The Marina Chronicle

Marina Beach is a natural urban beach in the city of Chennai, India which runs from near Fort St. George in the north to Besant Nagar in the south, a distance of 13 km (8.1 mi) making it the longest natural urban beach in the country and the world's second longest. The average width of the beach is 300 m (980 ft) and the width at the widest stretch is 437 m (1,434 ft). It is probably the most crowded beach in the country and despite its size, it’s largely dirty probably due to the sheer number of people it attracts on a daily basis.

Forget the facts… here’s what to do when you are at the Marina beach:

WATCH OUT FOR THE ALIENS # Walk very carefully with your eyes fixed on the sand to avoid stumbling over glass bottles, flower garlands, fecal matter, polythene bags and little sea creatures like the one in the picture to the right.
SEA OF FISH \| FISH OF THE SEA # Once you are on the beach and are walking towards the shore, you are bound to run into at least 300 vendors selling sea shells, knick knacks, cheap plastic toys and things you will probably never need. Stop over only for the ones selling fried fish and claiming those to be caught earlier in the day. They are the only vendors who are probably telling you the truth. Even if the oil that they use is about a week old, the fish is actually fresh and tastes really good.
CAPTAIN CROW # Towards one end of the beach you will find fishing boats and fishing nets lying about on the beach with a carefree abandon. The only birds towards this end would be crows picking up scraps of dead fish lying about, if any. Make sure you do not feed the crows. Clicking pictures and sitting on boat is still permitted.
THE BEACH BOYS # If you can’t speak Tamil and if you show even a remote interest in anything that a group of young boys in their underwear are doing on the beach, chances are they will believe that you desperate for their picture and even if you do not want anything to do with them, they will huddle and strike a pose for you and you will end up taking a picture like the one on right.