Gopalpur is a small town in Odisha state on the Bay of Bengal. I arrived expecting a place similar to the beach resorts in Goa and Kerala but was surprised to find no palm fringed crescent beaches and sunbathing foreigners. It is rather a fishing town and a small beach resort for local people. The most exciting thing I encountered in town was a goat meandering casually through the Internet café where I was checking my e-mails ad some interesting street food offered by vendors from carts lined up along the road paralleling the beach.

Gopalpur continued our cultural tourism of Odisha, though, and our guide (Pulak) took us on a guided tour through several neighborhoods in the village and along the beach to watch fishermen bring in their boats as dusk approached . Walking around with a local guide who knew many of the people again opened many doors for conversations with the people and insights into their daily lives that likely would not have been possible if we had been unaccompanied. One thing I found interesting about Gopalpur was the huge amount of firewood piled up around the houses in all the neighborhoods, the result of a cyclone that hit the area about four months earlier in October 2013 and destroyed many of the trees in the area. There was little sign of other damage, though.

The fishermen riding their boats in on the waves and the lifting their boats out of the water to places on the beach above high tide line were quite fascinating. One sad sight was the mangled remains of many sea turtles, some likely from endangered species. The biggest issue for them is being attacked and eaten by feral dogs when they come ashore to lay their eggs, many of which are also eaten by the dogs if the turtles themselves manage to get back to sea after nesting.