We Have Arived

It is 11:00 and we are just waking up. We finally made it to our hotel around 2:30 am last night. The trip here went smoothly. Lufthansa is definitely a great way to fly. Larry says it reminds him of air travel in the US 30 years ago. Great service, 2 hot meals. On our first flight, the attendants seemed to be having fun racing each other to see who could finish first. We met some great people - a woman from Hong Kong and a man who works for Microsoft and was flying to Bangalore for his wedding. And for anyone wanting to practice German you get a good chance on the flights. First flight -- 9-1/2 hours. Second flight 10 hours. We are happy to be ambulatory again!!!

When we arrived, you could feel the humidity and smell the scent of tropical flowers. We got through customs quickly which included a swine flu check. When you walk out of the airport, there is a sea of faces everywhere. I guess many of the international flights come in late at night. So many cars and people everywhere.

A driver from the hotel picked us up. Ganesh (named after elephant god) was very kind. Honking is done for a variety of reasons. It took me a minute to remember that they steer on right hand and drive on the left hand side of the road. His strategy was to drive down the middle as often as he could to avoid the wandering cows and dogs (who seem to have a built in sense of traffic but he said they sometimes sleep in the road). The shop keepers put out carrots, beets and other scraps that they feed on, and then the owners put out food and water to give them an incentive to come home and be milked in the morning.

We are staying at a hotel on the beach about one hour from Chennai. It is very beautiful. We bought some cowry shells that are intricately carved with a pin. Larry got a mother of pearl that is the most amazing shell he has ever seen. We bought them from Arul who was very proud of being in school. The teens would love the beach and waves.

We visited the temples at Mamallapuram this afternoon with a 17 year old boy, Mani, who explained the stone carvings and temples to us. Erin would love it. Huge boulder rocks everywhere. One called butter rock is huge and balanced sitting on one end looking like it will roll over any second. But of course has not for 1,400 years. All the temples are carved into solid granite leaving no room for mistakes. The temples which are scattered between the large granite boulders. There were many Indian families on holiday. Amongst all the people were dogs, monkey and goats. The goats nimbly scrambled up the sides of the big boulders. There was an adorable two day old goat. It kept trying to lay down and its mother kept nudging it to stand up. Mani is in school learning to be atone carver, one of a hundred stone carvers outside the temples.