Indian Beach Customs in Vizag

Travel Day 900 – Visakhapatnam to Chennai, Tamil Nadu, INDIA

Today was technically an Active Travel Day, but since our train didn’t leave until the afternoon, we decided to make it a short Travel Daycation as well…

Empty Beach in the Morning in Vizag

All local people we had seen in Vizag and Puri so far seemed to jump into the ocean in full attire, at least the women did. The men were normally wearing their pants and only the children could be seen in underwear jumping into the refreshingly cool water. For me personally it didn’t seem to be a very big deal to be in swim shorts, but for my travelling wife the bikini option seemed slightly doubtful and could possibly be received as indecent exposure…

So we opted for the slightly covered up version and we found ourselves an empty spot that could not be seen from the street. Conforming as much as possible to local customs and keeping an eye on the time, we still enjoyed our little Travel Daycation very much, especially because almost no disturbance or vendor was around to try to hustle us for a sale we certainly did not want…

Countryside in Andra Pradesh, India

The following train ride in the afternoon down to Chennai was quite pleasant as well. The only unfortunate thing was that the weather was really warm by now and as a result my backpack was even bigger and heavier than before because my shoes, long pants, sweater, scarf and jacket all were in the bag. In Kolkata I was wearing everything every single day, but now it seemed just like heavy ballast in the already Tabla-heavy backpack…

Anyway, we made friends with the only other two foreigners on the train as well as with the local people sharing our booth of the sleeper car. After lots of small-talk and sharing of local snacks while once more enjoying the country side of Andra Pradesh fly by the window, we finally ended this beach Daycation turned into Active Travel Day with another short night in the rattling and drafty sleeper compartment of the Eastern Indian Railroad…