After lopping off most of Claudia's hair, we ventured back out into the wide world of Maha. First, the beach (about 2 minutes walk).

Just off the beach and behind some fence (to keep non-Indians from dodging the $10 entrance fee), the two structures of the Shore Temple waited for Claudia to whip out the ol' cameras. On the beach where we were, 2 rocks stood in an uncanny similarity of height and positioning to the temples. We scrambled around and up the rocks, Claudia snapping a few pix, then wandered up and down the beach some more while dodging sarong sellers, trying to get shots of the colorful fishing boats.

Back towards town, near the western edge of Maha there's a large park filled with boulders and rock carvings. Tamil Nadu is full of rocks. On the bus ride in from Bangalore, Karnataka, we'd pass by miles and miles of jungle and forest and then, suddenly, there'd be hills. Or piles and piles of boulders stretching for a couple of miles. Or just a bunch of rocks amidst some trees, apparently just bunged there by the denizens of the Hindu pantheon during a divine cricket match that got rather off-color after tea. (Cricket lasts for about 7 hours a match, according to our fave silk tailor who tried to fill me in on some of the basics — it's so bloody long they have breaks for tea and food!)

Our fave? Probably "Krishna's Butterball". On a gentle sloping hill of flat rock, a massive boulder is just chilling out, balanced by a flat edge on the hill. It's a bit disconcerting. People just hang out in its shadow; it makes sense, I suppose — why worry about whether or not a big rock is finally going to move after centuries of just sitting there?

We dodged touts and goats, though I prefer goats to touts. To Claudia they're just more vermin. To me, a Capricorn for whom the goat is my sign, they're like my brethren. They like to clamber up rocks, and so do I. It's a natural environment for us. (Also like goats, I'll eat damn near anything.) All along the top of the rocks and rock hills, Claudia went nuts on some black and white photography, while I just ran and climbed and wandered off into every little path I could.

Though we loved wandering amongst the hills, goats and boulders, we were very disappointed by the "feature presentation" of the park. Let's Go details "Arjuna's Penance" as "One of the largest bas-relief sculptures in the world.... Particularly engaging are the elegant, humorous depictions of animals and birds which include whimsical renderings of an elephant family and an ascetic, meditating cat surrounded by dancing rats."

There was plenty of carving and sculpture. Elephants? Check. Cats? Check. Monkeys shown picking nits off each other? Check. But what had me and Claudia excited were the dancing rats — and they were nowhere to be found. I think Arjuna needs to do some more penance, for false advertising.

Being in Maha has been one of our most chill experiences so far. It's a tourist town, yes, but it's extremely mellow. Maha also has the most white people we've each seen since coming to India. All of them seem to be either Australian or French, or Germans who own bakeries where they employ Nepalis and Tibetans; go figure. Anyway, we've loved this relaxing little town, where we've gotten to chill and chill and chill...

And then we went back to our room...