Blogs from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 8

This week has been an interesting one. Some days are blurs and some have stood out significantly. I guess the most interesting was to visit a rural community that only has members from a certain high caste living there. We were taken to a local day-care centre where we made a girl cry coz she had never really seen white people before. We were then taken to a local school where we saw some very cute as well as very talented dancers and then met with a local farmer. He had a door frame and door which was all hand carved and was truly beautiful – it was worth 30,000 rupees which is about $667 which is wealth we hadn’t really crossed before. I also ate raw guava-I don’t really rate it! We went on a ... read more

July 12th I had a Lufthansa morning flight to Chennai, India. Arrival time was on July 13th, some 30 minutes after midnight. Pickup service went well, brought me to the hotel (Green Park) within some 20 minutes. The other day we had the subsidiary business meeting, everything went fine. In the evening dinner with the whole team. Location was a pretty nice hotel with paintings on the walls of the hotel lobby, showing highlights of mankind from different continents. On Thursday after hotel check-out - credit card charge in INR and EUR, crossed out EUR and highlighted INR, otherwise you get charged in EUR at pretty bad currency rate - pickup by my colleague, then visiting a customer. Infrastructure of India still to be improved - have been there th efirst time end of 2004 - ... read more

From what I can tell on the airlines website, the flight from London arrived safely at 3:31am (Chennai time). Keep in mind that India is 9.5 hours AHEAD of us. So happy to know the team is safe on the ground! Now on to Trivandrum! Love to the Team, Jen W... read more

Day four. Man oh man is india different! Yesterday going through the city was so interesting. First off the traffic. Man oh man. Basically how it works is the bigger guy has the right away. So pedestrians are bottom of the totem pole. Luckily, my aunt has a good driver, who is super funny and nice as well. He can handle my aunts crazy sense of humor. Its nuts, one minute you look and there is poverty and people living on the street, and a building that looks as if it might collapse its so old and ruined; and the next to it there is a brand new building that is bright and shinny. Most of theses buildings are north american companies, like Levi's Jeans or Puma. The power goes out all the time, and simple ... read more

Day one. Well sort of. I'm sitting in YYC in Calgary waiting for my flight. 18 hours of flying by myself. Here to Frankfurt then off to Chennai! Sitting here the anticipation is driving me crazy. I have never been so far away from home in my life, nor spent this much time with my aunt. I haven't even meet my uncle yet!! Even though I am meeting my family there, I feel like I am traveling alone. It is a very weird feeling. Freedom but at the same time nerves. I have no clue what to expect, except extreme culture shock. I started thinking and planning this trip over a year ago, when I met my aunt for the first time (Christmas 2009). So much has changed since then except this dream to make my ... read more