If you're looking for ancient ruins that date back to the 7^th century or to watch artisan stone carvers ply their trade, Mamallapuram, a short 2 hour drive south of Chennai (Madras) is just the place . We found our little hotel, The Sunrise Guest House just a hop-skip -and-a-jump past women who spend the entire day washing everything from their clothes to their food, to their naked children.

 

Elenka and I went up to the rooftop restaurant at the Sunrise for a lunch of fish curry and aloo gobi. We were the only customers in the place when all of a sudden we heard 'oh my god' or words to that effect. It was Sara and Daniel, a couple we'd met last year at about this time at the Kookoo's Nest on a remote island in the Philippines. They'd found the Sunrise too and are staying here as well.



To put this into perspective, there are probably 6 rooms that are occupied here at our hidden Sunrise in a town with a myriad of guest houses. I'm not so good at math, but there's probably a better chance of winning the lottery than running into these two people in a country of over a billion people.



 It's 38C here in Mamallapuram, on the Bay of Bengal, yet as soon as the sun sets it gets remarkably cool. Tomorrow we fly east to the Andaman Islands. We'll be there for 10 days, and not likely have contact with the outside world.