A week roadtrip in SE India

Ganesh

I had plans to spend 23 days in India riding a motorbike down the southern east coast from Chennai to the tip at Kanyakumari and up the west coast to Kochi. Myriad reasons helped me decide to cut the trip short. I did ride 400km down the east coast and had some wonderful experiences. 

I landed in Chennai, received a rental motorbike and rode 70km south east along the coast to Mahabalipuram. This coastal archaeological site is quite beautiful. Massive outcroppings of granite provide a source for cave based temples and monuments. Spectacular carvings into the rock faces tell the stories and history of a culture. As one might imagine, some of the best granite sculptors in India have studio/businesses in this small village.

I arrived in the early evening and this was about a block from my hotel.
This cave carved temple made me curious for the morning.

There were rumors of surf at Mahabalipuram beach, so I went at sunrise. There was a surfshop, but nobody in the water. This is the local "Dawn Patrol", an equal number of fishermen, beachcombers and cows. Cows wander...everywhere in India. The water was a bit too brown to chance a few waves, so I decided to head off to the Archaeological sites before the midday heat.








I am here at the red dot.


The Descent of the Ganges is a giant open air carved rock relief carved into a massive boulder. It also includes a carved cave with relief carvings that tell cultural stories.

Triple celled rock cut shrine for Shiva

Krishna's Butterball

Sand Temple...surrounded by statues of cows...

Locally carved granite Sculpture for sale

they asked me...honest!

night time entertainment...sort of a street faire.

The next morning I rode another 125km down the coast to Puducherry. Here are some of the many temples and sights along the road.

Gandhi

Puducherry was clean and orderly, but not too much to see or do. It is interesting to me that many expat French people have relocated to both Mahabalipuram and Puducherry. Majority of tourists were also from France or other areas of India

Nehru

Anyway , I then rode down the coast another 200km looking for a beach to jump in, but everywhere there were posted signs, "No Swimming". It was mighty hot! After 400km, my bony Irish ass hurt like a case of saddle sore on steroids. Traffic and rules of the road are creatively based on the volume of your horn and willingness to cheat death...I had made plans to meet up a week later in Trichy with Craig Simon and son Drew with the intention of shipping the bikes (they had bicycles) 400km by train down to the tip of India at Kanyakumari and then riding up the west coast up to Kochi. While in Puducherry, I learned that a foreigner could not transport a rented motorbike on a train. That option gone, I felt riding 400km more just to meet them, then 400km again up to Kochi was just not a great idea. Trichy was a very busy (insane traffic) city. I surrendered the motorbike back to the rental company agent in Trichy. I willingly must admit that every single moment of the 400km that I did ride was White-knuckle stress. I had a great time, but was very happy to return to Nai Harn Phuket in one piece. The food was fantastic, the people very friendly, although the number of people of all ages begging for money was very sad. I was amazed at how little trash/litter I saw. It was so much cleaner than I expected. I liked the 4 towns I visited and the countryside in between. I plan to someday make that trip from Kanyakumari up to Kochi someday. Supposed to be some good bodysurfing at a beach called Kovalam.