Mamallapuram, the town that no one person pernounces the same. To sound savy I asked the bus driver at Chennai's Bus Depot if he was heading to "Mamammallalapuramammasdaf.....mumble mumble mumble."
-head bobble means go.
Arrived in the town I determinedly put my head down and ignored all the annoying touts trying to tell me the hotels were the other way down the road. Yeah yeah yeah right next to your silk shop/massage parlour/opium den. Psh. I marched down the beach searching for these beach hotels that were bound to appear on the horizon but nay. The army barricade finally convinced me that despite popular beleif, the map outside the bus station doesnt actually point north but to the beach. Duh.
Bounced back and forth from backpacker hotel to shnazzy suits deciding whether or not to splurge. I was followed the whole way by the owner of a so called Lakshmi lodge with a swimming pool and private patio for 6 $ a night. As if. It was getting dark and I decided to whip the old Lonely Planet and just do eenie meeni meini mo (how is that actually spelt...?). Noticed a blurb on Lakshmi lodge, praising it as the best valued hotel in town with swimming pool and patios for cheap... it had a side note - "mind the overbearing owner". I was sold.
After my first swim in 4 months I meandered lazily around the main street and segweyed up some stairs to the Rose Corner Cafe. And Huzzah! The first foreigners I had seen in 4 days. I invited myself into their cardgame. Met some surprisingly uncrassly traveling american students, brits from Newcastle and a very pretty Dutch girl, Sanna, who's attention was repeatedly stolen from me by the flirtatious waiter who forgot my dish for a good 2 hours. Spent the following day blazing through Angels & Demons (which I highly recommend!!) on the beach. Nodded off and woke to saliva dripping on my face from a panting stray dog that had either had another head at one point or a tumour bitten off from his neck. Lovely.
Sat down and carved a sandstone face with a local sculpter; to be honest I just mhmmed and ahhhed and watched him correct my mistakes. Still, I came away with a little pendant for a necklace resembling the face of either Buddha or that guy in the adds for white spot. Did as many laps in the pool as I could while local boys jumped from the surrounding roof into the shallow end. We're just too pampered in the west! Arthritis is like the common cold here when they have everything else to worry about I guess. Hoped on the bus to Chennai to meet mum and said bye bye to Mamamusa;lfdsjahfkjdshfkj.
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