Adventures in India: Mamallapuram

For this weekend's trip we went to another beach town called Mamallapuram. There we had the opportunity to do some more shopping see some ruins and hang out on the beach. Neither my friend Paid nor I was super crazy about sitting on a beach all day so we spend most of the day shopping around town and strolling around the ruins. I love shopping here because everything is so cheap and it is really fun to bargain with the salesmen. I was able to get a chudidhar and sandals made for me for less than 30 dollars. I also got some of other cool souvenirs such as a hand-carved elephant and a beautifully hand-stitched wall hanging. When we had exhausted the shopping we walked over to the ruins to check them out. They were super cool. The intricacy and detail of the carvings is absolutely incredible. But I'd have to say my favorite part was watching a monkey sit on the ruins and drink a coca cola he had stolen. I have to admit though that monkeys are pretty smart. Later, I tried taking back a wallet a monkey had stolen from a lady and it just sat there and teased me. He totally faked me out a couple times before jumping into a tree where I had no chance. I could have been irritated but seeing him fake me out was one of the funniest things I've ever seen.