SOUTHWARD BOUND & BACK…Captivated in Chennai!
Erma Bombeck
Are back from Chennai down in the South of India, where it was baking hot…& yet we had a great time. For me, obviously anything to do with baking had to be good!!! Thanks to great leads from Arundathi @ My Food Blog, Rachel @ Tangerines Kitchen & Divya @ Easy Cooking, all wonderful Chennai bloggers, I knew just where to head. Arundathi has pre-warned me that kids in Chennai for 1 week was asking for trouble! Spot on…but we managed pretty well. The hotel was beautiful…Raintree, South India’s First ECOTEL Ò Hotel, which importantly had a lovely rooftop pool – which was the perfect answer for bored kids! 
Famous Shore Temple, Mahabalipuram/Mamallapuram
Right on top of the must-do’s was a visit to the ancient port city of Mahabalipuram, a classified UNESCO World Heritage site, an hour’s drive from Chennai. We left Chennai at 5 in the morning coz we wanted to catch sun-rise on the beach. Unfortunately, it was slightly cloudy so we missed the sun-rise, but the waters & the beach were absolutely glorious.
We descended on a sleepy village called Kovalam in time to catch the sun, & were enthralled by fishermen setting off in fishing boats, star fish & coral brought in by the tide, crabs scuttling along the beach & roosters giving wake-up calls. The village was far removed from reality…rural to the core, with people who looked like they’d walked out of last century, laid-back & in slow-motion. Wonderfully surreal!!
The downside (much to the kids horror), was open air loos, but it was the fishing village & their land. We quietly watched dawn, collected a couple of shells, starfish & corals that an old man helped us pick off the beach…
…& then set off to see the cave temples on the beach at Mahabalipuram!
Pancha Rathas (Five Chariots)
Mahabalipuram was highly recommended by one & all, most of all by sis # 1 in Dallas, & it was STUNNING, well worth the trip. Took our breath away…the feeling was unbelievable. To be amidst ruins & rocks from the 7th century was like finding ourselves in another era altogether. The ambience, the peace, the rocks, the architecture, the sculptures…a world in itself!
Mahishasuramarthini cave temple
Bas-relief carving at the Varaha cave
The monuments are mostly rock-cut and monolithic, and constitute the early stages of Dravidian architecture wherein Buddhist elements of design are prominently visible. They are constituted by cave temples, monolithic rathas (chariots), sculpted reliefs and structural temples. The pillars are of the Dravidian order. The sculptures are excellent examples of Pallava art.
Met Arundathi at a beautiful bungalow, Amethyst, (pictured above) converted into a Coffee Shop, boutique & gallery. It’s preserved as a heritage property & has a wonderful ambience about it. Chennai is very cosmopolitan, so the kids found their fair share of pizzas, burgers, subways etc which kept them satiated! 
A shopping we will go…
You can buy lovely cotton weaves in brilliant colours, handwoven sarees (that incidentally make beautiful drapes too), stainless steel in every possible avatar from one of Asia’s biggest stores, Tanjore paintings. I went nuts about spices etc…stone-flower, cardamom, mustard, garlic powder, garlic-chili powder, cocoa, local coffee, chocolate chips…a dream come true. Mahabalipuram had fabulous stoneware…got lovely pestle & mortar sets there, in granite & marble! Found some coral in a tiny shop too!! Fresh fruit lines streets everywhere in the city…delicious mangosteens, rambutams, mangoes, gooseberries, sapodillas, papayas, jackfruit, plums…
Mesmerised by fruit at a local vender…we had a great time!
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Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
29 Comments
Ann
Oh my… such gorgeous photos! What a fabulous week you had!
Ann at Redacted Recipes
Manggy
I’m glad you had a great time! Don’t worry, the kids will be well-adjusted taste-wise in no time– I can’t imagine a world without spicy food! 🙂
The sculptures and structures look so majestic!
Asha
I can imagine the horror seeing the open loo! ;D
Hope atleast it was clean!
Looks like they are having a great time, enjoy! Love the stone pestle and mortar, haven’t seen that in a long time!:)
Latha
You’ve made me miss home with this beautiful post. I am a Chennai-ite and my DH is an ardent one! Gooseberries, Kaala jamuns, the sarees (which shop was that?)oh my, oh my…
And I’m thrilled to see your picture too… you’re so beautiful:)
I’d remember to stop by Amethyst and Raintree next time!
Passionate baker...& beyond
Was really amazing Ann…especially the monuments!
Thanks Manggy…No rest for the wicked, so life goes on. Just wanted to offload my memories lest I get amnesia…phooeeee!! I’m having serious withdrawal symptoms & NEED to get back onto blog rounds soon!!
Open loos were open in the open sense Asha…just part of the flat lanscape. Thankfully the real action was over by the time we reached!! I had a good laugh when I saw the kids faces!!I love stone-ware & DH came bounding in from a shop to tell me he found them!! :0)
Passionate baker...& beyond
Was really amazing Ann…especially the monuments!
