October 29 – Visakhapatnam Fish Market and Simhachalam Temple

We had a few minutes after breakfast to go out onto the hotel veranda overlooking the ocean.  

There is a beautiful beach just across the road but Tara said it wasn’t a good swimming beach.  And the surf did look pretty rough so she is probably right.

Our first stop today was the fish market at the port.  It was a very amazing place with lots of boats,

lots of fish,

lots of people,

and lots of just interesting things to see. 

There was a very large area where they were drying fish out on large mats.  The nearby tribes really like the dried fish as it is the only fish they are able to get.

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More fish market photos
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After thoroughly enjoying the sights (if not the smells) we headed out to our next stop.  It took us a couple of hours to get to the Simhachalam Temple in the mountains.  

We wandered the temple complex area for a while with the usual few who wanted to get their picture take with us or wanting for us to take their picture.  

And there were the ubiquitous cows.

We had an interesting stop in the building where people (men, women and children) have their heads shaven.  It is considered a gift to the gods and an act of devotion to have one’s head shaved.  

There were quite a few children getting there head’s shaved. 

We then turned in our cameras and shoes and headed to the entrance of the temple.  It wasn’t open yet so we joined the long line of devotes waiting to enter the temple.  The waiting area was lined with steel fences about 4 and a half feet high so that people could not cut line.  Once the temple opened the line moved forward rather quickly.  The entire way into and through the temple was by similar barriers to keep the lines orderly and moving.

Once we were in the temple it was packed and there was little time to view the various altars.  However, we did go right past an altar that was partially covered in silver.  The main altar was down a passageway.  We could see it but not get close.  And this one was covered with a lot of gold. 

After having waited about 30 to 40 minutes we were probably through the temple in 8 or 10 minutes.  But it was certainly an interesting experience to go through the temple with so many devotees. It it a pilgrimage site and you could feel the faith and devotion that the pilgrims brought to this site.  

We then hit the road for about an hour before stopping for lunch in a small roadside restaurant.  Food was very good but the Lime Soda was flat and not very tasty (unusual). 

We hadn’t been back on the road very long until we drove through a town and the driver stopped to consult with a policeman standing in the road.  It turned out that a bridge was out and we had to take a relatively long detour to get to our night’s lodging.  This was the start of by far the bumpiest road trip we have ever taken.  It seemed endless.  At one point we thought the road was blocked because there were a lot of parked trucks.  Turned out a truck carrying a large load of bricks had overturned and was on its side at the side of the road.  Fortunately, we were just able to squeeze by.

We finally arrived at our hotel after 10:00, far later then scheduled.  We were all exhausted.  We had a banana in the room and hit the bed as soon as we were able.  What a day!