Our walk to marina beach

After an unintended jet-lag induced cat-nap, Moriah and I walked from our hotel to marina beach, a 13km stretch of sand famous for cricket matches, fish markets and kites. Our path took us through a market and an impressive first albeit brief exposure to Indian life. We had been told by just about everyone we talked to about the sheer density of people, and somehow it was still surprising. While New York has areas just as if not more crowded, this was constant over the course of the 20 minute walk. Remove sidewalks and add meandering cows and cars, rickshaw and motorcycles driving on the left and right side of the street, and you have an impressive spectacle.
On the street people were of course selling fruits and vegetables we had never seen before, not all of which were crawling with insects. The melons looked especially tasty, and had Moriah not been there I might have even eaten some, and would have likely regretted it. The fast food they serve on the street looks incredible, especially the bel puri,which is thin fried dough in a red sauce. But sadly street food is verboten.
We also walked through a fish market, where the fishermen were just about finished filleting the days catch. I think I saw some dorado but most of the fish were unfamiliar. Dogs and birds littered the streets here cleaning the fish carcasses.
we arrived at the beach right at sunset and dipped our feet in the bay of Bengal. Several large tankers and container ships loomed in the distance. Along the beach were small fishing boats down as far as you could see, with their nets tied up for the night. If not for these boats along with the water and the sand I would have guessed we were at a carnival, as there were numerous food carts, games, miniature ferris wheels, and horse rides all over. Moriah was immediately surrounded by five children, all of whom simply wanted to introduce themselves to her and say hello. It was very adorable.
Got my first exposure to cricket, though there was no wicket and they used a tennis ball. Hopefully I will actually get to play in vellore.
We took a rickshaw back, which is akin to asking a drunk mr toad to take you home. I think moriah already mentioned that we saw one flip over while we were waiting in line to take one back to our hotel (really), and while it is a bit scary, it is also pretty fun to ride in the back of these things. I will try to find out if India has traffic laws and report back.