Mamallapuram!
We were able to find a room at the Blue Moon Guest House for Thursday and Friday nights. It turns out that this is the Independence Weekend, and we were very lucky to find a place. We made an assumption, as we saw Uber tags on cars that we could order an Uber to take us from central Chennai to the coastal beach town. Nope! Turns out, Uber can not go between cities, it is strictly within a city (jurisdiction) and apparently does not compete with longer haul cabs. The clerk at the IBIS was nice enough to call us a car to take us there. The fee was quite reasonable, in American terms, around $20. To an Indian, a king’s ransom.
The driver was very sweet. He was unsure of where the guest house was, and we were too. He got directions from an auto rickshaw driver and we ended up at a dead end. Another set of directions and we had to back up and head down the previous left. Oops, a truck and several parked motor bikes blocked the way. The driver was unsure of what to do. We checked on maps.me and saw that we were just a few short blocks away. We told him we would walk the rest, he was pleasantly surprised that we would do that!
We arrived at the guest house, which has a splendid view to the water and over looking the drerelict grounds of the Radisson BLU hotel. If the grounds were just cleared of trash and assorted detritus, it would be a lovely view, but as it stands, it looks sort of like a trash heap, minus the smell.
This is the view from the balcony and breakfast area. Our room is at the other end of the balcony. It was the view that sold us on the room.
The proprietor was friendly enough and was happy to see us. He showed us two rooms, one on the ground floor, with hot water and AC and one on the top floor with a fan and no hot water. We opted for the view! The water was not freezing cold, it is a hot country. In fact, if I took my shower at about 4 pm the water would be close to warm!
We changed into shorts! No one wears shorts in India, only tourists and young children. We wore long pants in the city, but decided here at the beach, no long pants! We wandered over to the water front to look for a place to have lunch and settled on Santana Restaurant on the 2nd floor over looking the beach.
We were kind of shocked at the prices, mind you, these are still Indian prices, but 300 R (about $4.50) for a beer! Highway robbery! Captive Tourist Trade! In Chennai at the non-touristic bars we went to beers were a lot less. In fact, a large beer and a large bottled water came to 285 R. A rupee is about $.015, or 1 and 1/2 cents. 100 R is about $1.50 plus a little bit more, maybe $1.65. We were used to getting food for max 200 or 250 R per plate and beers in the 200R range. By NYC standards, it’s free!
There was a film crew there filming an Australian Indian who was at the Santana talking to the owner and various guests, not Bill and I. The crew got her to scream when a lobster flapped in her face! I ordered paneer curry and Bill got prawns and chips. The chips were really good, very crispy, double fried. My curry was quite tasty and it came with rice. Between the beers and the food, I could hardly keep my eyes open. We both went back to the hotel to take a snooze.
Around 8 pm, we decided to get something to eat. First day in a long time where I ate 3 meals! We settled on the Sea Rock, which was right at the edge of the beach. Neither of us were terribly hungry, but we ordered chicken momos and Tava grilled in the South Indian style. Prior to us making these decisions, we were given a look at the fresh fish for offer. There were 2 white snappers, 1 red snapper, various lobsters in a tank, crabs, prawns, and a small tuna (small in that it was not one of those giant ones that you see in Japanese fish markets!
The owner after pouring Bill’s beer into an opaque ceramic mug, but the bottle on the floor next to the table. I opened my bottle of water, and poured a glass and did the same. The owner came over and asked where was the water bottle? I explained I put it on the floor like he had with the beer. The owner explained that he did that so he didn’t have problems with the police....Back on the table went the water bottle.
We were informed that the Tava is made with king fish it was grilled and coated with a reddish sauce, and then fried. It was a bit too fishy for me, but Bill liked it. A Tava, I just found out is a griddle pan.
We wobbled home looking to avoid the cow pats, as there were many cows in town. Lots and lots of street dogs. Oh, by the way, I did see 2 cats while in Chennai. One, the first, was, no kidding, walking on the corrugated tin roof of one of the shanty shacks below our IBIS room. The second was as we were leaving the bar in Chenai and it was munching on something taken from an overflowing trash bin. Could explain why there are not very many rodents around!
We slept soundly until about 8 am when we awoke to try to find accommodations in Pondicherry! That will be a story to itself. There was not a room to be found in Pondy!
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