Thanks Manggy…No rest for the wicked, so life goes on. Just wanted to offload my memories lest I get amnesia…phooeeee!! I’m having serious withdrawal symptoms & NEED to get back onto blog rounds soon!!
Open loos were open in the open sense Asha…just part of the flat lanscape. Thankfully the real action was over by the time we reached!! I had a good laugh when I saw the kids faces!!I love stone-ware & DH came bounding in from a shop to tell me he found them!! :0)
Kalai
Looks like you all had a fantastic time, Deeba!! Open loos… Brings back memories of my first trip to India. I was a bit shocked initially, but managed to deal just fine to my mother’s shock! 🙂
coco
Such a fun trip! I’ve never been to Chennai but looks like a place worth visiting. And you found mangosteens there! O my I could have them all day long! I’m just curious about the price they came at cos they’re so expensive here in bombay. I stock up on mangosteens when I travel to Bangalore for work. 😀
Cham
Hope your family enjoyed Chennai, those pict bring back my sweet memories 🙂 Seeing the fruit chart, that reminds T. Nagar ….
Arundathi
It was so lovely to meet you, Deeba! Glad that you guys had a great time and enjoyed chennai. lovely photographs! 🙂
Andrew
That looks amazing. I’m glad you had a good time. I may have to put that on my list of places to visit before I die.
Jamie
Great post Deeba. It sounds like you all had a wonderful trip!
familiabencomo
OK – wait! Only the kids were horrified by the open air loos?!?!?! You were OK with them? Don’t answer that. I’m just teasing with you. What a wonderful, magic place this sounds. So many pretty landscapes, colors & smells. In about 15 year when you make your next visit, I want to go with you.
Sis #1 Dallas? That’s where I grew up – right beside SMU.
Glad you’re home & had a wonderful trip. I’ll try to take some nice photos when we go on our trip later… much later in the summer.
Ciao, bella, I’m off to find your focaccia bread recipe…
Tanti baci, my friend,
Amy
Divya
Wow..amazing pics and description..you’ve made Chennai & Mahabs look like a dream..;-)Glad to hear that you guys had a great time..missed meeting you though!!:-(
d
got misled by your first sentence about anything to do with baking and thought you were in chennai on a baking expedition and kept reading to find out what it was and only when i went back and read the sentence again did i get it!!!
you have made chennai and mahabs look like a dream (as the previous commenter says), and the next time i go i will definitely appreciate it more!!! you MUST tell me exact details as to how / where to get the stoneware mortar and pestle set – i have been wanting one for ever…
gorgeous pics…
we are off to goa…
love
d
Bellini Valli
Sounds like everyone had a wonderful time on vacation …despite the heat. I could use that pool right now in this 40C weather..I am melting like the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz:D
Simran
Wow! Looks like you had fun. I can never miss going to the food markets no matter where I am travelling to
Ivy
Thanks for sharing your travel experiences with us. I had a great day dream, thinking I was there with you. We shall be seeing some lovely photos of all the souvenirs you bought in your recipes.
Rachel
Wow Deeba..That is such a nice rendition of madras…..Great Pics…Glad your family and you liked your stay…
Cynthia
I am jealous, of the trip, the shopping.
I wish I were as tall as your daughter. Very good-looking kids they are but then again, look at the mom, she passed on some good genes 🙂
arundati
wow!! you did have a blast…but with a bomb (guess who??) around…what else can be expected!! i am glad that you enjoyed chennai and all it had to offer…the quaint ways and the culture and not carp about the heat (unlike some others we know) and the drone that we always here (that people dont speak hindi!!)….what a treasure you came back with my friend…btw was that steel booty from saravana?? you braved the crowds to go there?? warrior princess!!
Aparna
Looks like you had a wonderful time in Chennai. I must have been there a million times (well almost:D), but never made it to Mahablipuram.
Its on our to do list with Pondicherry. Maybe this year, let’s see.
tiesta
Hi Deeba, All the pictures, the places you visited, the shopping you did – made me miss Chennai even more. I feel it’s one of the best places in India for shopping!! SIGH, I want to go live in Chennai again….
Tiesta
Pearlsofeast
Deeba,I have never been to Chennai.India is such beautiful place and I love those monuments.Nice to see ur lovely kids.Next week I am going to Sydney for three week.Just can;t wait.
Miri
Sigh…now I am homesick….especially for the BEACH – I have never lived in a city where there was no sea nearby and I really really miss it. We used to look our for cloudy Sundays and take off immediately to Mahabs….it became like the neighbourhood tea shop for us, familarity…and all that.
Glad you enjoyed your stay and the kids too! welcome back!
Arfi Binsted
deeba, you’ve got a great trip, i take it hehehe… nice traveling photos! is that you and your kids up there?
Ruth Elkin
Great pictures!!!! What a beautiful place to be!
onesilentwinter
How stunning is this- completely missed this post, what a trip!
Nilambara
My room at Raintree overlooked that bungalow, and like your son, I used gaze at it endlessly. It had such a picturesque setting. Your post brings back beautiful memories of my Chennai trip. Cheers!