Escape from the city

The Sun Temple at Konarak. Built in the 13th century in the shape of a war chariot (of the Sun God I think). It has 7 horses on the sides representing the 7 days of the week, 12 wheels representing the months and on each wheel 8 spokes, showing the 8 ideal parts of a woman's day (seems to involve a lot of sex is all I can say.)
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It took me the first two weeks to find my feet with the project and feel settled but, that being done, Julia being gone and the strike being on/off (currently off), I decided at the start of week 3 that, come the weekend, it was time for a break.

On Monday last week I therefore booked my ticket (way more hassle than in the rest of India - due largely to the fact that I'm not based in the centre) and on Friday I caught the sleeper train to Puri, which is some 10 hours down the coast of the Bay of Bengal. The train departed on time but still arrived five hours late so it was midday by the time I got there. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be much of an issue but Saturday was the morning after the first full moon after Diwali. In Puri this means it was the morning of Bali Yatra, when everyone flocks to the beach  to greet the sun as it rises. Clearly I wasn't there at sunrise but, had I been, other travellers tell me that I would have seen 100,000 people (no exaggeration) on the beach greeting the sun and that I would have heard a deafening chorus of wails from the female contingent recalling the departure of their husbands when they used to sail to Bali for trade. I can only imagine it would have been amazing but, well, there's always next year.

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What I did have of Saturday, I spent by the beach, watching the waves and reading my book. It has to be said, it wasn't that great. I wanted to swim but seeing jellyfish, crashing waves and smurf-alike lifeguards I chickened out. I spent too long down the Indian end of the beach waiting for a festival to start and so didn't really meet any other backpackers (if I'd read the leaflet I'd have known that the main stuff didn't begin until 6pm but instead I asked and they told me about the start of the pre-stuff which was 3:30 - hung around for that for an hour before realising it wasn't what I was after). Anyway, by the time I went to check my mail I was fairly despondent.

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I needn't have been. I went down to the festival and really enjoyed the music and the dance, the sand sculpture etc. I got followed down the street by some kid on a bike who tried to grope me as he cycled away: I couldn't escape it but I could see it coming and so, when he did it, I chased him down the street for 10yards, totally taking him by surprise and possibly scaring him half to death but amusing me all the same. The next day I went to the Sun Temple (still no foreigners) and then came back for lunch (not loads of foreigners but a few, alone, and willing to chat.) Spent the afternoon and evening chatting to a Swede, a German, an Italian and a Brit in the Pink Garden Restaurant and the Honey Bee. Ate a pizza and enjoyed non-Benglish conversation. It was a cop-out I admit but by cocooning myself from India just a little bit I revived my enjoyment of it. I ending up wishing I could have stayed a couple of days longer and certainly wishing that I'd seen Bali Yatra.