can tell you about it by phone.

The queue in the next series of temple photos is people waiting to go in to worship at noon.

After Kanchipuram, we headed back tot eh coast for some lunch (some 60km away). It took forever, mainly b/c of traffic from a dancing festival in Kanchipuram.

I had lunch by the ocean in a town called Mamallapuram and took a few beach photos (30-31) just to prove it exists. Looks like Ocean City (though it's warmer in January).

Next I saw the only natural wonder of the day, a huge rock called "Krishna's butter ball," which appears to be balanced precariously on a slope. Since the earthquake and tsunami didn't move it, I suppose we're safe for now.

Photos 33 onward are my trudgings through what are called "caves," but what are really temples carved into rocks. Mamallapuram looks like a stone quarry town despite the sandy beaches. People were breaking large boulders everywhere with little axes, and there were lots of stone carvings for sale.

39 & 41 are a famous rock carving, but since I don't know the history of it, I don't have mch to say about it.

40 is some of those stone carvings for sale. I was riding in the car, so the picture isn't great.
42 is a better picture of more of the same.

43 is a goat. There were fewer goats than cattle, but there were some of everything.

After I climbed up the lighthouse and saw all around, we got back in the car for Chennai. I took some random shots of shanties on the side of the road to show a sense of the life of farmers and villagers. 44 is one of them, but mostly I got this through videos.

We stopped at Crocodile bank on the way home. There were a crazy number of crocodiles, as you will see in photos 45-54. There was also a King Cobra. So I did see a cobra in India after all. I hope that I don't see any others. Be sure to check out the funky crocodiles with the tiny noses. I think Wesley will like them.

Photo 55 is a silly amusement park I saw on the way back to Chennai. Do you think Walt Disney will sue?

The last three are some Cashmere rugs for sale for a mere $10K or so. I got shuffled into this store, and the salesman was not going to let me leave without buying something. I was firm, but polite, and I told him I would show my wife these pictures. So please let me know if you want me to buy a ten thousand dollar rug so our kids can potty train on it. Shipping is free.

I love you and will call soon.