I have imagined various trips around India during the months leading up to our move to India.   Mahabalipuram is an ancient temple town about 45km south of Chennai and I had always planned to make that one of our first journeys outside of our Hilton cocoon.    As I had been there twice before, I thought I  had correctly imagined how the day would play out.   When I had been there in the past, it was as just another boring tourist.   This time it was with a couple of people charming enough to bring out the paparazzi.    Looks like we are not alone in this experience:

In South India, meanwhile, Sloane regularly caused uproars that verged on riots. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to travel as part of a rock star’s posse, take your grinning pink baby to a bustling temple complex in Mahabalipuram. For an Indian tourist, a 1,200-year-old stone carving of a reclining Vishnu is dullsville next to a real-life Canadian infant in a
baby backpack.

                From:   8 Essential Lessons We Learned About International Travel with an Infant
                           2: The Magazine for Couples



Abby and Max were clearly the star of the show.   As we pulled up to outside the Shore Temple they even managed to disarm the very persistent souvenir sellers that immediately swarmed around us.  

I had not adequately warned my family about this part of visiting a tourist attraction in India.  The touts were very persistent.   I had to stand between the touts and the kids, then back up to give them room to get out of the car.  

We made to the relative calm inside the gates of the shore temple and had fun climbing around on the temple and statues that are 1300 years old.  I don't think the kids have a concept of just how old that is.

We headed next over to the Five Rathas.   We only had our video camera, which doesn't take good still photos.  Rather than make this an entry about the wonderful sculptures and carvings of Mahabalipuram, I will focus on the paparazzi/Entourage like excitement that we (or accurately Abby and Max) caused. 

We had numerous people coming up to us and asking if they could have a picture of Abby and Max (sometimes they would ask for a picture with Joshua and Sarah, but the older kids were usually spared the crush of attention).    I would sometimes look around and see people taking pictures from a ways away.  Others would push in and setup the picture they wanted.
 

I can't imagine their description of these photos when they load them up to show relatives would be any better than "Here is a picture of our kids with some strange American kids ... No, we didn't even ask their names."