Day 2 India: Chennai

So in my bid to board the most amount of planes in history in a period of 10 days, I boarded yet another flight and have 2 more to go until I reach my final destination for the next 3 weeks at least. Chennai - the capital of Tamil Nadu, headquarters for what the Tamil's call "Kollywood" instead of Bollywood.

I stayed at the Chandra Park hotel - a 45min drive from Chennai airport but well in the city centre. I was greeted by a rather young driver again with the token side parted and combed hairdo. Another tiny white hatch to load my bag into the minute space they call a boot.
The highway into Chennai is like any big city - still no cows on the rd though. Pollution was a little noticeable but I have to say that on my departure this morning it was insane like thick fog and I wondered how we were planning on flying!

My driver appeared to not be Horn Happy like th rest of the drivers in India - I later learned when he took me out later that night the horn dosent work all the time - ahhh that's why it was such a quiet ride.

The hotel like all of these budget/midrange hotels was set amongst a chaotic street of shopfronts with a driveway leading to the front door - really you wouldnt even notice them half the time. So I checked into my "standard single AC" room for 850 rupees ($20 something) for my one night transit. I have to confess the door boy took me up to my room with my bag in tow, unlocked, switched on yet another jet inspired fan and AC and then stood there waiting for a tip - thing was that I knew I only had 500 rupee notes and 10 - 50 rupees being the going rate and me running out of cash until someone will change travellers cheques I wasnt being that generous. So we kind of both had a stand-off - me not budging and nor him until he could see the dumb tourist was either dumb or tight. I did make it up to him later when I had change though - so there!

Room was average - cant complain really for $20 but I have to say the sheets although white had stains all over them - hence why I have my trust cotton sleeping bag liner. It was a noisy room right over the bar and being a Sat night and Indian trying Bollywood karaoke fuelled on toxic Indian spirits - their cheering went late into the morning - thank goodness for jet fans!

I decided I wanted to make the most of my few spare late arvo hours in Chennai and see what this proud city has on show. Now generally I am anti-driver and will opt for public transport if its straight forward enough to use - and I saw the MRT map for Chennai and thought I'll do it and then chickened out when I got to the hotel and saw the madness outside - fail.
So my driver took me over to the city's largest Hindu shrine (sorry cant remeber the name) it was beautiful and a nice start to the adventure. Mind you I completely forget where I was and walked in through the temple gates only to be yelled at by an old beggar sitting on the floor - next thing I have a gang of people yelling at me and the security guard waving his big patrol stick my direction - he just missed my head! I then clicked I still had my shoes on - ouch - so headed back out the gate looking for the "shoe lockers" I was wearing my new white Ascics - was expecting to never see them again as I traded my shoes for token number 4. But they proved me wrong and they were there upon my return - also with a couple of old ladies begging in the gutter where I had decided to sit and put my shoes on. They both asked for money so I did a trade off - my rupees for their photo as they were sweet enough looking in their brightly coloured saari's - deal closed. I was actually reading the local newspaper The Hindu at breakfast this morning and there was a story about a beggar that has been arrested here in India and they have discovered he lives in a lavish apartment that he uses his begging money to pay the rent for, along with a holiday apartment in another city, loads of jewellry etc. ha ha I wonder if those ladies got me too?!

So inside this temple where Hindus coming for family blessings, prayers and to make offerings. I wished I could spot a guide as I would have loved to understand what was going on sometimes. I took some amazing sneaky shots - this is where you aim the camera at an apparent building site and pretend to photographer this, but instead you zoom in on the unsuspecting gorgeous old ladies in saaris chatting with their friends. I know, I know but I made some offerings to clean me of my sins!

Next we headed over to another temple I think called the Rama Krishna temple - again for Hindu's. The exterior of this one wasnt as colourful or characteristic as the other, but in this instance I was actually allowed inside even though I wasnt Hindu and was invited to sit with those in prayer. There was this heavy feeling in the room - its like you could feel everyone's prayers or concentration - I cant put my finger on it, but it was very overwhelming.

From here I asked my driver to take me to Marina Beach - I was figuring it's like Mumbai's Chowpatty beach, Surfers Paradise or Bondi..... So according to my driver it's the 2nd largest beach in Asia - I asked him who was first he laughed and said he didnt know but was proud they were 2nd. So we are talking a 13km stretch of beach - dont think exotic beach, think more that the distance from the road to the water was a good 2km deep and when you looked around you swore you were in the desert at a massive rave with thousands of Tamil's!
The first words that came to mind when I saw the beach and the absolute thousands who had decended down there for their Saturday night romantic rendevouz, school excursions (?), family outings and stalls selling corn, drinks, icecream, fresh fish.... balloon and rifle firing games, men selling bamboo flutes and a million other useless knick knacks to part Indian's with their hard earned Rupees. Of course I copped the - "hello american lady" "hello miss" "I love you lady" even a marriage proposal from a boy that in Indian culture I could have been his mother!

After that fantastic experience I headed back to my hotel to get some dinner at a local restaraunt that everyone local was recommending just down an alley from my hotel. I put the fate of my stomach yet again in the hands of the waiter and although his intentions were good, he failed miserably. I said something not spice and vegetarian - he suggested a Kashmiri Naan and some other sweet curry dish - I agreed as I had a Kashmiri Naan once before and it was delicious. So out comes my tray with little side dishes that contained my curry and the naan - my most hated fruit is cherry - this entire meal was all about red and green cherries, sultanas and pineapple chunks. As I was running out of rupee I just had to force myself to enjoy it but in all honesty I was feeling ill and just kept trying to wash it all down with water and managed to find bread for 10 rupee to help free that cherry taste in my throat - yuck!

Oh and I have been trying since this morning to get an Indian sim card and was turned away from two phone stores in Trichy which I eventually understood that only Tamil's with local ID can purchase SIM cards. I managed to find dodgy brothers in Chennai (as you do in big cities) and for 70 rupee I now have a Indian mobile with Airtel who constantly bombard me with txt prompts to subscribe for cricket scores -nooooooo!

Stay tuned - next stop the long awaited arrival in Jaipur for the start of my Theatre project with the local school children. Namaste!