Everything's ruined!

Next morning, Pondicherri.  Chandan came and picked us up withouth any Austrian intervention and we proceeded to drive the whole day to Pondi.  In the meantime we stopped at one of the most astounding historical/archaeological sites ever of Mamallapuram and had snapper.  Now this kind of cheapens the experience by saying we had snapper but it was great snapper, at a restaurant called Moonrakers.  There is another restaurant called Moonrakers two doors up owned and run by the brother of the one who owned and ran the one we were in.  They were feuding at the time.  Having been called James Bond again by the orphans the previous day, I thought it was fitting.  As an aside, Heather and I have been eating out in India every day, neither of us have been sick.  Look, it's really not hard, be mindfull about your hygeine but not obsessive, be aware and you'll have no care.  I should be a copy writer.

Where were we? oh yeah mamallapuram, so you can see by the photos in bc times people were carving this stuff out of granite, the noses may have been chipped off in a later invasion/occupation by the islamic based culture but the beauty is still evident.  Yes, granite, yes, thousands of years old.  The sad part about all this is the disregard in which this heritage is held.  Sure the majority are proud of their heritage and bang on about it, but little actually understand or appreciate it.  For instance, there was a site we visited beforehand that was recently uncovered by the last tsunami.  It features roman walls built around a basic monolith temple and no one knows why.  There were sure to be relics, peices to be picked up but it's been cleaned out by the government.  Check ebay.  All that stands now is the original excavated site,in a field surrounded by a rudimentary rope fence and cared for by none.  I was standing amongst roman built structures, unencumbered by guards or any security, I could have brought a roman brick home.  WTF?

For the ignorant, and I mean that nicely as I'm talking about myself also.  Yeah, the Romans were here, so were the egyptians, the early chinese, pretty much everyone.  That's why i have a lot of reading to do.  Thats why I'm kind of shocked at the blase attitude india has to its heritage.  Maybe because ours is so short, or maybe because we also take for granted the heritage we have before the europeans arrived.  Anyway, moving on.  Rant averted.

So, we arrived in Pondicherri and well, it was all that every town/city in india I've experienced so far at night should be.  Busy, a little dirty, crowded and confusing. Chandan did take us to a wine shop where we got beer for 50 rupees, about 6 times less than the resort (longnecks no less) and we checked in and slept.  Oh and Chandan the empathetic soul asked me if I was worried about his driving on the way up.  Nup, not a bit, different country different driving and he did this trip more than once a week.  He even asked if I wanted to drive, to which i politely declined, I don't have the temperament for driving here, it'd be a diplomatic incident in the extreme.