I avoided the heat of the mid-day sun by relaxing by the hotel pool for a couple of hours. I had it completely to myself.
I then asked the receptionist if he could sort me out a taxi to take me to Guindy National Park which is the only National Park of it's kind - hundreds of acres and set right in the heart of the city. It hosts numerous types of monkey and deer. Sadly I was a bit late as it closes at 5 pm so I was advised to go to the beach instead. Hopefully I will do the park on my return from the Andamans.. So, instead I set off in a 'tuk tuk' (Sp?)- A covered up moped thing that starts by pulling a handle. Winding through the rush hour traffic six deep was an experience not to be missed. The idea is to honk as loudly as possible and never give way - the problem being that everyone has the same idea. Bedlam. I arrived at the beach surprisingly in one piece, It was massive - the second largest in the world apparently and full of locals. Not a single Westerner to be seen. The 'tuk tuk' driver said that he would wait an hour for me while I had a walk which was nice of him. I walked as far as I could in the time allotted and that was probably enough. I felt as though I had two heads with the reaction I was causing. I was very conservatively dressed as I had noticed before that no matter how hot it is the locals are completely covered up, except for a bit of mid-riff showing in the case of the sari clad women. No one was swimming and absolutely no-one had a bathing costume on even though it was stiflingly hot. A lot of all male groups and oddly quite a few were holding hands....I don't think they were gay as they are very religious but they just have a different way of showing affection to each other than we are used to.
The beach was lovely but also rather smelly as it is used by fishermen and there were piles of discarded fish on the sand. there were a lot of goats wandering around and horses being exercised, and also giving the locals a ride. They kept on asking me if I wanted to get on, I couldn't be bothered to explain that I was taking time out away from horses for a bit. I was very relieved to see my 'tuk tuk' driver waiting for me as I was beginning to get a bit tired of the attention and hassle. My driver as he had the 'only white person in the village' then proceeded to parade me around the city - he took me to see the National Shrine of St Thomas Basilica, which was beautiful and actually had the tomb of St Thomas in it. However, I think I made too many appreciatory noises as the driver then proceeded to take me to every other temple in the city. When I said I had seen enough temples he took me on a tour of all his relatives shops - he would stop outside and insist that I should go in and inspect what they had on offer. I really wasn't in a spending mood, having spent so much just getting here so I had to be rather firm in the end and say "No more temples and no more shops - just the hotel please!
I have to be at the airport by 4 am tomorrow in the hope of getting this flight. If I don't get it I may have a sense of humour failure as I don't really want to stay in the city any longer. Fingers crossed......