May 23 continued...

Ready for more?...After seeing the stone carvings in the park, we headed to the Shore Temple. There are actually several temples (seven, I think) in total, but only one of them is visible on land. The other temples are on the floor of the ocean. I was told that during the tsunami in 2004 the other temples were exposed and the people rushed out to see them because they thought it was some type of calling. Sadly, the water soon pushed back towards the shore drowning thousands of people.




Restoration work is currently underway on the shore temple. I included the following picture to demonstrate one difference between our construction process and theirs. The Indian scaffolding is made of wood bound together with twine, while in the U.S. we use a steel frame...





While at the shore temple, I met a group of Indian tourists and I climbed this wall with them for a picture...


On to see the Pancha Rathas Shrines or Five Rathas dating from the late 7th century that were carved from rock and named after the Pandavas.
Bhima and Dharmaraja Rathas...



Lion sculpture...


Draupadi's Ratha...


Elephant sculpture...


Yudhishtir's Ratha...


Bull sculpture...


The Rathas were an incredible site to see, but somewhat of a walk from the shore temple. I started feeling a little dizzy while walking around this area and decided to leave. When I walked outside the gate to meet my mom (she hadn't gone in since she had seen it before) I told her that I didn't feel so good and needed some water...next thing I remember was hearing her call my name and being surrounded by the Indian people. I guess I had got dehydrated and had fainted. The Indian people told my mom to splash me with water, but at my request she did not. When I fainted, I hit my head on a wall that surronded the momument area...ouch...that left a nasty bump on the back of my head. We then decided to go back to my mom's apartment for the remainer of the day.

Lesson learned...Drink plenty of water AND...repeat lesson...Listen to mom...hmmm...I think I was supposed to learn this lesson yesterday....Hope the rest of my trip is injury free! :)