Shiva on the street corner

This display seemed to magically appear overnight on a nearby street corner. It is obviously telling a Hindu story about the gods. The actual structure is made of stick scaffolding tied together with rope and then covered with yards of starched cloth.

The tricycle is how many of the goods are delivered throughout the city. The one in the above picture is a very high end model that is powered by a tiny chain-saw type motor. Most that you see are human powered and look like they have seen better days.

We are greeted every morning with a new Kolam in front of our neighbor's door. This is one of the first things the Hindu women do in the morning by first washing the entryway down then creating a geometric design with rice flour that they apply by letting it fall in a controlled fashion from their hand, which they execute with amazing speed. I understand this is done to invite the god of prosperity into their house.

Theosophical Society and Flying Foxes

We have discovered a very large plot of land that is not more than 1/4 mile from us which is the headquarters for the Theosophical Society. It is open to visitors at certain times of the day and a wonderful retreat from the city. It's also CLEAN and well maintained, which is something we don't see very often.

This worldwide society was started in the late 1800's, and their basic philosophy is that at the core of all religions or beliefs is truth and they attempt to foster a universal brotherhood. They are also very interested in unexplained human phenomena and the occult. Their headquarters is a place to study and they have retreats here as well.

As I was strolling through the grounds I saw what I thought was a large vulture, but soon realized these "birds" had fingers on the leading edge of their wings. They were obviously enormous bats, which I have since learned are called fruit bats, or flying foxes. I understand they can have a wing span of 5 feet, which I can easily believe. I wasn't able to get a good photo of them flying, so I took this one off the Internet.

I would guess there were 75 to 100 bats in this colony that I easily discovered by all the racket they were creating.

There are also some very elaborate granite carvings spread throughout the grounds.

Butterflies were also abundant.

Monkeys & Deer

Looking out the window the other day I was surprised to see a monkey underneath our balcony. By the time I got my camera he had gone to the other side of the street where his other very fat companion was sitting on a wall. Our apartment guard told us that there is a small band in the area that often come down, and said one of them made off with his banana the other day.

To elaborate on the guards, every apartment complex and private house has guards who watch the place 24 hours a day. They don't really seem to do much at all during the day and we live in a very safe neighborhood, but they look after the place and greet you when we are coming & going. Being a guard has to be one of the most boring jobs in the world, but there seems to be a bit of prestige involved.

We walked to nearby Guindy National Park just about a mile from our apartment. Most of the park is closed to the public and set aside as a natural area, but it does have a small zoo and snake farm.

We see many of these trees in the wild areas, where parasite trees grow up the mother tree and drop roots down to the ground. They eventually kill the mother tree and leave a maze of trunks holding up parts of the dead host tree.


Guindy park is one of the few places you can see deer that are native to the area.

There are quite a few loose monkeys at the park. I caught a photo of this guy after he snuck up on an unsuspecting youngster and stole his bag of chips.