Day 5-Exploring Vizag

This morning we were supposed to wake up early in the morning and go for a run on the beach (about 1/2 mile from the house). Obviously, that didn't happen. When I finally got up I found my parents and uncle in his garden with some tea. After some tea and pictures we took a ride along the beach to see what the city was from their PCH. The view was amazing, the beach was very much reminiscent of Huntington beach on those early mornings when no one else is there yet, small crashing waves on a clean beach. And looking at the development out the other window was also spectacular. He separated the older part of the city and showed the recent and upcoming development as well. What surprised me and made me most proud was seeing all the new development in the area. One entire hill, which was previously completely empty, is not filling up with Tech Parks (IT buildings) and new housing developments were popping up everywhere, all with beach front view. My first thought was that if there is a place to invest it is in this new-age booming area which will not stop construction and recruiting for a long time forward. After a little more sightseeing and taking this picture we went home had lunch and got prepared for the day. Next, we went to a gold shop owned by another of my mom's cousin. Now the normal gold shop on Pioneer or the common corner was more than I expected, but I was blown out of the water. Once we entered in front of us there was a 3 story waterfall and led us to a diverge, jewelery store on the left, clothing on the right (property owned by uncle). The jewelery store was beyond anything I had ever seen, 4 stories. The first floor, easily the size of my house was the gold floor, the one above was silver, and above that, platinum. And lastly, on the 4th floor they held the exotics, amazing juxtaposition of different colored diamonds and other precious stones. Because we were family of the owner, we were given a personal tour of the building and my mom was given the utmost attention, she wanted to buy a chain for the pendant she was gifted earlier. While Deepak and I waited we went into the lobby to play chess. This board, though, was built of silver and my pieces were gold and my brother's was silver. IT WAS AMAZING! Such lavish frivolity was not what I expected to see in a smaller city in South India. After all the nice buildings we drove through the city a little more and found the beach again when my mom saw a stand for a specialty South Indian food. It included puffed rice, tomatoes, lemon juice, and other fresh vegetables. We stopped in a parking lot, ran across the street, found a manned cart - they were maybe 100 feet apart- and ordered. My dad did not approve, and it showed in the pictures we have in the area, because the water they used for everything was not clean. He was right to be mad, but luckily we did not get sick from it, and the food was amazingly delicious. You find that dish here, but it definitely does not taste the same.
After all that we went to the port for a boat tour. Mama owned a company that did a lot of the navigation through the narrow straight into the port. My uncle was not able to accompany us but he had one of his employees take us. It was really interesting to see all the expansion and all the work that had been done, including what they import and export and in what quantities- it seems a majority of it is energy based, to fuel the expansion and growth of the country. What really caught me attention was toward the end of the ride when he said he would take us on a tour of one of the unloading ships. While this was not all that appealing to us, it would be nice to see it. But once he told us that no ships were available for tours, we said it was okay, not that big of a deal. But he apologized repeatedly while trying to find a boat for us to go on. He kept saying that he had promised it to his boss, our uncle, and made it seem like he would be in trouble if he didn't. I know he would not have, especially after trying so hard and knowing my uncle's personality, but his dedication to keeping his word was unique in many respects. In America if an employee finds out that something isn't possible and the client says it doesn't need that, the topic is off the table and everything is okay. From this example, in India, keeping one's word is much more important in keeping someone's respect and being relied on.