Purification

I've been here at the beach for over a week and the days seem to be slipping by in a fairly seamless kind of way. Since my outgoings for bed and food amount to only a few quid a day, if inertia gets the better of me, I could quite easily spend the rest of my days here. It's now about 35 degrees in the day (their 'winter' is coming to an end), but with the sea breeze the climate here is just about ideal

Yesterday a couple of fishermen took me out to sea in their 'boat' (essentially a few solid logs tied together - very heavy) for the sunrise. We didn't get to see the turtles or dolphins they said were out there, but did see other boats doing their fishing business. There are plenty of Olive Ridley turtles to be seen here - unfortunately they're all dead on the beach. Orissa state is suffering thousands of turtle deaths a year and conservationists are calling for more to be done to protect this endangered species.

The day before that, it was a day trip out to Konark to see the world-famous Sun Temple. A really amazing pile of intricately-carved stone that on its 24 gigantic stone wheels, really does look as though the seven straining stone horses will pull it into motion at any moment. The detailed 'eroticism' (ready bawdyness) of the stone carvings rival those of Khajarohao.

I've been doing some reading & thinking re. the maths/space/dimensions stuff, but making headway is slow going. Yet to do any writing on this one......

All in all, a very relaxed sojourn with occasional chats with friendly tourists/locals. Bit of guitar playing, bit of chess playing (I've lost every single game).

How am I going to cope with Calcutta (Kolkata) after this???