Tranquebar

Tranquebar used to be a Danish settlement. Situated right on the Bay of Bengal, I'm sure it was a fantastic sea port for them. Today, the Danish buildings are in extremely neglected condition but resourceful people have turned them into cute little houses and schools. It's really cool to stroll through the old part of Tranquebar and see how the old european style buildings have been repurposed into fisherman's houses. There is a long windy beach covered in Indian tourists playing in the shallows. It's unsafe for swimming but that doesn't prevent even Muslim women in burqas from wading in.

At the edge of the beach is an old Danish fort that we didn't go into. Peeking through the gate we saw only a weedy courtyard and decided to admire it from the outside only. Unfortunately, in the picture it's a little hard to see.

Past the fort is a little shore temple placed picturesquely, you guessed it, on the shore. Upon closer inspection, the temple used to be much bigger, with maybe half of the building in pieces among the rocks being buffeted by the ocean. I wonder if this was tsunami damage. The house in the photo was one of many right on the beach that had had its roof blown off in some storm or another.

Even farther down the beach, were I don't think any tourist goes (except me) is where the fishermen and their families hang out. Little fishing boats were constantly coming in or going out and thin women were sitting on the beach selling and drying all manner of sea creatures, but mostly little fish and wormy things probably used as bait or eaten by the poorest of the poor.

Other than the small area by the ocean, Tranquebar isn't much. It was a nice, breezy spot to spend the day though!