Mamallapuram, once an ancient historic town and bustling seaport, is now a beachside tourism centre with a group of Tamil monuments declared as a UNESCO world heritage site and apparently one of the most visited towns in south India.

This was our final stop before Chennai, the hotel was next to the beach but like the rest of India in monsoon, no swimming allowed. However, the hotel had a nice pool and decent facilities which allowed us to "chill out" and we spent the first day walking along the beach and watching the local fishermen.

The next day we took the usual tuk-tuk for some exploration of the various monuments before the heat of the day took us back for some R & R by the pool. For anyone interested, the sights that we saw were -

Descent of the Ganges - a giant open-air rock relief carved on 2 large boulders of pink granite.

The Shore Temple overlooking the Bay of Bengal - the only one of 7 still standing

Pancha Ratha (AKA five chariots). Each carved from a single piece of granite in 630AD

The lighthouse dating back to 1894

Krishna's Butterball - a 250 ton boulder standing on a slope which has apparently stood in the same place for 1200 years. Even an attempt to use 7 elephants to move it was unsuccessful

Finally one our way to Chennai and the next leg .......