Mahabaliparum

July 22, 2008, Chennai South to Mahabalipuram. We visited this temple city and it was pretty cool. We went temple hopping and almost caused an International incident. Our tour guide is an archaeologist and he suggested we climb this temple that is a monoliths. This site is one of the world heritage sites. I volunteered to climb the temple. I get up and even find stairs to get to the top and one of my fellow Fulbrighters wants to come up also. As I help him up we get the whistle blown by a police man. After some tense conversation in Tamil, we get down. This area is a fishing area so there are boats everywhere. We visited a local museum that moved local houses to this site. It used to be in Chennai that a merchant had a huge house built in a certain style, a banker had a certain style of house and so forth. This tradition is long gone but they have moved all the houses to create a museum village. Many school children come here. Today all the Fulbrighters signed autographs like rocks stars for a local all girls catholic school. It was fun interacting with them.
People have asked me about the food. We have eaten like kings since we have arrived. The fruits available and fruit juices are awesome. Then they make all the American food with a twist (mango pancakes) then there is all the Indian food. The food depends on the region. There are grain regions, so the foods of those regions are mostly grains. In some regions there are more beans and legumes so the food can be different. There is not a whole lot of meat. Most people here are vegetarian. On the coast we do get fish. Sheep and goat are available at most meals. The desserts are to die for. I have cut out the desserts for the most part and only eat two meals a day. I am on the last notch of my belt and I have not seen that notch for awhile. I will work on getting pictures and details of the food. I eat so much stuff here that I have no idea what it is. I got to go, as I am at an internet caffe and there is a long line