The Bruner Family Journey: Mamallapuram

At the Shore Temple in Mamallapuram, India

We had a smooth flight from Istanbul to Chennai, India (with a stop in Abu Dhabi) on Etihad Airlines, which has quickly become a family favorite due to the spacious seating and wide array of on-demand in-flight movies and television shows. Upon landing in Chennai, the first thing we noticed was the dramatic change in the weather - the nip in the air in Turkey was gone, replaced by a thick, sticky blanket of heat and humidity, even at 5:00 in the morning. Jeremy's first question was whether our hotel had air conditioning, and his second was whether we could go back to Turkey "or somewhere else cold, like England." We traveled by hired car for the 90-minute ride from the airport in Chennai to Mamallapuram, a small coastal town in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India with a colorful fishing beach and some very impressive ancient temples and rock carvings.

Butterscotch milkshake by the pool

But Mamallapuram is not just about sightseeing, or even experiencing the "true" India. As our Lonely Planet guidebook jokingly points out, "Mal" (as many travelers call it) is part of the "Federation of Backpackistan" - a loose and unofficial alliance of laid-back towns spread out across Asia that cater to barefoot, long-haired twenty-somethings aimlessly traveling the world. The kids didn't quite appreciate this side of Mamallapuram until they sat down in one of the town's European-owned open-air restaurants, which offer cornflakes, Nutella pancakes, spaghetti with butter, and chicken nuggets with french fries. I definitely appreciated the banana yogurt drinks and creamy iced coffees. There are also a few upscale resorts for those who have graduated from backpacker status - we haven't yet, but we did make sure to take full advantage of one mid-range resort that was next to our modest guesthouse, swimming in the large pool and ordering butterscotch milkshakes. Though it did feel weird to spend more on going to the pool (about $14 per visit for the whole family) than on our lodgings (about $11 per night).

In India, they drive and moo on the left side of the road
(but park facing the wrong way)

Despite the cappuccinos and chocolate cake, this is still India - with chaotic traffic and a lot of honking, cows in the middle of the street, a disturbing amount of garbage, pollution and poverty, and multiple daily occurrences of blatantly obvious male public urination. But don't let that put you off from visiting Tamil Nadu. The rock carvings and Hindu temples are spectacular, the food (Indian and Western) is fantastic, and the people are incredibly welcoming, to the point where a major attraction at pretty much every sight we visited during our three-week stay was talking - and posing for pictures - with friendly locals and Indian tourists.

Posing at the Shore Temple

Mamallapuram in particular boasts four noteworthy sights. First, there's the Shore Temple, which was originally constructed in the 7th century by the Pallava kings who ruled the region. Legend has it that it's the last of a series of Hindu temples built in the region right on the edge of the Indian Ocean - the others were washed away long ago. It's a small but very elegant temple devoted to the major Hindu deity of Shiva, and its dramatic seaside setting makes it worth visiting more than once. The rock carvings have an almost impressionistic feel to them, after centuries of erosion by the sea and the wind. The Shore Temple is one of two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in town.

The other is the Five Rathas, which consists of five small temples built in the 7th century, each devoted to a different Hindu god, and each carved out of a single piece of rock. Like the Shore Temple, the site is not as large or imposing as many of the Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu, but what it lacks in grandeur it more than makes up for in its refined and harmonious design. We spent quite some time here, admiring the beautiful architecture and talking at length with a group of gregarious Indian tourists from Chennai.

Four of the Five Rathas

A partial view of Arjuna's Penance

The third attraction is Arjuna's Penance, a massive bas-relief carved into two adjoining 40-foot high boulders. Constructed in the 7th century, it's a stunning sight, dominated by two large elephants, and bursting with vivid imagery taken from Hindu myth, fantasy, and everyday life. The city holds an annual dance festival, which we were fortunate enough to catch one evening, on a stage set up right in front of Arjuna's Penance. Attracted by the music, goats gather on the top of the boulders, perched above the dramatically lit rock carvings. It would have been a perfect travel experience, except for the mosquitos that also gathered at the performance, apparently attracted by the blood of my family. Behind Arjuna's Penance, there's a large, hilly park with a host of small rock-carved shrines and mandapams (a pillared outdoor pavilion used for public rituals) to explore, a pretty old lighthouse, nice views over the town and its surroundings, and plenty of aggressive little monkeys.

The fourth attraction is the beach. The main part of the beach isn't really for swimming (it's filled with fishing boats and cows, and is not altogether clean), but there are some very attractive and clean stretches of beach just outside of town in either direction. We didn't go swimming, as we heeded the warnings about the strong riptides, which claim a number of lives each year. But the real attraction is walking along the beach to take pictures of the fishermen and their colorful boats, the equally colorful local characters, and the Indian tourists who come to gather seashells. The beach is lined with relaxed open-air restaurants - with innovative and distinctive names like "Seabreeze," "Seaview," "Seashore," "Seaside," "Sea Rock," "Le Yogi," and "Bob Marley" (Irie!) - serving impeccably fresh seafood.

So, that does it for Mamallapuram. But don't worry, there are plenty of places to follow with long funky names that I can't pronounce correctly. Just keep an eye out for our upcoming blog posts on Kanchipuram, Chidambaram, Tiruvannamalai, and Tiruchirappalli (also known, thankfully, as Trichy).