So, at which point did Chennai begin to feel like home? I'm not quite sure. But it's definitely taken on an air of familiarity, I no longer notice the noise, the smell - well Ok perhaps occasionally - even the traffic seems almost normal now. In consequence I'm noticing much more around me, beautiful old buildings, exotic trees, colourful fruits, tiny roadside temples - things I probably would have walked past two weeks ago as my senses were being assailed by the hubbub all around me.
So let me take you on a typical day. Hotel room is very comfortable,the view out of my window is uninspiring, the side of another building, but it's good to see what the weather is up to - mostly it's cloudy, but sometimes the sun shines in the morning, though it has invariably disappeared by afternoon. It has noticeably cooled down in the past week or so, with temperatures hovering around 30 -33 degrees, which has started to feel quite cool. My journey to work is by auto-rickshaw, or tuk-tuk,, we have our regular driver called Lashmi who is a hoot, he has a wicked sense of humour. We weave terrifyingly through the traffic narrowly avoiding cars, trucks, buses, pedestrians and animals, horn constantly sounding. Some tuk tuks don't have a proper horn, so they have to make do with a comedy rubber hooter.
Work then takes up the next 8 hours, we start at 8.30. i won't dwell on the work side, as that's really not why I'm here. It gets done...if there is a birthday, arrival or departure (which seems to be a couple of times every week) someone sends out for samosas with tamarind or coriander dip - deep fried heaven! I try to walk home as often as possible, the journey takes about 15 minutes. The first road I walk down is quite peaceful, birds tweeting and only the odd bit of traffic honking, then it's a left turn into goat street - well that's what I call it - lots of pavement dwellers here, horses, goats and dogs all scratching out a living. Today I walked past at least 40 women all filling their brightly coloured water containers from the communal tank. After goat street it's across the bridge, the water in the river is jet black and smells like an open sewer (which is what it is!) then a right turn along a very busy street, this is probably the trickiest part of the route as there is rubbish piled on the side of the road so to avoid the traffic you need to do a bit of rubbish-dump hiking. I now realise all my recycling efforts in the UK were a bit like proverbially pissing in the wind, when you see what's dumped on the side of the roadway here. You can forget about walking on the pavement in Chennai, they were nice once probably but they just fall away at regular intervals or you have to divert to avoid a sleeping person, or a barrow selling fruit, so its easier just to walk in the road. Almost 'home' now just one more road to cross which is an art I have perfected over the weeks, it involves having eyes in the back of your head!
There are precious few sights to see in Chennai, I took in other one over the weekend by going to Myalapore which houses Chennai's largest temple. Adorned with elaborate carvings, it was a nice enough place to wander around, although I did create an incident by wandering into the courtyard with my shoes on, thinking the footwear only needed to be divested actually inside the temple. I also made a second trip to the beach, which is excellent for people watching, at one end there is a fishmarket with the beach being given over to boats and nets. An array of fish including seer fish and lady fish - Chennai does have lovely seafood. Shame about the flies.
On the food front I can't complain. You can get pretty much everything at the hotel, though my search for strawberries to accompany the wimbledon final was thwarted, and I had to make do with a rather plasticy piece of 'strawberry' cheesecake. I asked for a Pimms and lemonade and got Pimms (at least I think that's what it was), bitter lemon and soda water...interesting! There is a buffet at the hotel a couple of evenings a week, nice western and indian food plus alcohol included which really is the only way to have a drink, Tamil Nadu is a dry state so alcohol is only served in the big hotels here, not in the restaurants, and a glass of wine is just less than £10! The local Kingfisher beer is slightly cheaper, around £3 a small bottle, but is evil, varying proof and some foul additive that lingers in the head way past morning. So to compensate I've got into cocktails...well it would be rude not to and they are quite reasonable....There is a lovely restaurant on the roof at the hotel which is my very favourite place. There is a lovely breeze up there, and you're up at the level of the huge eagles that soar on the thermals above the city. The food is good too - Mediterranean/Lebanese. Unfortunately last night we were caught out when it started to rain...real monsoon rain, and howling winds, so we had to retire indoors.
Apart from eating there is always shopping. Spencer plaza is close to our hotel, where you can pick up practically anything and barter a price. Express Mall is a touch more upmarket, and has a cinema too. Phoenix is the newest addition, and has most of your big brand stores. Last night we rang the changes and set off after work for a big department store in a shopping area of the city called Ty Naga. What we found was a massive ornate building reminiscent of a cross between TKMmaxx and Wilkinson's ...and then some! Its philosophy was pile it high, sell it cheap and as a consequence it was very crowded, a fascinating snapshot of life. When it came to pay, it took no less than ten people to sell me my purchase...one pair to take the goods and issue a receipt, one pair to take my money, one pair to put my goods in a bag, and the final pair to stand around grinning and to stamp my receipt. It's the ultimate in job creation.
