dash for dehli - chennai

---

I wasnt dure to meet up with the rest of the group until the following day so i decided to explore chennai by my sef. i was a little apprehensive as when ever i have been to a third world counry you get nothing but hjassle from the over friendly money grabbing locals.

this was different, i walked around for a bit and then got a tuk tuk to the beach, i walked up to the shore line and walked for a a couple og ks along the beach witht he water laping at my feet. there were many groups of manly young indian men, playing in the shallows of the water, ithink they have a problem with swimming as even when playing in the shallows lots of them had taped flotation aids to themselves.

as i was waling along i realised that every group i walked past stopped and looed at me, one group of indian girls kept looking when i was 100m + away and some of the groups of guys would say hello to me. it took me a while to realise but they we not used to seeing white people, although i had come do do some sight seeing i was actually the sight being seen.

i then got another tuk tuk, my driver, johny, took me to see the sights of chennai, ill be honest there are not any, an old english naval base a temple and st thomas Basilica. the most facinating thing was watching groups of indian women in traditional dress praying at a christian church.

it struck me that all day i had not seen another european/white person all day, chennai is not a tourist destination hence no shop keepers trying to flog you crap. just 9 million indians going about there day.

i changed hotels and met the rest of the group in the morning.

there are our two dragoman guides, a couple, a 42 year old chap called nick and 3 girls.

the my nick and lyndon went for a walk though chennai its a bustling city with as i said 9 million inhabitants, most of whom seem to spend there time either on the street, or driving their moped at high speeds while beeping the horn. the traffic is crazy. no traffic lights and a he who dares wins attitude, its dangerous getting in a car with someone who completley believes in reincarnation.

we walked through some back streets when we stumbled accross a some kind of small ceremony with about 30 people, i think it was more of an initiation. when i fgure out how to upload some photos ill will bacause im not sure i can describe it but basically there we two guys with what i can describe as looking like bird cages on them but with the thin bars going into the flesh instead of the bottom of the cage. in front of these there were 3 young boys and youngest i would guess was about 10 with a spear through his cheeks, i think it was his initation and his brothers were doing it in support, there was much chanting and fire lighing and touching of feet. ill post some photo later

we went back to the beach, where lyndon and i went for a swim, i noticed that on the shore we had gathered a crowd, i assummed that they were looking at lyndon, white girl and all that. we got out of the see trying to avoid the group. when we got to where our towels were one og the groupapproached us and asked if he could take my photo, it wasnt particularly lyndon they were looking at again it was white people - that float !!! after several photos and writing our names of peices of paper the goup bidded up farwell, they were touists, i far as i could make out they had come from cental india to see the sea for the first time, i think it may of also been the first time they saw white people.

---