Blogs from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 20

Although we had enjoyed our previous day, we really dreaded leaving our hotel room as we all agreed that Chennai was not a great place to be! Luckily we only had to endure one more day until our train to Kolkata! Dale had been studying the travel guide in great detail and decided we should try and use the train system in the hope of exploring more of Chennai! We found a station and then waited for a train, unsure of which direction we were about to travel in! Mark had his compass but this appeared to be of little use! We jumped on a train and exited at Fort Station in the hope of finding Chennai Fort! After walking around for a while in the extreme heat and with many conflicting instructions from locals on ... read more

It has been raining for the last couple of days. It came as a surprise. adding to my string of bad luck is the renovations going on at the Sri Meenakshi temple. My main reason to be down here is wondering around this richly ornated fine example of Dravidian architecture. they are renovating all the 10 Gopurams ( ornated gateways) at the same time : ( as I don't really enjoy rain I decide to head south to Kanyakumari India's most southern point where the Indian Ocean merges with the powerful waves of the Bay of Bengal. I hope you will like the pics Már jó pár napja esik, ez meglep hisz ez itt a száraz, forró évszak ideje. a szerencsémhez hozzájárul hogy a Maduraiban lévő Sri Meenakshi templom melynek ékesen díszített Dravidian Gopuram-jai (színes szobrokkal ... read more

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 ... read more

Chennai, India On March 12, 2008 our first anticipated look at India became reality as we docked in Chennai, the second largest city in India. Other than the Semester at Sea ship docked in back of us, the ships were all freighters, and there were lots of them. When we arrived we couldn’t tie up until two huge cranes were moved giving us space at one of the docks. Again we were in an industrial area requiring a long bus ride around cranes, trucks, freight, and miscellaneous concrete and metal structures to get out of the port. We had to arrange for visas to India before we left the US, and we had to fill out landing cards to carry with us on shore as well as a list of all of our video equipment and ... read more

After my short but actionpacked trip to Sri Lanka I needed some time to chill. I knew that the best place to do it , is Mamallapuram. I have been there before and I know a good hotel, I know all the restaurants, touts, vendors, so if I want to be alone ( which is quiet a feat in India ) this is the place to be. After leaving the airconditioned airport building in Chennai the heat attacked me. for the first half an hour it was difficult to breath and I started to sweat like there is no tomorrow. I soon got used to it tho and got in a prepaid taxi . The cabdriver told me that there was a big fire in Mamallapuram and my hotel burned down, but he will take me ... read more