India the beginning trichy to chennai

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Trichy to Chennai.

We arrived in KL easy...the flight to Trichy was a little delayed but nothing major...the flight was actually the worst I have had and maybe I was uneasy all the way as I was sitting down I asked the flight attendant to put my bag up for me she asked "is there anything valuable in there?" I said a baby laptop she was like "mmmmm best you hold onto anything valuable put it securely by your feet....The flight was almost full and we saw one other foreign couple the rest were returning home to India...at the airport I got a few looks from the ground staff (I was fully covered long pants and long sleeves I guess the blonde hair and blue eyes is enough) We eventually got through customs although it was a long way to get there very quick once through...we changed some money and got a auto rickshaw to the hotel (add another type of transport to the list) I was surprised Trichy is so lively lots of people around and buses are packed...we thought our bus in thailand was packed we have no idea what packed is I swear in a 30 seater there would have been at least 70 people....I was surprised to see cows on the road eating grass off the medan strip I knew there was cows around I guess its just seeing is believing ha-ha....we came to the hotel checked in to our hotel and it seems ok nothing amazing but it will do...its a little noisy but we will get over it...the main thing I notice is the head wobble this makes me think of Amanda as she said I better practise my head wobble before I leave for India...with the head wobbly its like it means yes, no,maybe,hi and bye and pretty much anything constitutes a head wobble in this country. We dump our packs and head out for food...we are both starving and after walking around decide to ask a couple of ladies walking down the road that were french is they know of anywhere good and they point us in the direction of a place called Sree Krishna tucked down a side street we originally walked straight past it and on our way back saw the big sign...we approach the place with no idea what to have....the staff were all looking at us curiosity I guess...but were everyone was lovely and we got there recommendation on food and man it was tasty...did you ever think I would ever say that about vegetarian food....I bet not haha! The young fella was hanging around out table unsure of what he was wanting I started to talk to him and it was obvious he was just wanting to chat...he works there part time and is studying hotel management he is in his first year of three and wants to travel and work in hotels around the world he has wonderful english actually we have found english in trichy to be very good. After dinner we head back to the hotel and we discover our adapters don't seem to work so after discussion with the staff at the hotel Mike goes to the shop outside and buys an adapter for us costing about $1.10 its a worthwhile investment. I sit in my bed that is a foamy mattress (yes its soft and I sleep on my side instead of flat on my tummy or back) and write up some more of my blog before sleeping...we depart early tomorrow another 5.30am start but at least we will get to Chennai early so we can explore.
We get up and head to the train station its literally just down the road but we got a car as we didn't know where and its still dark at 6am when we leave...we finally found our carriage after walking back and forth we had walked straight past it haha I sat down to find a power plug awesome that means the trip can be put to use, aircon and reasonably good seat strangly there is like four yellow windows in the carriage and one is ours 😞 so looking out the window is sort of a non-event.
On the train we are in a aircon seat class not bad the toilets are better than I expect but not a fun experience....the other thing is there is train staff walking up and down the train ( you see one about every 10 mins) yelling out coffee, coffee,coffee or tea, chai,tea or water,water,water and then there is the food guys Masala,sweet bouli,sweet bouli, masala this can get tiresome but I am sure its much worse for them this is there job day in day out...no time to chat need to sell food, drink!! They walk through the train carrying trays and boxes over there heads and the shaking is totally normal and doesn't faze them at all...I walk through to the toilet and I hold on to each set of chairs to steady myself I when I get there its a squat this is fine except for the shaking of the carriage I have to hold on to the wall to steady myself which is worse than using the toilet itself..so greatful for hand sanatiser at times like these 😊
We arrive pretty unscathed both of us have sore necks from trying to sleep on the train mainly for me the travel tablets I take make me sleepy so I always end up dosing off.
I spent about three hours writting up blogs and totally up to date with writing but its the pictures that are the problem choosing and resizing! We get of the train easy...head to the exit...hold on where is the exit all we see is building...after standing still for about 45sec I decide we just have to go...hopefully we are heading the correct way...sure enough we walk around the side of the building and quickly get approached offering taxi's we find some guys with moto-rickshaws and they ask where are we going I get the address and they ask insistently for me to say in english...it occured to me later they probably don't read english to well...the problem is its hard to say names when you don't know how they should sound...eventually we got a driver and off we went...I was happy as larry taking in the sights...Mike almost got squished by a bus there was cm's left between him and the side of the bus.