That's all from my blog for now, am looking forward to a weekend in Pondicherry this weekend followed by an Indian Abba night - watch this space!
So let me take you on a typical day. Hotel room is very comfortable,the view out of my window is uninspiring, the side of another building, but it's good to see what the weather is up to - mostly it's cloudy, but sometimes the sun shines in the morning, though it has invariably disappeared by afternoon. It has noticeably cooled down in the past week or so, with temperatures hovering around 30 -33 degrees, which has started to feel quite cool. My journey to work is by auto-rickshaw, or tuk-tuk,, we have our regular driver called Lashmi who is a hoot, he has a wicked sense of humour. We weave terrifyingly through the traffic narrowly avoiding cars, trucks, buses, pedestrians and animals, horn constantly sounding. Some tuk tuks don't have a proper horn, so they have to make do with a comedy rubber hooter.
Work then takes up the next 8 hours, we start at 8.30. i won't dwell on the work side, as that's really not why I'm here. It gets done...if there is a birthday, arrival or departure (which seems to be a couple of times every week) someone sends out for samosas with tamarind or coriander dip - deep fried heaven! I try to walk home as often as possible, the journey takes about 15 minutes. The first road I walk down is quite peaceful, birds tweeting and only the odd bit of traffic honking, then it's a left turn into goat street - well that's what I call it - lots of pavement dwellers here, horses, goats and dogs all scratching out a living. Today I walked past at least 40 women all filling their brightly coloured water containers from the communal tank. After goat street it's across the bridge, the water in the river is jet black and smells like an open sewer (which is what it is!) then a right turn along a very busy street, this is probably the trickiest part of the route as there is rubbish piled on the side of the road so to avoid the traffic you need to do a bit of rubbish-dump hiking. I now realise all my recycling efforts in the UK were a bit like proverbially pissing in the wind, when you see what's dumped on the side of the roadway here. You can forget about walking on the pavement in Chennai, they were nice once probably but they just fall away at regular intervals or you have to divert to avoid a sleeping person, or a barrow selling fruit, so its easier just to walk in the road. Almost 'home' now just one more road to cross which is an art I have perfected over the weeks, it involves having eyes in the back of your head!
There are precious few sights to see in Chennai, I took in other one over the weekend by going to Myalapore which houses Chennai's largest temple. Adorned with elaborate carvings, it was a nice enough place to wander around, although I did create an incident by wandering into the courtyard with my shoes on, thinking the footwear only needed to be divested actually inside the temple. I also made a second trip to the beach, which is excellent for people watching, at one end there is a fishmarket with the beach being given over to boats and nets. An array of fish including seer fish and lady fish - Chennai does have lovely seafood. Shame about the flies.
On the food front I can't complain. You can get pretty much everything at the hotel, though my search for strawberries to accompany the wimbledon final was thwarted, and I had to make do with a rather plasticy piece of 'strawberry' cheesecake. I asked for a Pimms and lemonade and got Pimms (at least I think that's what it was), bitter lemon and soda water...interesting! There is a buffet at the hotel a couple of evenings a week, nice western and indian food plus alcohol included which really is the only way to have a drink, Tamil Nadu is a dry state so alcohol is only served in the big hotels here, not in the restaurants, and a glass of wine is just less than £10! The local Kingfisher beer is slightly cheaper, around £3 a small bottle, but is evil, varying proof and some foul additive that lingers in the head way past morning. So to compensate I've got into cocktails...well it would be rude not to and they are quite reasonable....There is a lovely restaurant on the roof at the hotel which is my very favourite place. There is a lovely breeze up there, and you're up at the level of the huge eagles that soar on the thermals above the city. The food is good too - Mediterranean/Lebanese. Unfortunately last night we were caught out when it started to rain...real monsoon rain, and howling winds, so we had to retire indoors.
Apart from eating there is always shopping. Spencer plaza is close to our hotel, where you can pick up practically anything and barter a price. Express Mall is a touch more upmarket, and has a cinema too. Phoenix is the newest addition, and has most of your big brand stores. Last night we rang the changes and set off after work for a big department store in a shopping area of the city called Ty Naga. What we found was a massive ornate building reminiscent of a cross between TKMmaxx and Wilkinson's ...and then some! Its philosophy was pile it high, sell it cheap and as a consequence it was very crowded, a fascinating snapshot of life. When it came to pay, it took no less than ten people to sell me my purchase...one pair to take the goods and issue a receipt, one pair to take my money, one pair to put my goods in a bag, and the final pair to stand around grinning and to stamp my receipt. It's the ultimate in job creation.
That's all from my blog for now, am looking forward to a weekend in Pondicherry this weekend followed by an Indian Abba night - watch this space!
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