So far I have been informing you guys of my more exciting days here, outside of the city I am staying in. But what about the days in between? And what of my adventures in the metropolis of Tamil Nadu - Chennai? Well, I'll tell you.
In hindsight, I kinda wished that I hadn't bothered staying in Chennai. I saw a lot of it with friends when I came to Tamil Nadu last year. I just figured the place is a central hub to where my friends live. And it helps that I am a little experienced and familiar with Chennai Central train station - which luckily I was only a 20 minute walk from. But I soon learnt that it is not a good place to stay for a fortnight if you are alone.
Fortunately, I was staying very close to a bus stand so I didn't have a hard time getting to where I wanted to go. Seeing as I was very close to Marina Beach, I decided to go there. The beach strectches for miles and it takes about 10 minutes before you reach the ocean. I stopped by a sugar cane stall (not sure if that's what they're officially called), and the vendor used his contraption to squeeze the juice from the sugar canes, filtered it to rid of any dirt and stalk, and then mixed it with cool water - all for the price of 10 rupees (about 10p). It's a nice sweet beverage, although I do prefer to chew on the canes themselves to extract the sweet, sweet juice from them.
I wanted to relax by the ocean so took a long, slow stroll to it. There are many stalls lined up along the beach; it's like a market place! I didn't purchase anything but it's nice to browse at the wares as I passed by. I did stop to eat some Pani Poori though. It's a delicious snack that I can only describe it as tasting a bit like yorkshire puddings, only with a lot of spicy sauce to go with them instead of gravy. Once I finally got to the ocean, I just sat and relaxed in the scorching heat, wanting to go for a dip to cool down but put off by the amount of litter washing up on the shore.
Boys were stripping off and going for a swim in the ocean, while the girls stayed dressed in their kurtis and saris and went for a paddle - except for a volleyball team who were playing, singing and dancing in the ocean, much to the amusement of onlookers including myself. Men were offering rides on their horses for some rupees and others were selling what looked like candy floss. Suffice to say, there's a lot going on this beach compared to the desolate and dull beach in Great Yarmouth.
My realxing enjoyment of people watching was over when I inadvertently drew attention to myself for, well, erm, for having white skin I guess. Then came the child beggars with their pet monkeys - who were only a one trick pony. One baby monkey climbed all over me and tried to steal my bottle of water while a young girl begged me to give her some money. It's very sad to see children living in poverty, but you have to be weary when giving them money for I recall being told that adults often "employ" them to beg, as people tend to show a lot more sympathy to child beggars than adults. Still, it's very disheartening but I carry very little money on me and there's nothing I can do to help. It's times like that, that I wish I was a very wealthy man so I could. The world really does revolve around money and as long as distribution of wealth remains unfair, it'll be hard to eradicate poverty.
Anyway, I started to get bothered by the unwarranted attention and the heat so went for a walk along, I guess, what is the equivalent of an English seaside promenade, only without arcades and pubs. I sat in a green area, leaned against a tree and started playing on my uke. This time the attention I was getting was warranted so I didn't mind; I'm always happy for people to hear me play some music.
As I said on a previous blog post, I was kinda getting fed up with rice and was craving some western food. One day I remembered that there were fast food restaurants in Spencer Plaza shopping mall, and since I was close by, made it my mission to go and treat myself to some KFC. Not a great choice for some western food I know, but my mouth was salivating at the thought of some chicken and chips. Not long after stepping in to the mall, I had shop merchants trying to persuade me to go in to their shops and purchase something. They all sell the same shit and none of it I want; scarves, jewellery, ornaments and meditation bowls are not things I need on my travels at all. I was there to eat some chicken and that was all, so I just ignored them. I stood outside to have cigarette at one point and ended up conversing with a devout muslim man. He was a pleasant chap and didn't mind me being an atheist who does not want to convert to islam. He didn't go all jihad on me, which is what the UK media and a lot of EDL members would like everybody to believe would happen in such a scenerio. Go figure. In fact, every muslim I have ever spoke to have all been kind people. But who wants to hear nice, pleasant things in the news? He soon left me alone when I told him I wasn't interested in purchasing anything from his shop though.
I had passed a park on my way back from the plaza and decided to have a relaxing day there the following day. Of course, I brought along my ukulele to practice. I also went long walks around the vacinity of where my hotel was, sat in cafes for some tea or coffee, or just grabbed a small and cheap cup from the many stalls on the streets.