We make it to the hotel and check in its not a bad little place...greatful we found it and we shower and head out to have some lunch....mmmm food all we ate since last night is a packet of chips (snack size) and some milk biscuits that taste like vanilla wines. We head down the street unable to find the place the hotel mentioned to eat but stopped at a new (getting built still) hotel and had lunch there....on reccomendation of the wait staff I have chicken Biryani (spelling) a rice dish with chicken and spices in it including saffron as the main feature...Mike has Mutton Curry it was very nice but not as good as the meals the night before...we traips around looking for a bank and end up in a dodgy looking upstairs office which is the bank of Mysore it takes about one hour to get the travellers cheques changed partly due to getting us the best rate possible. Found a supermarket got new toothbrushes $1.30 for two happy days😊 walked from place to place trying to get a sim card no luck - need to have indian id not going to happen!
We head back to the hotel via the backstreets (found our way eventually) got to see a goat wandering the street and many naked little bums running around....either with a top and no bottoms or totally naked...I don't blame them its hot and when its hot why wear more than you have too. Its pretty obvious these kids live in the park we are walking by that as Mike put 'it smells interesting'(I thought that was a very polite way to say it stank)
Past the biggest rat I have ever seen it was massive (it was squashed on the the road however it would have been about 30cm long including the tail which was like a piece of rope...yucky! when we got back we have a relax and book a hotel for Delhi...(discussed with a friend who said not to just get it on arrival it will be cheaper) Mike and I feel more conifident this way and they will collect us from the airport so no worries about getting there or having to walk from place to place we only have 1 1/2 days in delhi and would like to optimise our time...not look for a room we are happy with 😊
We head out for dinner and have the most awesome tandoori chicken oh soooo good and some Naan...Naan is my friend it gets ordered with every meal hehe butter naan is gooooood this place is just down the road so we are soon back at the hotel and Mike has a hot shower and I realise the when I have a cold one that there's a switch outside for the hot water unit and its been turned off!

Next morning we go downstairs to the dungeon for breakfast a dark little room in the basement level there is a couple of options for food indian breakfast no thanks and cornflakes and toast....so that's brekky and we are kind of glad we are leaving early the next morning as we don't mind missing this tomorrow...I mean its all good...its breakfast but you know we can have something elsewhere tomorrow and I wouldn't mind...one thing that is interesting is that they eat the cornflakes with hot milk and sugar which reminds me of my Nana that's what she used to have in the morning...I have never been a fan of cornflakes to be honest!
We did a little washing this morning and looked at some stuff on the net we have been told there is a bit of shopping and a temple so we have a look at it online and decide that to go out in the heat to see a temple we will likely see elsewhere very similar is not worth it so we catch up on Journals and I get some blogs posted after resizing photos we get some lunch and chill out...we head out for some dinner go to the bazaar and after walking the street and the three places there being full we get back in a tuk tuk to go to a tandoor place that we saw earlier....getting out of the tuktuk there was a lady/girl trying to sell us kids colouring in books....she really didn't want to take no for an answer we told her no and to leave us but she didn't care and walked with us going on and on...maybe we should have pretended she wasn't there! We got the the restaurant and same deal asked what's good ended up with monk fish with some green paste/sauce on top it was lovely!

Back to the hotel settle our bill, organise a car for the morning and pack our bags ready to go...again I get a cold shower but I did get a hot one this morning! Straight to the airport and we went to go in- security tell us to go to the counter outside and get copy of the confirmation ok - done then go through and have to put bags through scanner and get a strap put on like the plastic ones that come around boxes at home-done go to check in counter and check in-done go through scanner for hand luggage....first place to ask to see Mike's boxes of medication and we are through...find the coffee and then the cookie store...mmmm cashew and chewy caramel is good soon we board and we are on our way to Delhi!

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[Hotels Chennai]

http://www.hotelschennai.org/
I've been to Chennai my self. At thirst sight it seemed that this is an ordinary big Indian city. But i was wrong the amazing activities i practiced there and learning a lot about Indian culture inspires me to return there as soon as possible.