Recuperating at a Resort

Our driver from the hospital delivered us safely to the Fisherman’s Cove Resort, which is just a beautiful place on the Bay of Bengal just on the south end of Chennai.  Like many places with a large disparity between poor and wealthy, the boundary is rather abrupt between life outside the resort, and life inside.

We drove along the main road south, which looked like this:

And then we turned down a side street, went past security guards, and it looked like this:

We walked into the lobby area with our luggage, they showed us to a seated check-in area, and then brought us chilled, scented washcloths, and fresh juice.  There is one person at the resort, Patrick, who is the contact for all the hipster patients who stay here post-surgery. He met us at registration and informed us we’d been upgraded from a room in the hotel to a cottage (score!).  It’s just beautiful – a circular cottage, with a king-sized bed, a closet and bathroom in the back, with a private outdoor shower in back of that.  I think that shower may have been even more wonderful than my first shower post-surgery.

Our Cottage

It was quite hot and muggy for us Oregonians - temperatures in the mid-to-high-90s F and humidity around 80% - though our cottage and the main restaurant were air-conditioned.  It was a 5-7 minute walk (crutching) from the cottage to the restaurant in the main building, so I just breathed as best as I could and kept moving to the next air-conditioned area.   

Ted did get in the pool, which would have been a lovely respite.  I can’t get in until I’m fully healed but I put my toes in the wading area.

While we were at Fisherman's Cove, Hillary Clinton was in Chennai for two days, and she didn't even call us!  (I was a little disappointed.)  However, apparently the resort was on the way for a number of Indian dignitaries or politicians or public servants to the place where she was holding her meetings.  Ted saw a number of well-armed police strolling the grounds and asked about it.  He was told that they were just conducting more surveillance than usual.

I didn't want the opportunity to touch the Bay of Bengal to pass me by just because I was post-surgery.  Well, and also because they weren't allowing swimming on the beach while we were there due to a rip current.  So I just crutched out on the sand, and let a wave wash over my feet.  It counts!

The day we had planned to go out on a little shopping excursion, my stomach had a bit of trouble. So we never made it to a market to purchase souvenirs.  Luckily, there are many importers of India goods online!