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As soon as we wake up we go to the beach. The beach is nearby the hotel. At the end of the first beach is a second beach, where fishermen are busy. A small boat comes ashore. About 50 fishermen are pulling a huge net to the beach. It is a lot of work. The rhythm of the pulling is indicated by a chanter. When they finally have the net on dry land, it appears that the catch is very small; only some very small fishes are caught! It is a nice event to watch and the morning light is beautiful.
We have breakfast at the German Bakery. Delicious fresh bread, cheese, jam and tea. We also take a delicious German coffee! Filtered, no nescafé and that is very rare in India.
We walk back to the hotel. We put on our swimsuits on and leave for the beach. We have a nice cool drink with 5 of our fellow travellers before we settle on the beach.
We hire a nice lounger and parasol and have a nice lazy holiday with some sunbathing, reading and swimming. Ospreys overhead, high waves, bright sunshine and delicious water. What more can you wish.
Lifeguards keep an eye on the sea conditions. Red flags mark the area where you can and where you can’t swim. Although we try to keep out of the sun we are already quite dyed! For lunch we return to the German Bakery again. We sit upstairs close to the balustrade where we have a nice view on the sea and everything that happens on the beach. They serve a tasty apple pancake.At the end of the afternoon we go back to the hotel for a quick shower. We return to the beach for a cocktail on one of the many terraces and a pizza. We find an Internetcafé and check our email.
In short we have nice and lazy day. Kavalam for sure is a great place to spent some time as a sea- and beach holiday
7:00 a.m. breakfast, 7:30 a.m. on the bus for our next destination Madurai. It will be our last trip with the bus/chauffeur. It is a long travel day. The bus can’t drive fast because of roadwork.
En route we have several stops for refreshment, food and drinks. One of the stops was at a very old wooden temple and one was for lunch. For little money we enjoyed a rich thali meal. Many cups filled with sauce, bread and rice. Delicious!
At 4 p.m. we arrive at our hotel in Madurai. It is a real city hotel; not very special and a little filthy. Together we make a walk in the surroundings of the hotel. The city, the tempels and the street live looks nice. Many beautiful people.
We join Mhutu and the others around half 6:20 pm for a temple tour. Unfortunately, a separate local guide will be present again. With the local guide we go to the temple. After the tour the local guide tries to attract us into an expensive store, but we don’t go. We stay in the temple and walk around at our own pace.We are obsessed by the crowd worshipers that enter the temple.
There is a lot to see and we decide to come back together again next day.When we return at the hotel we have dinner at the rooftop terrace. It is very busy but the food is very tasty.
We had a good night sleep. After breakfast we return to the main temple of Madurai. We walk around for quite a while.
We enjoy the crowds at the temple. A holy man sits at the front of the temple. We take a photo of him. He doesn’t mind, laughs and says a prayer.
After our visit to the temple we visit different tailor shops, and order some custom made clothes. The ordered clothes can be retrieved in the evening. We also visit a vegetable market. The people are all very friendly. When we leave the vegetable market we find another lively market street with some bananas and meat and .... lots of flies. We get bananas and tomatoes.
At the end of the day we re-enter the temple. A lot of sleeping and eating people, priests and children with shaved and powdered heads: the gave their hair to the gods.
Finally we collect our custom made clothes at different shops. The shirts of Jan are made on a market near the temple, where more than 300 tailors work side by side! We are satisfied with the result and go back to the hotel.
Our feet really can use some rest after such a long day wondering arouround in the city.
Today we have to get out of our bed very early because we have to catch the train to Mahabalipuram. At 5.45 a.m. we gather packed and ready in the hall. Our luggage is sent to the station by taxi. We ourselves will walk to the station. We got a take away breakfast from the hotel.
Our train arrives after a short wait at the station . It is a quite long, and utterly full train! There are bars on the windows. You can’t possibly leave the train if there is an accident. Quite hazardous actually. The benches in the train are hard. Two of our 13 group chairs are occupied by two Indian ladies. They don’t want to leave, but Muthu eventually persuaded the ladies that they don’t have a choice. Resent they disappear.
Around 7 pm we leave and around 14.00 p.m. we arrived. Traveling by train in India is an adventure. We have nice journey. There is plenty to see inside and outside the train. Every half hour servants come along in the train with complete meals, cold and warm drinks and all kind of snack in paper bags. When we stop at a station curious people throng before the window. Again a lot of pilgrims often dressed in orange and red. They wave enthusiastically at us.
When we finally arrive at Mahabalipuram station a minibus and a taxi bring us to the hotel. It is a ride from about 45 minutes. We have a nice room.
After unpacking we take a walk to the beach, but the first beach we see is somewhat disappointing. Nobody in swimsuits and no umbrella to find. There is also no terrace or bar where we can drink something. We decide to go back to the hotel.
