The view from the Shanti Café is, undeniably, spectacular. Beach,
fishing boats, distant Shore Temples rising from the spray of the
turquoise sea. And as the café is one floor up, there are additional
advantages to the view, as the European owner points out: 'It's better
up here where you don't have to be watched by poor people looking at
your food as you eat.' Being one storey up means that customers are
inaccessible to the women plying the scorching sands trying to sell
bedsheets, or the men determinedly trying to interest tourists in stone
carved elephants.