this was taken outside a hindu temple in "downtown" pondicherry which is an old french settlement 2 hours south of chennai on the coast. elephants, and of course cows are held in high regards in india.
ahhh, the one and only, monkey boy! also taken in pondicherry... here i was, the only white person on the pier gazing out at the indian ocean on a beautiful sunny day and out of nowhere pops little monkey boy in front of me. he was a foot away from me and just started grunting and hopping up and down. i was completely sober, yet, i felt like i had ingested some of those funny mushrooms. after 10 seconds of speechlessness, i said, "can i take your picture?"... apparently, monkey boy understands english! he jumped back a few feet and posed for the camera. i gave him a 2 rupee coin and thankfully he wandered away to disturb another unsuspecting visitor. i still have bad dreams about this thing.
action photo of monkey boy when i spotted him down the pier later... i had no idea he had a tail too?!!?
cows, cows everywhere! this is a common sight anywhere in india... i swear, even in the "downtown" streets of a big city like chennai, it is amazing what you will see out on the roads... cows, dogs, goats, water buffalos, elephants, and all sorts of vehicles like you wouldn't believe. lots of eye candy for sure. a lot of the cows horns were painted in mid january for the pongol festival... it has something to do with the rice harvest. big celebration and for whatever reason they paint cows during this time.
mammalapuram... aka mahabilapuram... aka mahabs for short. very old temple town on the coast south of chennai. this is the famous old seashore temple... there have been just a few restorations done, but for the most part, this temple has stood on the coast since the 7th century i believe. it even withstood the tsunami of 2004.
also taken at mahabs. this boulder dangerously rests on a hill next to one of the temples at mahabs. this boulder is called krishna's butterball after lord krishna. the guide i had with me said that this boulder was never "placed" here, it always was there, and always will be. it really is wild standing under this thing... unbelievable how it can stand there on this hill... zoom in to see the lady meditating under the boulder.
