It was a long weekend....the originally planned Wagamon trip didn't seem to materialize...I had to do something to prevent the weekend going to an utter waste. Then out comes Ergo (a newspaper(?) supplied for free at major companies) with a list of little known places for a weekend getaway near Chennai...One of the places which caught my eye was Tranquebar...a Danish outpost in the 1700s....which the article said was on the way to Chidambaram....the only place to stay was the Bungalow on the Beach whose standard room rate was 3500 + 12.5% tax. The cheaper hotel Tamil Nadu was booked fully till Feb 28th. Since I didnt want to wait till then and I couldnt even think of paying almost 4000 bucks (If I had that much to spend, I'd have put in 1500 more and bought the complete calvin and hobbes collection...)for a night's stay...I decided to make it a one day trip. The plan was as follows
Sunday the 25th of January, 2008
0000 hrs: Reach Koyambedu Bus Stand
0005 hrs: Get on a bus to Chidambaram
0600 hrs: Reach Tharangambadi and catch the sunrise on the lovely shore
1000 hrs: Enter the Fort Dansborg museum and roam around
1300 hrs: Get out of the musesum, proceed with photography
1700 hrs: Think about returning and try to get a bus to Chennai
2300 hrs: Reach Chennai...reminisce about what a fantastic trip it was...
Now let's get to what really happened...
I reached Koyambedu Bus Stand on time...I went to the platform reserved for Buses plying to Chidambaram and I find it empty....I enquire about the next bus to Chidambaram to a shopkeeper and he replies that it would be here in 30 min. Although initially miffed, I overcame it...plugged my ears with the ipod headphones and lost myself in the world of Kishore Kumar...30 minutes turned into 90 minutes when finally a bus with the Chidambaram board came (It's not as if I could read it....my understanding Tamil script is like pattern matching....so I should say a bus with a board that looked like it said Chidambaram came). It had hardly stopped and it already had people hanging off the windows and footboards. That finally did it for my patience. Out came my Nokia E71 with Google Maps...I navigated my way to my destination and to my utter horror, I found that it was not anywhere near the way to chidambaram...it was on the way to Karaikal from Chidambaram. After showering some choiciest of abuses on the "informative" Ergo, I got on the next bus to Pondycherry. As my good friend Ashok had done his Engg. from Karaikal, I had a vague idea as to how to get there. I got on the bus and slept off...or tried to sleep with my butt killing me because of the quality of the bus seat.
I reached Pondycherry at around 6.15. The next Karaikal Bus was not much behind. I got on the bus at around 6.30. The bus might have had a problem in the transmission or the bus driver wanted the passengers to reeeally enjoy the journey.....the bus never went above the second gear speed....I was half the through the second intolerable Sathyaraj starrer shown in the bus before I reached Tharangambadi...or Tranquebar...and the time was 10:30....I was running around 4 hours later than planned....
The first recognizable sight that I saw in Tranquebar was the King's Gate. It was built in 1792 and it stands at the beginning of the King's Street which takes you to the beach..
Once you enter through this gate, it's like you have stepped into a time capsule. The churches and buildings on both sides of the road are straight out of sepia tinted photographs. A straight walk on that road would take you to the Tharangambadi beach. On the left side of the beach there is a temple. It's dome was knocked down by the Tsunami that hit the west coast but now the repairs are done and it is a riveting sight. The temple has sea on 2 of its sides.
Another landmark in front of the beach is the Fort Dansborg. It is a Danish Fort and the architecture is very different from the Indian Forts. If you are familiar with Age of Empires 2, you might find this fort similar to the castles of Teutons.
This majestic sight alone was enough to make my trip worth it...I spent quite some time walking around the fort grounds and exploring the museum in the first floor.
I was really tired by then...I had a quick lunch of chocolates and Kurkure sitting in the shade of the temple...and dozed of there itself for sometimes. The sound of the singing waves lulled me to sleep. Once the fierce noon sun had subsided, I took a walk along the beach....This was one of those beaches where someone who collects shells would go crazy....there were new kind of shells at each step....I collected some that caught my fancy...Before thinking about going back, I had to visit the churches in the neighbourhood. There are two...and behind those churches are some graves from the time Danes ruled here.....One of the graves was of a 3 month old baby boy.
After a brief tour of the churches, it was time for me to think about my return journey. From Tharangambadi to Karaikal...karaikal to Pondycherry..Pondy to Chennai....I reached back by around 1:30 at night....I had spent 19 hours travelling to spend about 6 hours in the shore of singing waves....But I know one thing...If I had to go through it all over again, I wouldn't hesitate for a second....