We have a drink in the hotel and hear that we have to walk an other road to find a better beach. And indeed the other beach is considerably more fun! Many shops and nice eateries. There are many (especially new) fishing boats on the beach. The boats are a gift from aid organizations after the Tsunami. The fishermen and their families are busy repairing the fishing nets. Beautiful soft evening light. We walk around for a while. It is a very pleasant walk but still no possibility to swim.
We go back to the hotel. At 8:30 pm we return to the street leading to the beach, because now we know that there are a lot of restaurant in that street. We have dinner at the Moonrakers restaurant. Two fellow travellers join us for dinner.
Astrid, one of our companions has an inflamed eye. She goes to the hospital with our guide. She is seen by 5 different doctors; the total bill for consultation is 50 rupees and the eye drops cost her 34 rupees. For the price of half a pack of cigarettes she had total care and the treatment was adequate. Her eyes were quickly healed!
We get up early and enjoy a buffet breakfast. We will make a bike ride today. The bikes are picked up. Ingrid sits on a bike that has the height of a children's bike, but most bikes here are small. Indians simply are a lot smaller than we are. It is hot, the bikes and roads are bad so the trip is tiring. We have to work hard but it is a fun experience!
We stop in a village. We take our time to explore the village and are witness of a ceremony where 3 girls are shaved. Thereafter, the head of the girls is powdered. The girls sit on their father's lap while their ears get pierced with golden earrings. It is a ritual in which their beauty (hair) is sacrificed to the gods.
Nice to see daily life where the families live in their lovely cottages with a small little lifestock. We also see school children in their school uniforms. Many children beg for sweets or pens. En route we stop at a lake with a sacred tree. We see cows with beautifully painted horns. We see many rice fields and palms. Beautiful nature. Too bad waste is thrown anywhere here.
We eat in a private home. The family serves good food on a banana leaf. Rice with different dishes are to be eaten by hand. Delicious. After this pleasant tour we return pretty exhausted, also because of the heat, back to our hotel.
IAt the hotel we rest for a while before going to the beach again. First we to a tailor. Mahabalipuram is like Madurai famous for custom made clothes. We can’t resist to buy some more. There are a lot of fun fabrics to choose from. At the beach we have drink at a bar before going back to the hotel.
In the evening we have dinner on the roof of the hotel with Mhutu, his family and the whole group fellow travellers. Mhutu was a good tour guide. Tomorrow our paths will split. Mhutu will join a new group.
We make a phone call to our daughter Marjon in Holland. It freezes in Holland! Fortunately everything goes well at home.
At 9.45 we go with 3 taxis to a fishing village near Mahabalipuram. This village is heavily affected by the tsunami but is now quite composed. In the village we board on a fishing boat. We will join the the fishermen to sea with 2 boats. The sea is very rough today. Strong winds and high waves cause many gallons of water in the boat. the The boats are pounding in the surf. The moment we are on the high seas fishing nets are thrown out. After half an hour the nets are hauled back. Meanwhile some of us get pretty sick. We don’t suffer sickness and love the swell! A very special cruise under special circumstances!
Back to the beach is going very fast! We have lunch in the village. The people of the village has prepared the fish we caught by ourselves and serve it with rice and several dishes on a banana leaf. The food was very tasty, but - to be honest - after 3 weeks of Indian food, we start getting hungry to continental food again. We walk around in the village. The money earned with these excursions is invested in the education of the children from this village.
We paid 20 euro’s the man. A lot of money for the people here, but it is worth the money.
Around 14.00 pm we are back at the hotel. We take a break in the hotel. A little later we make a walk into the village. Back to tailor- and souvenir shops. Plenty of choice here. Most tourists walk in clothes that are made here. We walk away along the beach and walk for the last time past the fishing boats.
In the room we make our suitcases ready. Tomorrow will be our last day of the holiday!
Last day. On our last day in Tamil Nadu we make - separate from the group - an excursion to a special temple nearby. The temple is at top of a hill. We climb to the top. There is a lot of activity in and near the temple. People bake, cook, sleep, chat etc. Many pilgrims. On the stairs a lot of beggars and also families with children.
On the steps of the temple also a group of men smoking an opium pipe. Upstairs you have a beautiful view over the surroundings and some temple complexes. We walk through the small town at the foot of the hill and take a taxi back to our hotel. Visiting the temple was a good activity for such a last day here.
In the evening, we are picked up late in the hotel for transfer to the airport where our flight leaves in the middle of the night. Everything goes well.
A wonderful holiday is over!
Jan-Arend van Boeijen en Ingrid Vogelesang,
Schagen 2008/2021, www.travelbyphoto.nl
