Following Lakshme around the temple

Nice little day trip I had today, though of course I missed my alarm on my phone somehow (I could NOT get to sleep last night!) and didn’t wake until I was told the driver was here. Well lucky for me, it didn’t really matter all too much that I woke up late, plus… it was only 5 past 6 and I had told the driver 630. Plenty of time. Got dressed quickly, and headed out for a long ride. I was in the back so it was hard to see, but there were so many potential pictures. Cars hanging out in medians with no where to go, tent villages, mud house villages, workers in the rice field, etc. My mind drifted off and my body did too into a short sleep until we arrived in Pondy, we would start with breakfast. I ordered something that gave my mouth that dreaded tingling sensation so I didn’t eat it. It was terrible, I felt horrible. I was in India and wasting my whole breakfast. I sat at a table with 3 other people (awkwarrrrd) and I tried to tell them when mama bear put a heading load of white mushy stuff that apparently contained cashews onto my plate that I would die if I ate that. Yep my food was going to waste… would you like to eat it? They were from Southern India and had come up for the 2 day holiday. All had bindis painted on them, and the man even had a face colored with white. And they, like the rest of them, didn’t understand my allergy which made me feel worse. “Just eat it” they said. “Your body will be more tolerant than the others’ when you return home”. If only they understood.

Next stop was two temples. People were sticking their head into weird crevices and lighting matches in front of statues of animals and paying to have some white powder wiped all over their face. Then, I came face to face with my first real elephant, in the temple. Give it a coin and it will bop you on the head, which must be some form of good luck. Then I followed as the elephant led a large, colorful statue followed by crowds of people in circles around the full outside of the temple walls. Quite fascinating. I was begged and begged to give coins here, there and everywhere and it’s hard to say no to these poor people. You know they really need it. If only I was rich, and didn’t decide to leave my purse in the car for that reason….