Beach Days Patnem, India

Patnem, India

We have begun to settle into the Patnem rhythm now. Or shall I say, our Patnem rhythm – yours could be completely different. Generally, we wake up about 730. It’s the birds. Or maybe it’s the change in light. Or maybe its just all those years of getting up for work. Anyway, we have a cup of tea or coffee in bed, catch up on the overnight email and newspapers and then get up, put on beachware and are down at Salida for around 830-845. Set up two loungers and table under an umbrella and then time for breakfast.I am relatively boring with breakfast. It’s generally two soft boiled eggs,, one piece of toast and black tea. Sometimes I have porridge. Bob is far more adventurous. He often has the south Indian breakfast of baji puri. This is Indian fried bread served with a small bowl of lightly spiced vegetables. Sometimes he has a pancake with lemon. Or yoghurt with lots of fresh fruit and granola. Today, he went to Chaudhi to pick up our Indian sim card so he had masala dosa at the Krishna Hotel. I’ll go with him next time and take some pictures. He got the sim and also found money at a cashpoint with no queue. Came away with 16000 INR. He’d taken my cashcard too so he put both cards through twice. There is a daily limit of 4000 per card per transaction at the moment up to the daily limit set by your bank. Anyway, we are not having any problems with money at all. We have paid for the accommodation on credit card. We are running a tab at Salida which covers most breakfasts, lunches and drinks and we pay cash for dinner, tuk tuks and incidentals. Then, after breakfast, its reading under the umbrella, swimming about every 30 minutes, beach walks. Lunch about 1. I often don’t have any lunch but Bob always does – pancakes, dal fry with naan, toastie sandwich. Then he plays games of some ilk for a couple of hours: scrabble, cribbage, Yahtzee. I return to reading and swimming. At some point, I go into the water and do about 30 minutes of exercise: stretching; marching on the spot, arm exercises against the water.We pack up about 430 and go back for showers and a cool down. Gin and tonics on our balcony about 530 and head out to dinner about 730. We like to eat at one of the restaurants on the beach. There are a lot to choose from.Tonight we went to Namaste which has been a long time resident on the sands. It’s just so lovely to sit under the stars, hear the waves breaking nearby and see all the twinkling lights of tables stretching away either side of you, plus the stars and moon overhead. Namaste, like most, offer a happy hour for cocktails that seems to go on all night. We had margaritas which were just delicious, so delicious we had them again. They were just right and at £1 each, well… a bargain. Quite strong too. Then, naturally, I had palak paneer which is pureed creamed spinach with garlic and chunks of mild curd cheese. Bob had prawn masala with cumin rice and a butter naan. All the food plus 4 margaritas was £11. Came home and watched Delicious on download.