This is part 5 of my second trip to India series.  To start at the beginning of the trip go to www.thebalancedyogi.com and press the blog tab. Scroll back to find part 1.  If you want to read about my first trip to India, keep scrolling back and you will find it. Enjoy!

The Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean was not even visible from the parking lot of the Marina beach.  I was surprised to see how wide it was, thinking that I had never been on a beach that had so much sand.  This beach is said to be 980 feet wide.  This is also a long beach running from near Fort St. George (Fort St George is the name of the first English fortress in India, founded in 1644 at the coastal city of Madras, the modern city of Chennai) in the north to Besant Nagar (Besant Nagar is one of Chennai’s neighborhoods, named after the noted lady theosophist Annie Besant.) in the south about 8.1 miles.

Here Darshan, my driver and guide, and Raj, the guy we hired from the hotel, were happy to pose for a picture on the beach.

As I looked down the beach I saw this array of fishing boats.  This picture, not one of my better attempts, actually turned out pretty cool.  It resembles more of a painting of the fishermen’s boats on the beach than a photo.

Darshan and I posed on the beach for this picture.  It was really windy and I commented to Darshan how rough the sea looked and he said this was calm, and then told me that this was the coast that had been hit by the tsunami.

There were many fishermen businesses on the beach.  The white boxes here hold the fish after being caught and before selling.

Some of the fishermen had tents, which held out the hot summer sun and winds.

Some fishermen had been luckier than others with their catch of the morning. Here this woman displays some shrimp.

Some of the fishermen seemed to focus on just one particular fish while others offered a wider assortment.

The ladies who were sitting behind the tables of fish were happy and proud to pose with their days offerings.  These ribbon fish were interesting. Other fish found along the Bay of Bengal include mullets, sharks, siler bellies, rays, skates, white bait, dussumeria, jew fish, horse mackerel, crabs, seer, pellona, pomfret, perches, lactarius, lethrius, flying fish, engraylis, sardines, lobsters, sabre fish, barracuda, hilsa, tunny, Indian salmon, leather jackets, cookup, breams, catfish, snappers, synagris, bonito, soles, polynemus, and prawns, among others.(Madras, Chennai: A 400-year Record of the First City of Modern India)

This woman had fish and crabs! You can also see the fishing boats behind her at the water.

These are considered private fishermen, not commercial fishermen.  Even as antiquated as this scene was, we were still able to see a business talking on his cell.

Some of the fishermen had bigger catches; maybe they owned more than one boat?

Some of the fishermen houses were right there on the beach.

But the majority of them were across the road. Hundreds of make-shift houses stood right next to each other.

As drab and make-shift as the houses were, you would see temples that were much nicer than the homes.  Darshan said that each of the three major religions here: Hindu, Muslim, and Catholic, were allowed to have a temple in and amongst the houses of this fishing community.

This was the Catholic one where you could see a statue of a boy praying to the Mother Mary.  It was really sweet. The flag also stands out in this picture.  Not sure what it stands for.  If any of my readers know, please let me know.

You can see some houses are just “tents” and many, many goats were all along the beach cleaning up the trash and dead fish parts.  In fact I saw lots of goats on this trip.  Some would be on leases, maybe one, two or three and they would be out for a walk probably looking for food.  Others would be in groups of many, herded down the narrow roads.  They would be amongst dogs, or cows, did not seem to matter. To learn more about the goat industry in India see this cool website: http://goatindia.com/about_us.html

No you have not found yourself on another blog.  As we spoke earlier in the blog about opposites just less than a mile up the road is the magnificent Grand Leela Hotel.  Just like the hotels we stay at in Bangalore, as we drove up the driveway, the car was stopped and inspected for bombs.  Once cleared, we drove up a circular driveway and Darshan let me out, saying he would park over by the side and wait for me.

How did I find myself here? Well as I hate to admit, because I think it is a tacky thing to do, but as we were leaving Chennai on our way to our next adventure, I was in desperate need of a rest room.  Raj, the guy from the hotel, said he knew someone at a luxury hotel nearby and that he was sure they would not mind if I used the facilities.  Never in a million years would I have thought that was a good idea, but at this point, I was not going to argue.  And I am glad I didn’t.  Had I, I would have missed this magnificent place.  This is the Grand Stairwell, made to look like a river is flowing. It was just beautiful.

Along this way with this magnificent mirror and statue were painting of the Gods and Goddesses.

I did not visit the room (some of these pictures are from their website) but I certainly will stay here the next visit I have to Chennai!

This picture was from a window by the ladies room.  Almost looks like they staged the cows to give this beautiful essence of India.

This chair was also so pretty I had to take a picture.

This statue was also so pretty, sorry that my ability to “read lighting” has not been developed! Again, I was trying to do this quickly as I felt like I was outstaying my welcome!

And this beautiful pool.  Now I have traveled to many places and stayed in some awesome hotels, but this one was the most beautiful of all I have experienced.

Back on the road, we stop to buy some flowers from this lovely lady.  She asked for what purpose we wanted them and Darshan speaking to her in Hindi, told her he wanted them for our dashboard Ganesh.  She was so kind, she just game them to us.

And again, Ganesh, with a fresh flower offering was set to take us to our next destination.  The jasmine permeated the air!

I was starving at this point, which prompted Darshan to point out the cashew trees along the side of the road!  That made me even hungrier as I had flashbacks to earlier that morning noticing all the American businesses in town: McDonalds, Dominos, and of course KFC.

And the Kentucky Fried Chicken picture that I had texted to my son Haden.  For about 75 cents you could have the OMG Burger! Oh my gosh?

Thanks for reading and sharing with your friends. Thanks again to my sister Jackie for editing this piece, I really appreciate you.

Check me out at www.thebalancedyogi.com for all my blogs and info. I am also now expanding my schedule to offer more private one on one yoga lessons as well as private and corporate classes. You can also schedule an Ayurveda consultation by calling me at 972-658-1600. Let me know if you have an interest.

Blessings,

Peggy