Friday the 14th was spent taking a tourist day, a different type of day compared to our normal schedule, today was the start of Pongal, the harvest festival, so Happy Pongal everyone! Our first stop of the day was to a crocodile farm. We saw hundreds of crocs, some in areas where 348 were all packed in together, as well as seeing feeding time for a group of them. This was very much like the snake park we went to yesterday. On our drive in we saw some of the more impoverished people thriving on tourism, such as a man with a monkey chained up and dressed in clothes and two gypsy children asking for us to buy beads. Afterwards we went to a cultural preservation center for architecture and handicrafts. Think of it as half luau festival and half Disney's Epcot just for India though. The place had handicraft sellers and dancers all celebrating the Pongal festival, with pongal pots and Kolham placed all throughout the grounds. After the demonstrations we headed over to the shore temples, three temples that have survived since the 6th century and before.
The temples were incredible, some recently being exposed due to the tsunami. I couldn't believe the lack of strictly enforced laws here, a temple that is 6th century can be explored and crawled through, and thats exactly what we did. We found incredible and inspiring spot and soaked it in. One temple was directly on the shore, one a little further away with carved elephants and one on top of a mount over looking the Bay of Bengal. The temple on the mount was my favorite, simply breathtaking views and scenery as you could see the harmony or attempt of harmony between nature and industry in India. You could see the raw beauty that has been written about for centuries. The views were awesome and the company of the girls on top of the mountain as well was wonderful. The sun had just began to drop lower as we reached the temple on the hill, making the rocks beam yellow and orange. After this, we sank back into our seats on our bus, with Albert driving us back to Niketana. Tomorrow we get to do a little bit more retail therapy and buy our Saris!!!!!!
Friday the 14th was spent taking a tourist day, a different type of day compared to our normal schedule, today was the start of Pongal, the harvest festival, so Happy Pongal everyone! Our first stop of the day was to a crocodile farm. We saw hundreds of crocs, some in areas where 348 were all packed in together, as well as seeing feeding time for a group of them. This was very much like the snake park we went to yesterday. On our drive in we saw some of the more impoverished people thriving on tourism, such as a man with a monkey chained up and dressed in clothes and two gypsy children asking for us to buy beads. Afterwards we went to a cultural preservation center for architecture and handicrafts. Think of it as half luau festival and half Disney's Epcot just for India though. The place had handicraft sellers and dancers all celebrating the Pongal festival, with pongal pots and Kolham placed all throughout the grounds. After the demonstrations we headed over to the shore temples, three temples that have survived since the 6th century and before. 
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