Kitch on the Coast (Special Bonus Entry!)

As you can tell, I've been a bit blogged-out over the past couple of months. I have, however, been secretly updating past entries from the India series with the new and improved photos. So if you go through some of the past entries you'll see improved, and in some cases, new photos.

There was one place in India I never got around to blogging about because of where it fell into my trip. This was one of the oddest places I visited on my whole trip: Vishakhapatnam.



View Vishakhapatnam in a larger map

It was February 17th...

I had a long overnight train ride from Chennai (Madras) in the south, along the coast to Vishakhaptnam. I chose to visit this city because I wanted to break up the journey from Chennai to Kolkata in the north (that would have been a 30-hour train ride).

So I decided to spend one night in the coastal city. My Lonely Planet guide didn't say too much about Vishakhapatnam other than it was a bit of a beach resort for Indians. That sounded nice to me.

This was the train ride with those cute kids...




And the boy who I let use my camera...




The countryside in Andreh Pradesh was nice...








The train, however, was about six hours late when we arrived in Vishakhapatnam. It was already starting to get dark as I left the station. The Lonely Planet book had no map of this city and it wasn't nearly as easy to find my way around as I had hoped.

I refused all offers from rickshaw drivers because one of the hotels mentioned in Lonely Planet was near the train station. I walked the streets around the station and asked people for the hotel but no one knew it. All the buildings (including the hotels) in this part of town seemed run down and dodgy. It was a few kilometers from the coast and so I decided I would just take a rickshaw to the coast where I could find a decent hotel.

The rickshaw driver drove through the smogy dirty city to the coast and I let him take me to his choice of hotel (I gave him a rough price range). The first hotel was booked, the second was too expensive, by the time we got to the third hotel it was getting dark and I was tired. I took a look at the room, it was pretty dingy, and overpriced for what it was, but still in my price-range. I took it.

There wasn't a lot to do in the area around my hotel so I just ate dinner at a nearby hotel (I was the only one in the restaurant so I just chatted with the Bengali waiter). I went to an internet cafe and nearly got asphyxiated by the fumes from the nearby road. I was already looking forward to leaving the next day.

Luckily, I was able to sleep in a bit. While I was getting dressed in the morning there was a knock on my door. I was still putting my pants on and a the knock came again more urgently. I zipped up and opened the door, it was a man with a few women behind him holding brooms and cleaning supplies. I thought, "oh housekeeping!" except all they did was stand there and the man kept putting his hand to his mouth like he wanted a hand-out from me. I was dumbfounded! Now, I don't want to sound uncharitable, but I found this behavior ridiculously unprofessional and downright intrusive. The women burst behind the man into the room and wagged their brooms across the floor a couple of times and then started begging as well. I kicked them all out and locked the door.

A few minutes later when it came time to leave I tried my best to avoid them, but the man was waiting in the stairwell as I hurried past and got out to the street outside.

I wanted to go to Kailasigiri, a little amusement park in the hills overlooking the coast. I asked several people which bus to take to get there and I got a different answer each time. My favorite was, "take the bus with no number." Not helpful.

Somehow I found the right bus and soon it was ascending the hill to the entrance of the park. Now, just so you understand, since arriving in this city I hadn't seen another white person the whole time (nor would I, actually). I was really the odd man out in this part of India. I got more attention here than about anywhere else. This was the town where the Indian tourist come for vacation.

I got out of the bus at Kailasigiri and found the Titanic overlooking the parking lot...





The entrance arch next to a giant weather station (or possibly, shield generator). Entrance was cheap and I went inside...




There were some nice views of the coast below...




There were a variety of playgrounds, a mini-train, some gardens, and several nice places to sit and enjoy the nice views and fresh air away from the smog of the city.

I chatted with this fellow a bit...




Fishing boats below...




Giant statues of Shiva and Parvati...




I enjoyed a nice and cheap thali for lunch and just took my time enjoying the park. I walked by some booth for the Andreh Pradesh tourist information center and the worker there was so excited to see a Westerner that he came right up to me and started telling me about all the things to do in the area and he even gave me a bunch of postcards for free! When other Indians came over to the booth while he was talking to me, he shooed them away so that they wouldn't bother our conversation. It was pretty funny.




It was time to leave Kailasigiri so I rode the ropeway to the bottom...




And caught the bus back to the main beach area.

The waterfront was a sight to behold. It was so random and kitchy.

Like, a big submarine.... okay, that makes sense...




Army boys or something (and a penguin)...




An owl and a giant turtle...




A fisherman...




These guys shouted and whistled at me from across the street as I walked by...




A random dinosaur. (Incidentally, a wedding was taking place right by the dinosaur. Classy!)...




It was nice to see some people in the busy city take time to stop and smell the flowers...




Watch out for the shark!




A gorilla...




Pony rides on the beach!




I must say, the people-watching on the beach was first class...







Women would always swim in their saris....




I took my shoes off and walked the surf...




I was talking to some random people when I saw this guy approach me from the water. He walked steadily right up to me all soaking wet and then he just gave me a big hug and walked away...




All three kids fit on this bike somehow...








A cricketer...

It was actually quite nice walking the beach like that...



I had a train to catch that evening and so I went back to the hotel and cleaned up... I paid and rushed out of the hotel with the housekeeping shouting out the windows at me for a tip. Nope!

I refused to take a rickshaw to the station! So I walked to the downtown area, swimming through the exhaust fumes. I saw a biker get hit by a motorcycle. He got back up and just kept on riding.

I was able to find an internet cafe to use and a place to get a decent bite to eat. From the downtown area I just asked people where to go to get to the train station. It was a lot longer than I thought, especially with my big backpack on. But I persevered and had an interesting stroll past the marketplaces where many were selling fish and other things by candle light as evening approached. It really felt like I was back in time.

Eventually I made it to the train station and happily boarded my train that would take me to Kolkata where I would eventually meet up with Dad.

Vishakhapatnam wins the prize as my least favorite city that I visited in India, dirty, polluted, chaotic, and not all that much to see and do. And yet I still had an interesting time here filled with memorable experiences. I managed to get through the chaos, antagonizing touts, and bad directions and still feel good when I got to the train station. In my journal that night I wrote, "India did not defeat me today!"

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