We stayed the night at the Jade Gardens, a lovely hotel,
spotless rooms, comfy, comfy bed, piping hot water, and splendid restaurant and
bar. We arranged with Loquish, our
driver, to meet at 9.30 and there he was, fresh flowers in the car, all smiles,
and with our itinerary planned
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Dam & water gardens by night |
We went to the Dam which is
38 metres high and three kilometres long, built 100 years ago, with no cement,
using traditional Indian glues, and designed and constructed by an Indian
engineer. The Maharaja set out the magnificent
gardens utilising the water for displays and fountains. There is a great selection of birds, otters,
monkeys etc., that live in and around, and sea eagles catching the fish in the
reservoir, no swimming, but then the Indians don’t swim anyway. We went to another Hindu temple and on our way back came across a load of cheeky monkeys. They sit and wait in the queue with the local Hindus for a free lunch, and they get fed, just like the dogs, birds, cows and any other animal that happens to be about at free food time. We were asked while in Chennai if we would like a free lunch, but thought it was unfair, there are lots of people who earn little and we certainly dont qualify!
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| Cheeky monkeys by the temple |
Afterwards we lunched at a nearby hotel, before going on to
see more Hindu temples and the rather unusual Bull Elephant shrine
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| Carved out of one piece of stone and dyed with oils |
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| "Aunties" with us and the kids with Sunday best hats! |
As we were leaving the gardens a group of youngsters asked if we would mind having our photo taken with them. We said yes, if we could take photos of them! Older people are called Aunties and Uncles and I jokingly said come on Aunty and two of the senior ladies joined in as well. New family members?
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