A day in Chennai

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So then the trip started. We left Hoshangabad on the morning of 13th Aug and made our way down south to Chennai. It was such good feeling seeing mum, pa, surbhi and shweta relax and not worry about the chores.

The train was comfy. well as comfy as trains could be. Back when i lived in India, i could sleep on trains like a log. I found out that was not the case any more. So the Gupta family yapped and yapped and eat and got entertained by some of my sister's stupid jokes.

We got to Chennai early on the 14th. Walking out of the station, you could immediately tell this was a different India. Amidst a plethora of negatives, one of the things which is perhaps unique about India is how you can simply jump on a train or bus and in few hours time, find yourself experiencing a different culture. No passports or visas required.

So we checked into our hotel and after a quick shower, we were ready to feast on the yummy breakfast. Here in Chennai, the food was mainly idli, dosas and meduvada's with the usual accompaniments in sambhar and coconut chutney. Now i must have eaten meduvada's by bucket loads over the year's,however, none like the one's they do in Chennai, or should i say at the Sangeetha Residency.

Knowing that we would hardly spend a couple of hours at the hotel, i hadn't booked what you would call plush rooms. They were basic, but clean and spacious and enough for the duration of stay. But what the hotel lacked in terms of luxury and ambience, it more than made up with the quality of it's meduvada's. I can't recall having eaten such soft and crunchy vada's ever. Suffice to say, the 5 of us gorged on the feast until our stomach threatened to repel any more food.

Arranging the taxi for a day trip in and around Chennai was simple and the hotel was great help. So off we went, 5 of us in the good ol' ambassador. I sat at the front while mum, pa and the co. sort of struggled to slip into the back seat. 4 people on the back seat is no mean feat, they weren't exactly sprawled out. Thankfully the car had air conditioning and that made it only slightly disconcerting.

First stop was Mahabalipuram, some 40kms from Chennai. It took us an hour to get there and trust me it was worth the drive. We hired a guide (or should i say he hassled me so much i gave in) and he took us around explaining what the stone carvings and different painting's on the wall were all about.

I must admit that i shy away from the guides and touts as much as possible as to me it all seems like a bit of a scam, which it is, in most cases. However, on this occasion it seemed like money well spent. The guy gave us ample time to have our Kodak moments, and so after dozens of photos and downing coconut water (daab) from a street side seller, we bid him adieu.

We went to the beach next and it was amazing, nothing like the beaches in Sydney. There were hordes of people, every single one of them completely overdressed (including us). I guess these things go with the territory. There were ice cream sellers, guys offering you a pony ride, even a camel ride.

So if your idea for a day out on the beach, is one of relaxation, i am not entirely sure, you will achieve much on an Indian beach. One good thing about the beaches in Southern states is that although commerce has made it's way on to them , they are still relatively clean. It was nice to see people not treating the beach like a trash bin, as they do to rest of the country.

Surbhi bought a few shells from one of the countless shops flanking the pathway to the beach and as usual papa had something to say about it. Ofcourse that's totaly understood, my sister is indeed a bit wasteful. Anyway, so after getting our beach fix, we set out for Chennai again.

The next stop was the crocodile bank, we were a bit apprehensive entering the bank as to if we would see any croc's at all. It is not un-common in India to go to zoos and see empty cages and enclosures. Whatever little wild life you do get to see doesn't entirely brighten your mood either, given the abject conditions they are housed in.

Fortunately, we were not dissapointed. There were more crocs in the bank then you could poke fun at. The whole area was littered with croc's, large and small, Indian and foreign. The entire place had an eerie sort of feeling. You feel one of them will jump the walls any moment and come crawling up to you. Ofcourse none of that happened and i lived to tell the tale, but it was all, should i say unreal. Seeing a few crocs may be entertaing, being surrounded by thousands, tens of thousands possibly sprawled out on acres of land is something different.

Let's say we were glad to get out of that place. It was late afternoon by now and the body had to be refueled. We were debating if we should head to spencer plaza or to the City centre mall for lunch when our driver, in his broken tinglish (tamil and english) insisted we go the city centre mall as it was new and more upmarket. He said the spencer plaza was old, staid and wore a tired look.

So then it was city centre mall and on to the Sangeetha's restaurant. The food was a simple vegetarian fare, as it will be for the whole trip. We all had North India thali's (they call it uttar bhojan over here). Each thali had enough food on it to feed a wedding party, just 3 of it would have been enough to stuff us 5 gluttons. So as you can imagine, we ended up wasting a lot of food, something my mum less than appreciates.

Post luch we just strolled around the mall. We bought papa a pair of brand new shoes, which he was reluctant in accepting, but me and mum put our foot down and he had to comply.

May sound cliched, but time flies when you are having fun and before we knew we were heading back to the hotel to rest for a bit, re-pack our bags and head to the airport for our flight to Singapore. I conciously wanted to leave early cos travelling in a group, you do inadvertently get hold up and that's precisely what happened, although it wasn't one of us responsible for it.

There was a monster traffic jam and for a moment it seemed we would be late getting to the airport. The streets were chockers with cars and buses and every other imaginable mode of transport and nothing moved for a good 15-20 minutes. It was the massive security in place for the Independence Day (which was the next day) that had the city gridlocked and airport being a sensitive place, had roads leading up to it barricaded with hundreds of police deployed.

Anyways, we were relieved to reach airport on time, little did we know our troubles had just started. The Chennai airport looks only slighly better than a cowshed. It is hot and cramped and dysfunctional and not worthy of being called an airport, let alone an Int'l airport. There were people sleeping on the floor and hardly any signs to guide you in the intended direction. It was hard not to stumble over sleeper's negotiating your way around. It couldn't have been any more than 50 chairs for what seemed like a 50,000 strong crowd.

Even with the Indian standards, the airport was a joke. We checked our luggage in and then sat around as we had some time to kill. You see, in normal circumstances, 1 hour is more than sufficient to clear customs and board the plane. This however was the airport from hell and it seemed every one working at the airport had never heard the word "effecieny". I bet being efficient isn't part of the KPI's for people working in India for they would be sacked in no time.

So, what was perfectly reasonable time to board the plane became "The amazing race". The que refused to budge and the authorities showed little intent to process the que faster. It was barely 20 minutes to departure and we were all still miles away from the boarding area. We were panicking and this whole trip threatened to become a nightmare if we missed the flight.

I broke through the que and pleaded with the authorities to process us ahead of others as we were in danger of missing our plane. He wasn't very enthusiatic but shortly he opened up a new que for passengers flying Tiger Airways and we managed to get through. It wasn't without drama though as the lady scanning our passports took forever to clear us. She would look at each one of us and then on the photos i our passports to match our identity. It was so infuriating, if looks could kill i must have stabbed her a hunderd times.

So after what seemed like an eternity, we got to the boarding area and were confronted with yet another serpentine que, which, yep, refused to move. By now, we all had lost sanity and queing pateintly was not an option. It was already past the departure time for our flight when someone said that all flights were running late and no one would be left behind.

That was comforting, yet knowing India and the way things happen, we couldn't afford to be complacent. We cut through the que and after numerous pleas, requests and arguements with fellow passangers and authority, managed to board the plane. It is not something anybody should have to go through.

The idea of being able to lay back, relax and enojoy our holidays had taken a massive blow. So, grumpy and tired, but relieved, we waited until the plane took off. The much awaited, much planned and anticiapated holidays had at last begun.

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