Nope, we still can’t pronounce it, but apparently it’s simply ‘Mahabs’ (former name was Mahabalipuram) to those in the know – a small seaside town, stone carving centre and UNESCO World Heritage site. A couple of hours North of Puducherry, on the way to Chennai Airport, and in Rough Guide to India’s 30 Places Not To Miss – it’d have been rude to have passed by without stopping.

Hopes for this place weren’t high, primarily as Agoda and Booking.com didn’t inspire with their hotel options – mainly scruffy & basic places. We didn’t really want to stay in a luxurious but corporate beach resort a couple of miles out of town, even if it would’ve meant some IHG loyalty points for Debbie and a likely room upgrade due to her Platinum member status, as budget-blowing needs to be on something worthwhile/different. Then suddenly a new entrant showed up – Madras Chronicle Bay Resort & Spa – which looked amazingly good for £40/night. A review suggested that there was building work going on, so Debbie contacted the hotel to investigate and was told that it was mostly finished, just some outstanding work above the restaurant to be completed. So, with eyes open, we booked. It turned out that the manager had not been totally truthful and the resort wasn’t finished and there was no sign of a spa – it was tarting up of an old hotel, with some new additions, and the multitude of staff all seemed to have a paintbrush or drill in hand. But the location was great, we got a huge room with new bathroom and very comfy bed, the pool was brilliant for Debbie’s physio (she even managed to start swimming lengths) and the brekkie spread was probably the best we’d had on our trip so far. We were actually rather happy with our lot and suspect that it’ll be out of our budget once finished.

The scruffy town actually turned out to be far nicer than expected. A fishing colony on the beach supplied the local restaurants and we indulged in an Emperor Fish to share at Santana beachfront restaurant one night, and a huge portion of Tawa-spiced calamari and prawn curry at Babu’s Cafe on the other. The weird covert serving of beer last experienced in Varkala returned – again quite bizarrely in GOA mugs. Intricate stone carvings were everywhere, with stone masons crafting their wares in the street – lovely, but hardly practical souvenirs for someone who has somehow got to drop 6Kg weight from her luggage before we fly from Varanasi to Mumbai on 27 March. Oh how she wishes that she’d not been such a tightwad when booking that flight and had gone for the flexible ticket with 23Kg allowance!

Mahabs is on the tourist trail due to the co-existence of a vast number of archaeological remains – and we really weren’t quite prepared for how stunning they would be.

The 8th Century Shore Temple, one of India’s most photographed monuments, has a silhouette visible for miles along the beach. Although softened by centuries of wind, salt and sand erosion, the temple thankfully survived unscathed when this coastline was hit by the 2004 tsunami. Some unexpected entertainment came in the form of a young Indian couple having a loud and very vocal domestic, which culminated in her bashing him over the head and stomping off – they obviously weren’t that in awe of the historical significance and majesty of the temple.

A large area in the centre of town contains a plethora of impressive temples, detailed bas-relief rock sculptures, cave temples and a huge boulder (Krishna’s Butter Ball) perching perilously on a hillside. Schoolchildren and the occasional goat posed underneath the rock, sliding down the adjacent slope for fun (the kids, not the goats).

A surprisingly delightful couple of days to end our time in Tamil Nadu and our 2 months in Southern India before we took our first Uber ride of the trip to Chennai airport. Delhi and the inevitable madness of the North beckoned…….