Chennai

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We arrived in Chennai, India around lunch time on the 6th September. So noisy, so chaotic. We got a rickshaw from the airport to our hotel called Paradise, which wasn't really our idea of paradise, although the price was pretty heavenly. We decided to have a look around the city and walked towards where the hotel staff had told us the tourist office was. We didn't make it very far before we were stopped by an enthusiastic rickshaw driver offering to take us around. We eventually agreed and he took us to the city beach (one of the longest in the world), to the cathedral, the Kapalishvara Temple and several expensive shops (he told us that bringing us to the shop will earn him some gas coupons). We saw some great furniture and jewelery collections and although tempted we did not buy. We spent the evening on the hotel terrace watching the city and the mosque with people gathering for prayers with a beautiful sunset in the background. Wanting to get out of the hectic city, we left the following morning towards Mamallapuram.

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