Beach Bums
Ask three Indians when the events for every festival are, and you'll get three different answers; ask where, and you'll get only one: "Everywhere". These answers are factually correct and terribly maddening, for if you haven't lived here all your life, India can be a hard place to intuit. So Brand and I had figured that Marina Beach would be the place to go to see the ganpatis be immersed... and we guessed right, but went just one day too late.
Ah well, Marina beach at night was a thing to experience in and of itself. One of the largest beaches in the world at 12km long and close to 1 km wide, the beach is a deep sandy swath along the Bay of Bengal. Close to and on the beach, because of the mitigating Bay, the temperature drops 5-10 degrees. If you'd ever spent a day in Tamil Nadu, you'd know what a big deal that is. I knew that Marina Beach was a local hangout at night, but I had no idea of the extent.
Buses lined the parking lots that brought in people from the suburbs and from neighbouring villages, couples sat closer than I've seen couples sit together since I've been here, which is to say, not really close at all. Public displays of affection are strictly verboten here. Recently an unmarried couple dared a kiss on the dance floor of the Park Sheraton hotel and the press snapped a picture. The hotel had to be emptied and all of the inhabitants cleared out as the hotel and have it's bar shut down (legally, the only nightclubs allowed in Chennai are part of foreign-style hotels) recovered from the shame of it all.
Full families, groups from out of town, ice cream vendors, parrot fortune tellers, astrologists, cotton candy vendors, juice pressers, fish mongers and craft sellers dotted the beach. There were also, booths where vendors roasted corn... and I don't mean on a barbeque... rather, there was a gizmo that the vendor would crank that would send up a shower of sparks that the corn would be passed through:
Although the beach was not wall to wall crowded, there were people every 10-15 feet or so, and on a beach that large, that's a hell of a lot of people. We were the only foreigners to be seen anywhere, at all. There were also the less safe options for amusement. For 10 rupees, you could (I did) shoot a BB gun at a wall full of balloons just to make them burst. I was really careful with the gun, but one of the dudes who worked at the booth kept blithely wandering around in front of the balloon board!
There were also lots of "rides" for children. Those quotations are well earned in this case. Most of the children’s rides that we have seen outside of amusement parks (we have not personally been to Dizzee World, but hear that the rides are actually rides there) are either A.) a bunch of (often broken) Big Wheel type things bolted to a circular piece of wood to make a carousel, or B.) a homemade ride made of wood. Occasionally, there is something even more precarious, but this picture is the biggest version of option B that I've seen since I've been here:
Down the beach, there was an entire open air local market that sold a crazy variey of stuff... mostly western style crap that even the locals seemed to like looking at more than buying. We also went to see the memorial of the ex-chief minister of Tamil Nadu, the man that brought free public education for the poor to the state. His memorial was like a giant concrete lotus.
In the same weekend, not even intentionally playing the polar opposites of India, we went to the Taj Fisherman's Cove - a resort hotel right on the beach. We had found out that if you are a guest at one Taj, you can use the facilities of any Taj in the area, so we went for dinner, massages, a beach stroll and a swim. It's a beautiful hotel that was built on the ramparts of an 18th century Dutch fort. With a terrific pool:
We had a great lunch and then went to Jiva Spa for a couples ayurvedic massage. Brand chose the Orja Dayaka (Energising - "The wonderful effects of nagarmotha, patchouli, tulsi and ashwagandha create a balancing synergy that will lift your spirits and revive your inner vitality" ) and I went for the Sukhakara (Ache relief - "This combination of black pepper, camphor, eucalyptus and ginger oils will gently relieve your body aches and muscle soreness." ) Man, oh man, was it heaven! It was a great treat in celebration of the end of the course I've been teaching.
Afterwards we went for a blessed-out walk along Covelong Beach at sunset, talked to a local named Kaji and then went for a swim in the pool. I even indulged in margaritas in the poolside bar!
Ah well, Marina beach at night was a thing to experience in and of itself. One of the largest beaches in the world at 12km long and close to 1 km wide, the beach is a deep sandy swath along the Bay of Bengal. Close to and on the beach, because of the mitigating Bay, the temperature drops 5-10 degrees. If you'd ever spent a day in Tamil Nadu, you'd know what a big deal that is. I knew that Marina Beach was a local hangout at night, but I had no idea of the extent.
Buses lined the parking lots that brought in people from the suburbs and from neighbouring villages, couples sat closer than I've seen couples sit together since I've been here, which is to say, not really close at all. Public displays of affection are strictly verboten here. Recently an unmarried couple dared a kiss on the dance floor of the Park Sheraton hotel and the press snapped a picture. The hotel had to be emptied and all of the inhabitants cleared out as the hotel and have it's bar shut down (legally, the only nightclubs allowed in Chennai are part of foreign-style hotels) recovered from the shame of it all.
Full families, groups from out of town, ice cream vendors, parrot fortune tellers, astrologists, cotton candy vendors, juice pressers, fish mongers and craft sellers dotted the beach. There were also, booths where vendors roasted corn... and I don't mean on a barbeque... rather, there was a gizmo that the vendor would crank that would send up a shower of sparks that the corn would be passed through:
Although the beach was not wall to wall crowded, there were people every 10-15 feet or so, and on a beach that large, that's a hell of a lot of people. We were the only foreigners to be seen anywhere, at all. There were also the less safe options for amusement. For 10 rupees, you could (I did) shoot a BB gun at a wall full of balloons just to make them burst. I was really careful with the gun, but one of the dudes who worked at the booth kept blithely wandering around in front of the balloon board!
There were also lots of "rides" for children. Those quotations are well earned in this case. Most of the children’s rides that we have seen outside of amusement parks (we have not personally been to Dizzee World, but hear that the rides are actually rides there) are either A.) a bunch of (often broken) Big Wheel type things bolted to a circular piece of wood to make a carousel, or B.) a homemade ride made of wood. Occasionally, there is something even more precarious, but this picture is the biggest version of option B that I've seen since I've been here:
Down the beach, there was an entire open air local market that sold a crazy variey of stuff... mostly western style crap that even the locals seemed to like looking at more than buying. We also went to see the memorial of the ex-chief minister of Tamil Nadu, the man that brought free public education for the poor to the state. His memorial was like a giant concrete lotus.
In the same weekend, not even intentionally playing the polar opposites of India, we went to the Taj Fisherman's Cove - a resort hotel right on the beach. We had found out that if you are a guest at one Taj, you can use the facilities of any Taj in the area, so we went for dinner, massages, a beach stroll and a swim. It's a beautiful hotel that was built on the ramparts of an 18th century Dutch fort. With a terrific pool:
We had a great lunch and then went to Jiva Spa for a couples ayurvedic massage. Brand chose the Orja Dayaka (Energising - "The wonderful effects of nagarmotha, patchouli, tulsi and ashwagandha create a balancing synergy that will lift your spirits and revive your inner vitality" ) and I went for the Sukhakara (Ache relief - "This combination of black pepper, camphor, eucalyptus and ginger oils will gently relieve your body aches and muscle soreness." ) Man, oh man, was it heaven! It was a great treat in celebration of the end of the course I've been teaching.
Afterwards we went for a blessed-out walk along Covelong Beach at sunset, talked to a local named Kaji and then went for a swim in the pool. I even indulged in margaritas in the poolside bar!
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