Today we took a day trip to the beach town of Mamallapuram, which is kind of close to Chennai. I had a marvelous fill of temples (built around the year 600), shopping, the beach, and some great new food! When we first got there we visited some of the temple ruins. They had very intricate designs and carvings!

The next hours were spent learning how to do a new type of shopping which involved lots of negotiation and arguing. I'm not sure I was very good at it, but I thought I got some pretty good deals. After several stressful hours, we went to a place called Ideal Beach Resort, which is right on the Bay of Bengal. It was nice to relax for a little while, but at the same time I felt a little guilty and kind of wanted to be back with the kids. The drive back took FOREVER! We had traffic that was at a standstill for probably 20 minutes waiting for a train to come and go, but we finally got back. We stopped at an Indian "fast food" type of place with delicious bread things and an onion/egg omelet thing as well (Great description, huh?). In order to fit with the custom, we only ate with our right hand, which I've never done in my life. We even had to break the bread with one hand! It was absolutely delicious and was not as hard as I thought it would be. When we got back I went over and visited my girls for a little while. They were SO HYPER but so cute (as always).

Well I'm about to head off to bed. Tomorrow should be exciting--those who would like to are taking a bus up to the closest LDS branch, which is up in Chennai. The whole excursion should take about 9 hours! I'm looking forward to it, though.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow. Good night!