Historic Sights in Chennai

We met our group of 9 others this morning and began our Gate 1 Spiritual South India tour with a traditional South Indian lunch at Malgudi restaurant. That’s me posing in front of the restauant.

For lunch, we each received a large platter lined with banana leaf that was used to serve small bowls of curries, rice, chicken in cream sauce, fried fish, dal (lentils), yogurt, and rice pudding, all eaten with parotta, a type of fry bread local to the Tamil Nadu area. Tiny portions but very filling all together.

Finished off with a dessert of fermented rice flour pancake dipped in a sweetened cardamom sauce. Dark South Indian coffee was served, again traditional style. That’s Ben demonstrating the pouring technique that mixes the cream and sugar into the very hot coffee.

Two historical sights today: the Government Museum which is a sprawling compound of archeological, historical, and architectural treasures. We saw carved Hindu statues dating from 600 A.D., and the largest collection of bronze statues in the world dating back hundreds of years and magnificently detailed. Then to the Museum at Fort St. George which houses collections of memorabilia from the fascinating British history in India. Unfortunately they do not allow pictures at either Museum. There’s a picture of us at St. Mary’s church, the oldest English church in India, dating from the 1700s and still in use today.

Then a drive along the extensive shoreline along the Bay of Bengal with a beach area estimated to be 20 miles long. The part closest to the city has many parks and food trucks and you can imagine in a city of 9 million, lots of people walking on the beach (water is not safe for swimming).

Further down are the fishing villages. We could see the boats, not too much larger than dinghies, rowing right up on the sand and hauling their catch directly to a family member manning a makeshift stall along the road, selling the fish literally fresh off the boat (we saw very little use of ice). Our guide said that Indians prefer their food to be bought and cooked as fresh as can be, so everything must be sold that day. It’s one reason WalMart has not taken off in this big market—the people here generally do not use prepared or packaged food. This area was hard hit by the tsunami in 2004, destroying miles of small homes near the water and killing hundreds. Even 13 years later so many still living in make-shift shanties of scrap metal or wood with a roof of plastic sheeting. The government is slowly rebuilding apartments, but still so much need.

We are going through water like crazy. It’s hot and humid and the tap water is not safe for us to drink. We are being handed water bottles everywhere we go. You know what a conservationist I am so it’s killing me to add all these empty plastics to the trash problem of over a billion people. It’s either that or risk a case of ‘Delhi belly’ (the Indian version of Montezumas Revenge). We have been so fortunate on our trips to be spared from any GI issues.Read more