The Fishing Village of Gopalpur

 Scenes from the fishing village of Gopalpur.

 Sister meets brother who is home from school early because of the heat.

 Getting my pants repaired.

Shave my head please.

 Turtle skull.

 Women coming to meet the men hauling in the nets.

 Jellyfish.

 His share of the catch.

 Putting the nets away...

and heading home.

Friday, April 6^th.

I was up by 6:30 and hung around the lobby reading ‘Gut’ before everyone came down for a late breakfast. At 9:00 Pulak took us for a walk into Gopalpur, which is a small fishing village. This area used to be a trading port with the Portuguese, Dutch, and English. There are several old colonial buildings that have fallen into ruins, including a ‘mansion’ right in front of our motel. 

We walked the narrow streets and observed the locals doing their thing. Pulak talked to a lot of them and they welcomed us. Nico took videos of everything for his future video. He even ran after kids who were playing with a stick and a bicycle tire. Pulak found a lady tailor working out of a little shack who stitched up my brown shorts, as they are falling apart. I hope to make them last for a bit until I can buy a new pair in Kathmandu or Bangkok. I have one other pair, but they are heavier material and too warm for this heat. She wanted nothing to repair them, I gave her 100 rupee, about two dollars Canadian. Right beside the tailor was a barber and Pulak decided to get a much needed shave. So, I decided to get my head shaved by a local again, this time for 50 rupee and a 50 rupee tip.

Then we headed back to the motel about noon to chill and hide from the heat for a bit. Nico and I chilled out in the room with our AC. At 2:00 I decided to head over to the beach and maybe have a swim. When I got there it was quite windy and the sea was pretty rough, so I decided to just go for a wander. I walked north on the hard packed sand just at the edge of the waves to where Pulak had told me I would find a little inlet. There were a number of local fishing boats there but nothing going on, so I walked back. I came across a crow eating something, so I went to look. It was a large turtle that had been dead a long time. As I walked all the extreme edge of where the water can reach, I found about five carcasses of dead turtles. Not sure what killed any of them. Maybe they laid eggs and then got caught on the beach by the hot sun, or maybe they were injured or drown in nets. Whatever it was it was sad to see.

As I got the area by my hotel, I could see fisherman pulling in a net ahead. When I got there there were a number of men gathered around the net and I could see that the catch consisted of a few small fish and a large number of jellyfish. I stood around and watched as the men sorted the fish from the jellyfish, which they just threw on the sand. The biggest fish were about a foot long and most were well under that. The nets they use are so fine, that catch even the smallest of fish, which will never grow up to be a reasonably sized fish later. I don’t know if this is an accurate reflection of the daily fish catch, but if it is, then this area has been thoroughly overfished. I watched as they divided up the fish amongst themselves. Each man got about three or four small fish. They just ignored me. There were women gathered around as well with large baskets which they hoped to fill with the catch, but there wasn’t enough and most of them went away over the beach and back to the village empty handed.

I walked back again and decided I had no interest in swimming in this water and all those jellyfish. I went back to the hotel to shower. At 5:00 we met up in the lobby and followed Pulak to a five star hotel on the other side of the village. Euan wanted to have a last couple of beer with us as his part in our journey is coming to an edge the day after tomorrow. We sat in a very cold airconditioned bar in the hotel, had a few snacks and a couple of beer, and talked. Euan and Liz decided to grab some street food on the way back, and the rest of us went to a little roadside restaurant and had vegetable chowmin (their spelling) for 50 rupee (less than a dollar). Then we had a coronet ice cream and headed back to the motel.

I sat outside and typed for a bit and then Pulak came down and gave me a couple of videos he had taken of the tribal dances. I headed off to bed about 11:00.