Following up to my posts on Hoysaleswara and Chennakeshava Temples in Karnataka, this post follows my journey east from Bangalore to Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. Unlike the former posts, this is a travelogue not attempting to get at history.

We arrived in Chennai in the late afternoon and headed straight toward Elliot’s Beach along the waterfront just south of the city center. Fully named as Edward Elliot’s beach, it is named after a former superintendent of police.

We arrived just at sunset. Chennai is on the east coast of India, so the sunset set the mood rather than impressed. There were quite a number of people of all ages walking along the beach enjoying the pleasant weather.

The scaffolding and lights made an interesting geometric sight against the twilight sky.

As a teaser to get you to click through to “more”, here is a picture from the marketplace we visited a short walk down the beach.

We came upon a dog that really wanted to be friends. No doubt hoping we would give him something to eat. Shot one: Hope.

Shot two: Pleading. Please feed me!

Shot three: Reality sets in. No food from us.

We then came upon this crow (raven?) perched on the rear-view mirror of a two-wheeler.

Off it went!

There are a couple of market areas set up on the beach lined with stalls selling toys, food, games, just about anything you might want for an evening at the beach. A popular item was American Sweet Corn.

The group I was with decided to stop for some battered, deep fried vegetables known as Bhaji. They are kind of like fritters. At the time, I misheard “Bhaji” as “Budgie” and I wondered if parakeets would be involved. Here the proprietor of the Bhaji-shop is slicing the vegetables.

You can see how these stands are built right out on sand.

The vegetables are coated in batter and fried in oil.

Here is the final product. I felt they would be a little too greasy for me so I did not try them.

As we were eating a man on horseback wandered through.

As dusk settled, the artifical lights took over. The variety of colors is remarkable.

A women selling toys watches over her wares while the children play.

This high-dynamic range (HDR) image is a combination of three exposures to reveal the carnival lights in the distance with the bright balloons in the foreground.

This panorama shows the size of the marketplace.

Back on the street side, a vendor was selling sweats.

This fruit vendor appears to steam or freeze (I couldn’t tell) the fruit for sale.

Here a family waits for their fruit treat. You can see steam rising in front of woman preparing the fruit.

Altogether a very pleasant evening in Chennai.

Repeating this image so it will show up as the thumbnail in Facebook.