Saying goodbye to India

---

This is it folks...I'll be leaving India in @ 12 hours and I must say I'm excited ...

THe bus from Mamalpuram was half empty and that took a lot of the excitement out of the 90 minute journey. My first impressions of Chennai were very good. It is a large vibrant busy city . THere are some really beautiful old buildings left from the British era as well as MANy new buildings of the last 20 years.

However the closer you get to the centre of town ( or one of them ...there really are three old towns/areas) the older and more sterotypically Indian it becomes. Initially when I arrived at my hotel I found the whole area depressing but when I went walking I was again captivated by the street life. There are many beggars in Chennai and that is really a first for this trip. People do live on the sidewalks ,cooking ,sleeping ,eating ,playing with their children ,selling small things and/or begging. I came across a photo lab and I waited the hour it took to transfer my data from the memory card to a disc (actually it took 2discs!I have over 950 pictures)looking out the window at the world going by. What an amazing mix of things. Ages ,colours of skin, male/female ,school uniforms ,saris ,dohtis ,western clothing and always vehicles. Again I see a lot of bicycle richshaws .

Today I did a city tour and the heat and the humidity noise and fumes really were getting to me. It took a while to adjust to it enough to get over my crankiness. A young Indian man on the tour who is from the north here for a job interview at the Sheraton (he got the job) ended up being my companion and answered many questions for me as I did for him. It was fun but I think that I am toured out!

I returned to my room turned on the AC and laid back on the bed and watched "To Sir With Love"...


Now I need to pack ,have supper ,and get in at least a 4 hour nap before I head out to the airport at 1am for a 5am flight. I,m NOT looking forward to a 3 hour wait at the airport but it is a requirement for international flights...

Talk to you soon...

---