Day 170 - Fishers

We woke up at a ridiculous hour this morning in order to catch sunrise over the Bay of Bengal. As we walked down the beach snarling at the clouds, we were 'adopted' by three stray dogs. Tigger and Ms Robinson are very lucky that US customs frowns on bringing home new pets from abroad. Luckily, the clouds parted in time, and just enough for a gorgeous sunrise.

We watched the sun from shore for a while, then went under the large pier to watch the fishermen haul in their boats. Or at least I went to watch the fishermen - Cz was fascinated with the structure of the pier itself.

The 'boats' which the fisherman were hauling in were really more like rafts. Each one consisted of four to six large planks lashed together with rope, and controlled by anything from a plank of wood held like a paddle to long poles. They did not appear seaworthy in the least, yet boat after boat rolled in, each with nets or baskets on board. As each boat floated in, it was hauled up the beach, and the nets offloaded. Then the fisherman (two per boat) would pass the net between them and take out the fish and crabs caught there. Many crows, and even a mongoose watched the proceedings with marked interest. As soon as the fish were clear of the net (and sometimes before) well-dressed men came down to the shore to haggle over the choicest catch. One lucky fellow went home with his bicycle bag bulging full of prawns, crabs, fish, and whelk. There is probably a bouillabaisse in his future.

On the way back from the fishing beach, we stopped for a light breakfast - green coconut from a street vendor. All over the south of India men with handcarts or bicycles laden with coconuts park on the roadsides. For anywhere between five and fifteen rupees, they will hack off the top of the coconut and toss in a straw. Once you have finished the water, they will take their machete, lop the coconut in half, and and hack off a small piece of hull to scoop out the pulp.

Despite the reviving effects of the coconut, our early morning walk took the steam out of us. We popped back into bed for a nice nap before heading out for a day of sightseeing.

We began by walking over to the Botanical Garden. Back when it was a colony, Pondi was divided into a French side, and and Indian side. To this day, there is a marked difference in the volume between the two sides - cross the canal from French Pondi into Indian Pondi, and the volume goes up decibels. The Gardens are on the Indian side, and yet are very quiet. It's sort of interesting to chart the noise levels from the medium-loud French side to the very loud Indian side, and through the garden gates into the quiet green.

Just inside the garden gates lies Pondi's 'aquarium'. It is a small building with clean aquariums. Most of the fish are ones commonly found in your neighborhood pet store - goldfish, gouramis, angelfish, etc, but there was one enormous polka-dotted morey eel and some very impressive anemones as well.

Outside the aquarium we wandered a bit, and stumbled across some tiny train tracks. In a few minutes, a proportionally tiny train came rolling along those tracks. Cz whipped out his camera to take a picture, and discovered that he had left the batteries in our hotel room. With no small amount of grumbling, we hopped into a tuk-tuk and retrieved the battery.

We walked back to Rendezvous, where had dinner last night, and consoled ourselves with large amounts of seafood. From Rendezvous, it was a short walk back to the Garden, were we not only got a picture of the toy train, but even rode it around the park.

The road near the Botanical Garden loops around the whole of Pondi. We decided to follow it around to another landmark church. This one built in the Gothic style, but with a distinctly Indian paint job. From the church, the road continued back to the beach where a brisk wind was making whitecaps on the water. Cz was feeling particularly stylish in his 'man dress' (Kurta), so I was able to convince him to let me take his picture.

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading, napping and admiring the huge bougainvillea shading our room. Around dusk, we decided to take a another little walk, and to visit the internet cafe. The road to the internet cafe passes by the church we visited yesterday. Today ALL the lights were lit, and a statue of Virgin Mary was being paraded around the courtyard on a neon and Christmas light lit, flower-bedecked palanquin. I do love Indian Catholicism.