Gingee is a town one hour by bus west of Pondicherry. It’s more typical of small Indian towns – a loud and chaotic main street, full of honking scooters, shops and stalls along the sides (don’t even look for sidewalks), lots of people going about their business. No Western tourists and no tourist infrastructure beyond small business hotels. English is not spoken much here and restaurant menus are in Hindi. What I first took for a menu was identified as a horoscope by online translation; instead there is a guy in a corner with small sample plates who took orders. Was quite good after I managed to exclude the dishes with thermonuclear levels of spiciness.

I came here for the Gingee Fort, a large assembly of arcades, gigantic granaries with five-second echos, towers, and enormous bodhi trees. On either side is a hill with fortifications on top. I climbed them both. My watch tells me I climbed 102 floors today and is very proud of me.