2011 India, Chennai

5th March 2011
Had a reasonable night's sleep and we all had a refreshing shower before facing the neat of the day, which had been hovering around the 33 degree mark. We had arranged to do a small tour around Chennai the night before for 700 Rp for 5 hrs. Packed up and checked out, leaving the bags in reception so we could go for a walk up the road without carrying them. 
The street was the usual melee of street sellers, little shops and manic traffic. We past on big rather palatial building sitting under some huge beautiful acacia trees which are all flowering at this time. 
The sign outside made me laugh, the usual kind of pithiness of language 'Superintending Engineer', that is so common in India. It is still very Victorian the language in India, and also commonly written in a very superior tone, no matter how trivial the subject.
I guess one of Britain's little legacies. 

Anyway, after about 20 mins walk we came to a small bridge and we assumed this was the river we intended to walk to, but it wasn't, as we later found. It was running, but totally strewn with rubbish and fetid smelling water, that familiar bluish grey, as a result of endless washes of clothes and bodies, sewage and street dirt being washed into it.I suppose despite the smell, which you can become used to, it's ok to live near some running water in a shaded area rather than the cramped backstreets where the air barely moves.


We met some goats and tried to feed some pips out of the watermelon, which they refused! As one of the locals said, 'too well-fed', as they would even try the melon rind.
We headed back to the hotel at a bit of a pace to be there at the agreed 1 pm tour start and get back earlier than expected, so spent 1/2 hour enjoying the A/C.

Eventually packed all our bags and ourselves into the car and headed for the first destination, a park not far from the hotel. Before we got there, the driver had a call to say one of the girls' small bags was left behind. I just wanted to leave it, they were freebies from the plane anyway, but it was arranged to bring it out on the road to pick up later This was sooner, as the park we were to go to was closed on Tuesdays!
We ended up heading for Chennai beach instead and crossed the river we'd intended to walk over to earlier. It was a big river but still its banks were rubbish strewn and the water looked pretty toxic. 

Chennai beach was a real surprise. It is a huge wide beach, about 3-4 hundred meters from the parking area. Myriad stalls lined the parking area and horses for hire just beyond on the beach. Looking at how far it was to the water's edge we decided to treat the kids to a ride on the horse, which cost 200 Rp. The water's edge was bustling with local people just sitting, walking the water's edge or swimming or eating. Eunmi & the girls attracted immediate attention with a constant stream of people asking if they can take photos of them. Groups of young guys would egge each other on and build up courage to ask of they could sit around us for a group photo.




I doubt if many foreigners are see at the beach here, as Chennai is not really too much of a tourist or backpacker's stopover.

We eventually managed to get the girls out of the water, soaking wet of course, and made our way back to the car.
The driver didn't seem very impressed with us covered with sand and the the girls wet clothes. We headed straight to the Chennai station where we were to catch the train south.

At the station we splashed out around 250 Rp to used the 'luxury' waiting room as there was A/C and had sofas and its own toilets, which is handy to clean and change the girls, and dry the washed clothes.
We brought in some snacks from the local shops and relaxed for a couple of hours until our 8.20 pm train. We got to the platform announcement only about 15 minutes before departure, and had to do a brisk walk along the platform as our carriage was near the front. 
These are VERY long trains of about 20+ carriages so it was a bit of rush.
Naturally we found our allotted seats occupied and the people weren't going to move, so we grabbed someone else's a bit further along!
The journey was around 10 hours all up and I didn't managed to get much sleep. Had to have sneak smoke in the toilet as the stops on the way were too short to go off the platform where you can't smoke. I was a bit nervous because it is illegal to smoke on the train, but some other guys tried to assure me it was ok. Luckily a small gap around the edge of the window sneaked most of the smoke out.