Les yeux de Camille

So we didn't randomly chose India as our holidays destination. We were invited to a friend's wedding. Even if it was a little bit short notice, we thought we could not miss it and that would be a great experience to be part of. We knew that the wedding would be in 2 parts, with the ceremony in Hyderabad and the reception  a week later in Chennai. We met lot of people during the first days of our trip that warned us that an Indian Wedding usually lasts for days, but we kept thinking that would be on only for a day. Spoiler alert: we were wrong! The festivities actually started the day before the wedding ceremony with the Mehendi party. It's the moment the bride get ready for her wedding. Artists come and draw on her hands, arms, and feet some very intricate pattern with henna. All other women attending the party can get henna drawn on their hands if they wish. Off course a delicious diner was also served during the party, and some religious ritual to

The last stop of our Indian trip was Mahabalipuram , also known as Mamallapuram. This town is a great destination with its colourful fisherman's village, its miles long beach and its amazing UNESCO World heritage site. We stayed in a pretty inexpensive hostel in the heart of the fisherman's village in a simple but comfy double room with a balcony and a sea view. Perfect to relax watching locals playing cards on the beach or read a book with the sound of the waves in the background. View from the beach onto the Shore Temple The beach at our hostel door  Closer view of Shore Temple Other than for its beautiful beach, Mahabalipuram is known for its wonderful UNESCO world heritage site. This site is a collection of Hindu monuments dated from the 7th and the 8th century. Many temples carved in an extremely detailed manner are part of this collection, the most iconic being the Shore temple built directly on the beach. We didn't manage

       After Hyderabad and 3 days of wedding celebrations (article about the wedding to follow) we took another sleeper train, which was much smoother and comfier, to Chennai (known as Madras under the British Raj). We went for a really short exploration of the city but the heat and the small amount of touristic sights pushed us to stay mostly in our great 4 stars hotel where the wedding reception was happening. We did grasp a much more modern vibe in Chennai than in the other cities and towns we'd been to in India. The city even has a clean and very efficient metro service which made our movements much easier.  University of Madras We still had the time to experience the most crazy rickshaw (or tuk-tuk) ride. Our tuk-tuk journeys were always quite frightening as we would always be slaloming between cars, trucks, buses and cows. But this time we reached another level of mad driving when our driver took as a shortcut a 4 lanes road in the opposi