Chennai, India - Thursday, March 11

After being on the ship for 8 days which flew by we arrived in Chennai India. In those 8 days we had a “Middle School” dance which for these students meant 90’s music consisting of Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys. I explained to the students that if it was my middle school dance we would be dressed in flannel rocking out to Pearl Jam and Nirvana. The Sea Olympics also happened during this time which I have already blogged about and there was also more Spiritual Dance.

First I must say that is different being in India without my friend Kristen it is almost surreal that I was here on 'vacation' over 2 years ago.  Anyway, the disembarkation process was not typical but that is to be expected since none have them have really been consistent. I did not leave the ship until around noon because I had a trip to attend and just observing the port I knew this was not a place I would want to walk through anyway. In order to get out from where the ship was docked you had to walk through a semi dangerous industrial area to then get a rickshaw to take you into town. I never had to do this walk because I either had a trip or transportation provided out of the port area.

A statue of Gandhi in Chennai:

I took this photo on the way to Mamallapurum:

So on this first day in Chennai I went with Laura on a Semester at Sea trip to Mamallapuram which is an ancient port city on the Pallava kings and is famous for 3 major sights or great architectural and artistic merit. On the way to Mamallapuram we stopped for a traditional South Indian meal (feast!). South Indian food is traditionally served on a banana leaf and eaten with your hands. This type of meal is known as a Thali; it was quite delicious and despite washing my hands several times the smell of Indian food lingered on my right hand (because the left hand should be used for cleaning not eating).

After lunch we visited the Five Rathas which are large stone edifices that are sculptured into to different examples of architecture. This was sculpted in the 6th century but not uncovered until the 19th. What is fascinating is that it is all sculpted out of one very large stone.

Random Street Cows:

Our next stop was the 1200 year old Shore temple which was under construction but still provided for some excellent photo opps.

Today provided the first of many encounters that we would have with children on the street begging for money and trying to sell us things. It is sad that I can ignore these things but I know it is necessary, I think that this was a challenge for some of our students but I hope that the interactions we had today will help them as they continue to travel throughout India. We have been told and I agree that instead of giving these children money to give it to an organization which can provide help and support to a greater good. And the work I will do the next day will provide a greater impact. Though it is still difficult because I know that the significance of $1 to these children is so much greater then to me and I continue to examine the privileges that I have and how to use them for good and to effect change.

This was taken from the bus:

The last stop in Mamallapurum was the the Arjuna’s Penance which is the largest bas relief in the world. The highlight of this particular stop were the monkeys that lived here and were as prevalent as squirrels in Central Park, but distracted me from taking in the purpose of our visit.

Krishna's Butter Ball (insert shoulder shrug here):

After leaving the Mamallapurum area we headed back to the ship and I would be meeting up with some friends for a meal that would prove to be one of the best meals ever at Sigree!!! We had overflowing Naan, Dahl that I cannot even put the tastes into words, Tandori chicken that was moist and delicious, Saag Paneer that had the smoothest pureed spinach I have had and 2 other dishes that we could only describe as yellow and red. I was happy to meet up with these friends because we had secured ourselves a pretty sweet ride to and from the restaurant and we enjoyed all of the tastes we experienced in this meal. It brought to my mind the book ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ and made me truly appreciate all of the food that I was eating from the simplest of the breads we were eating to the most complex combination of flavors in the ‘red’ Masala dish we were eating. We also had a great encounter with one of our waiters who asked if we knew what was in one of the Chutneys we were eating we guesses onion and Mango, he laughed and told us to keep thinking and walked away. When he returned we guessed Papaya and we got it. He was so proud of this Chutney that it made it even better then it was.

Our sweet ride: