Wanderings
Today I was feeling awake enough to venture out into the city a bit. I was up pretty early but ended up reading for while before actually making any attempt to get out of bed. After grabbing breakfast at the buffet I headed back to the room and called my driver Nawab. By about 12:30 he had arrived and we were out the door.
After browsing through a couple of websites looking for things to see in the city, I decided we should go to the Mylapore area and have a look at Kapaleeshwarar Temple . However, Nawab warned me that temples closed between 1 and 4pm, so time would be short. We arrived around 12:45pm and I figured I'd at least walk in and catch a glimpse before it closed. I carefully crossed the street wandered up to what appeared to be some kind of entrance gate.
As I tried to enter, someone waved me off saying shoes were not allowed. He led me over to some random shack nearby where he motioned me to leave my shoes. Now in retrospect this was probably fine, but being my first outing in India I wasn't totally crazy about leaving my only pair of shoes in some random shack behind a metal grate door in a building that was not obviously associated with the gate I was trying to pass through, then walking back through the streets in nothing but socks (barefoot seemed less appealing then dirty socks). As soon as I stepped back out of the gate I decided, "Screw it, I'll see this another time" and turned back to grab my shoes. Nawab had dropped me to go park the car, so I was supposed to call him when I was ready to go, but as I meandered back toward the pickup spot he happened to spotted me and we set off.
Nawab was ready with plenty of destinations for me, so the rest of the trip basically consisted of him suggesting something and me saying, "Sure, why not?". The first suggestion was St. Thomas Basilica . I was surprised to learn that it is named as such because is supposedly houses the tomb of St. Thomas himself. Along with small basement chapel near the tomb, the church had a small museum housing old relics recovered from the site.
Next up was the beach. The beach was surprisingly large in all directions, such that even the walk to the water was considerable. Nawab made sure to find an easily identifiable parking spot and point out the landmarks to me so that I could find my way back. The beach itself left something to be desired: the haze made it difficult to see very far down the shoreline or out to sea and what you could see was littered with trash. Nevertheless it was nice to get a short walk in. The most interesting thing about the beach was the large number of beached boats all along the shore. It still is unclear to me what purpose they serve. Before long I was getting hot and decided it was time to move on.
It was getting into the afternoon at this point and Nawab asked if I wanted to find a place to eat. He suggested a place called Amaravathi , which turned out to be the highlight of the day. The place seemed packed when I walked in, which I took as a good sign, but the wait didn't end up being too long in the end. I ordered Chicken Ginger Masala and some Paratha flatbread, which turned out to be an excellent choice. The curry was flavorful and lightly spiced, and the chicken was tender and delicious. Even the bread was tasty in its own right, moist and a bit oily. All served on a banana leaf and eaten utensil-free (except for serving spoons). The best part about it: the meal cost 381 rupee, or about $6.
At this point I was getting tired, so we started to head back to the hotel. On the way back we stopped a arts and crafts shop, but I decided to shop around a bit before buying anything. After that I was back to the hotel to chill.
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