Advertisement
Published: January 8th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Marina Beach Chennai
supposedly this water has been here since the tsunami where many children perished on this beach. Well its day 4 in India and it has improved each day significantly. Especially after leaving Chennai(Madras). I arrived in Chennai and when I walked out of the terminal into a serious downpour but decided to be stubborn and take the suburban train into the city which was about 30min away instead of a taxi or auto rickshaw. Looking back maybe it was a little ridiculous but sometimes you feel so powerless coming out of an airport and being dependent upon a taxi driver. So I put my backpack cover on and trudged off through the puddles, across the highway, through the mud and finally found the station. I must have looked pretty crazy from the way people were staring at me. When I got into Chennai I stopped near the Egmore Station where there were supposed to be budget places to find. Most were full and seemed overpriced so I finally ended up at one that was a little expensive but it seemed like it was the only one available.
After settling I came out and ended up going with a auto rickshaw driver on a tour of a few of the sites in Chennai. The sites were not
St Thomas Chapel
Where St. Thomas is buried. very impressive to say the least. I did go to the church that is built over the grave of St Thomas but most of my impression was not that impressed, big, chaotic, not that friendly, and of course in comparison with SE Asia quite dirty. The tour ended up being so cheap because part of it was to take me to different rug and jewelry shops so the driver gets something extra. In the end my patience was wearing quite thin so we finally ended and of course the driver wanted to charge me per hour including all the stop I didn't want to make. Fun fun fun. I changed hotels to a cheaper one the driver found me which ended up being pretty bad on the next night and that included lots of arguing as well to not get ripped off. It was definitely a shock from holiday vacation in Thailand.
The next morning I got on a crowded bus 2 hrs south to Mamallapurum. As soon as I got off the bus in this small little beach temple town I started to improve. Met some interesting travelers, took a swim, nice lunch, better room, felt like a
new person. Then to top it off the first night I was recruited with some other foreigners to be extras in a Bollywood film the next day in Pondicherry. I couldn't really pass up this chance at fame and fortune plus we were paid 60 rupees which is really not much but it sounded like fun. The next morning I woke up to pounding on my door at 7am and struggled with a slight hangover onto the bus for a 2 hour ride to a deserted beach south of Pondicherry. I didn't realize it was a beach so I didn't grab a suit and neither did many of the other westerners since they didn't tell us to bring beachwear. So upon arriving on the beach they wanted us all to look like westerners on the beach. It was the only day I have worn pants in awhile so I ended up stripping down to my colorful blue boxers to make them happy. Our role was background to two groups of dancers; the first was young Indian men dressed like Hawaiin pool boys dancing to some strange Bollywood song "come on baby touch my body..." or something. The second group was
Chennai
I was told that Tamil Nadu is 50% Hindu, 25% Christian, and 25% Muslim. this group of russian "actress/dancers" who seemed to be breaking there way into the bollywood sexy western women market. My group just clapped to the music in the background on the beach, me in my underwear. It wasn't so bad after I got used to it, got to swim in the water every once in awhile but full sun all day wears you out. Definitely an interesting experience. Hopefully I can find the film eventually. I will be sure to send a clip if I can. Doesn't come out until after I get back though.
I'll probably stay here for 2 more days and then began my tour of the south. I met this Indian man this morning who it blind and needed help with his e-mail and he ended up asking me to help him do some filming of this project he is working on with children from an orphange. So that should be interested. I was offered more Bollywood extra work in Kerala but I think this other option sounds like more fun and fulfilling. One day was enough for me. More to come...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0584s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mom
non-member comment
Every mother's dream
Finally, a mother's dream come true! My son, a star in a Bollywood movie! What will the folks back home think. Crazy kid. miss you.