South India Full Day 3 - Mamallapuram monuments & Pondicherry
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- čas přidán 19. 03. 2015
- Jeff’s birthday at Mamallapuram monuments site-Shore Temple, Five Rathas & Arjuna’s Penance. Secret men's bar, Pondicherry French Quarters, fun elephant blessing and parrot astrology.
South India travel video. Overseas Adventure Travel group tour Soul of India - the Colorful South, Friday 10-24-14: The day started with Jeff's birthday celebration by Krishna's butterball at the amazing Mamallapuram Unesco World Heritage monuments site. Sudha, our tour guide, explained to us the differences of the cave carving process where whole temples are carved out of rocks. We could see practice walls and caves by the roadside where young sculptures trained in the art. I guess people would really be upset with you if you made a mistake and messed up a whole temple and years’ worth of work.
We also saw the amazingly intricate rock art called the ‘Descent of the Ganges”, with myriad of carved designs, including cobras, huge elephants, baby elephants, monkeys, real people, mythical beings, etc. This is where Arjuna’s Penance is carved. Sudha gave us background on his story, which is part of the Mahabharata, the longest known Hindu epic poem. Watch for the story of the sneaky cat with the full belly :)
We then visited the Five Rajas. A set of temples modeled after chariots (it's also called The Five Chariots). It's mind-blowing that people would even think of carving out that much rock to form these huge structures. They are not built - they are carved out! even the negative space between the temples and the huge animal statues has been purposely flattened.
Next stop was Unesco World Heritage Shore temple, believed to be part of what sailors used to call the "Seven Pagodas" which they used as navigation landmarks. The temple faces the Bay of Bengal and must look like a pagoda from the sea. Warning about an incident of abuse towards a dog. We have to remember that in some countries/areas treating animals with kindness is an emerging idea. It needs to be taught. Kindness IS contagious.
We then visited what Sudha calls "secret men's bar" because that is where men go to hide from their wives. They tell their wives they are going to work and then go to the bar to drink with their friends. We tasted the local beer and got to see how they serve the liquor - the water comes in a little plastic bag!
Afterwards, we had a wonderful lunch at Le Club in Pondicherry, enjoying the succulent fresh fish that we were served so often in South India. We walked the French Quarter of Pondicherry, seeing the beautiful Eglise de Notre Dame des Anges (Church of Our Lady of Angels) which was built by French Missionaries in 1865 and is modeled after the Lourdes Basilica, policemen wearing kepis, the French military caps with the flat circular top and visor, and streets with names such as “Rue Dumas”. The police station, labeled in French “Maison de la Police”, actually had a pretty little garden in front of it. We saw a genuine 'chaiwala', tea selling vendor, rickshaws, tuk tuks, and men and women picking up their kids from school on scooters. Sudha sawed us how he used to make whistles out of tree leaves when he was a boy.
We then walked by the Pondicherry Promenade. Kids were having fun climbing up to the statue of the 'Father of India' Mohandas Gandhi and people were starting to get together for pleasant strolls and to watch the beautiful sunset. Goubert Avenue (Beach Road) that runs by the Bay of Bengal turns pedestrian in the evening and comes alive - the whole promenade fills with vendors selling food, drinks, and all sorts of things. Great people watching place, but unfortunately, I was too tired to return - maybe a reason to visit Pondicherry again :)
Several of our travelers were told their fortune by a parrot. Parrot astrology or fortune-telling used to be very prevalent in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Nowadays the practice is in jeopardy of disappearing. The astrologer has a trained parrot in a cage and stacks of special cards in front of him. There are 27 cards with images of Hindu deities, Buddha, Jesus, or the Virgin Mary. He lets out the parrot and, with his beak, he selects a card from the stack, and hands it to the astrologer / fortune teller who interprets it for you based on the image that is selected. It seemed pretty accurate!
Then, near Ganesha's Temple, we had a very fun interaction with Lakshmi, a smart and adorable necklace wearing elephant that "blesses" you by tapping you on the head. Sudha bought greens for us to give her, but she really preferred money. It's unbelievable how delicate elephants can be with that big strong trunk. She hands the bills to the mahout so smoothly, she could have been a pick-pocket.
Nearby is the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a Hindu meditation retreat, that had a lovely garden and was full of people, but we were not allowed to take photos or video.
if pallavas were Egyptian they would have built pyramids not Hindu temples..the guide didn't knew the facts
100s of huge temples can be found in kanchipuram, Thanjavur, madurai with beautiful architecture.
Pondicherry is very beautiful, as well as the rest of India too.
Happy Birthday Jeffrey
Public comments. Mother India is wonderful and blessed with lots of resources and opportunity .food and fresh vegetables and fruits .nice people I enjoy watching .
loved jeff birthday
Wtf was the guide saying about the Egyptian connection!! He was just making up certain things which weren't true.
what a fun tour
Nancy , Recently I went through your videos ,
Am Happy that you and the team enjoyed the Southern Part of India , Your smile ur descriptions in the video shows us that how much you were enjoying the Trip .
Also to those who are blaming the Guide , Please do respect he may be not a Professional historian , But in all the Video I saw he did his best to make them Informative with the knowledge he was having and made sure that the tourist enjoyed the Culture , Food , Religion , Nature and Other Prospects of South India .
Bravo Guide
Nancy Do Visit us again . We welcome such Lovely Tourists .
Maneesh Kumar T Thank you for your kind comments Maneesh. Yes, we truly enjoyed our visit and I am very much looking forward to seeing beautiful India again!
Worst guide
wow.. im from north india. this video was soo good and that guide has so much of information .
Thank you very much! Yes, we all loved our tour guide. He is a great person as well, always giving and kind to those less fortunate than he is.
+Nancy Ioannidis 😀
@@NancyIoannidis he is an amazing guide, quite funny too. please dont mind the negative comments about him. some people cant swallow the bitter truths in our country probably coz they live in a situation where they dont have to face it. I would rather believe the guide as he is well traveled than many of the people who comments here
Deserves lot a likes and wishes.. It was a great capture .. Best ..
Thank you very much 😊 very glad you enjoyed it!
@@NancyIoannidis Thanks Nancy
@@NancyIoannidis u r guide is asshole
Please Nancy can you give me the name to the resort in the beginner to the video! Thank you
Maria, I think you are asking about the Radisson Blu Resort Temple Bay Mamallapuram
Address: 57, Kovalam Road, Kanchipuram Dist, Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu 603104, India
Phone:+91 44 2744 3636.
The next hotel is Hotel Atithi
126, S. V. Patel Salai, Puducherry, 605001, India
Phone: +91 413 234 5000 / 1.
Have a wonderful time when you visit!
Congrats , but no connection with Egypt , king Mammallan ruled pallava kingdom from 630 to 668 AD. The guide has no basic knowledge in history.
Not allowed to enter a temple with shoes on!!
My sincere apologies! I will know in the future if I'm blessed to visit again.
What egyptians?, I am sorry guys,this guys has no idea of what he is talking about.
he said they may come from, and scientists suspect this because of similarity in dna and all the humans orginated in africa so they have to pass through egypt to get to India probably through sea
Guide or Misguide ??? !!!
Guide knows lot about garbage..may be his part time job is to collect garbage and full time job is to talk garbage like Indian kings are Egyptians.
its not garbage, no one knows real history so dont act like you know. he said they may come from, and scientists suspect this because of similarity in dna and all the humans orginated in africa so they have to pass through egypt to get to India probably through sea
Guide is a missionary brainwashed. Shiva lingam is not phallus, it represents consciousness.