I'm a member on a website called couchserfing - a site for travellers to meet and for people to host travellers, so another reason for me staying in Chennai was to meet up with some fellow couchserfers. One guy I had been speaking to surprised me by waiting outside my hotel room; I had told him where I was staying, but weren't sure when he was wanting to meet. He is a nice chap by the name of Jeba, but unfortunetly he did not stay long. He only dropped by to give me some recommendations on places to visit in Chennai - most of which I had been to already. I was quite interested in visiting the national park, though, so after we said our goodbyes I headed there by bus.
I paid 20 rupees entry fee and soon observed that it was actually more of a zoo. Not a particularly good one at that. I was mildly interested watching emus getting fed some biscuits by a couple but that was about it. I'm not particularly fond of zoos anyway; staring at animals in cages, all of which can be observed in the wild if people weren't so damn lazy. I mean some of the animals they had there you can see everyday in India! Monkeys for one and also a wild dog. India's streets are full of fucking dogs! Why on earth would I want see one locked up in a cage?! Indian logic strikes again (it's just occurred to me that I don't think I have mentioned the great phenomenon that is Indian logic before. I will soon enough). After about an hour of walking and uninterestingly observing animals sleeping, shitting and eating, I disappointingly headed back to my hotel.
And that's all that I got up to Chennai. For the most part I was alone and bored. Suffice to say I much prefer my time spent in rural places with company. I do like to be left alone, sure. But I don't think a city is the right place for it. Not Chennai anyway. Maybe Bangalore and Dehli will be different?
In hindsight, I kinda wished that I hadn't bothered staying in Chennai. I saw a lot of it with friends when I came to Tamil Nadu last year. I just figured the place is a central hub to where my friends live. And it helps that I am a little experienced and familiar with Chennai Central train station - which luckily I was only a 20 minute walk from. But I soon learnt that it is not a good place to stay for a fortnight if you are alone.
Fortunately, I was staying very close to a bus stand so I didn't have a hard time getting to where I wanted to go. Seeing as I was very close to Marina Beach, I decided to go there. The beach strectches for miles and it takes about 10 minutes before you reach the ocean. I stopped by a sugar cane stall (not sure if that's what they're officially called), and the vendor used his contraption to squeeze the juice from the sugar canes, filtered it to rid of any dirt and stalk, and then mixed it with cool water - all for the price of 10 rupees (about 10p). It's a nice sweet beverage, although I do prefer to chew on the canes themselves to extract the sweet, sweet juice from them.
I wanted to relax by the ocean so took a long, slow stroll to it. There are many stalls lined up along the beach; it's like a market place! I didn't purchase anything but it's nice to browse at the wares as I passed by. I did stop to eat some Pani Poori though. It's a delicious snack that I can only describe it as tasting a bit like yorkshire puddings, only with a lot of spicy sauce to go with them instead of gravy. Once I finally got to the ocean, I just sat and relaxed in the scorching heat, wanting to go for a dip to cool down but put off by the amount of litter washing up on the shore.
Boys were stripping off and going for a swim in the ocean, while the girls stayed dressed in their kurtis and saris and went for a paddle - except for a volleyball team who were playing, singing and dancing in the ocean, much to the amusement of onlookers including myself. Men were offering rides on their horses for some rupees and others were selling what looked like candy floss. Suffice to say, there's a lot going on this beach compared to the desolate and dull beach in Great Yarmouth.
My realxing enjoyment of people watching was over when I inadvertently drew attention to myself for, well, erm, for having white skin I guess. Then came the child beggars with their pet monkeys - who were only a one trick pony. One baby monkey climbed all over me and tried to steal my bottle of water while a young girl begged me to give her some money. It's very sad to see children living in poverty, but you have to be weary when giving them money for I recall being told that adults often "employ" them to beg, as people tend to show a lot more sympathy to child beggars than adults. Still, it's very disheartening but I carry very little money on me and there's nothing I can do to help. It's times like that, that I wish I was a very wealthy man so I could. The world really does revolve around money and as long as distribution of wealth remains unfair, it'll be hard to eradicate poverty.
Anyway, I started to get bothered by the unwarranted attention and the heat so went for a walk along, I guess, what is the equivalent of an English seaside promenade, only without arcades and pubs. I sat in a green area, leaned against a tree and started playing on my uke. This time the attention I was getting was warranted so I didn't mind; I'm always happy for people to hear me play some music.
As I said on a previous blog post, I was kinda getting fed up with rice and was craving some western food. One day I remembered that there were fast food restaurants in Spencer Plaza shopping mall, and since I was close by, made it my mission to go and treat myself to some KFC. Not a great choice for some western food I know, but my mouth was salivating at the thought of some chicken and chips. Not long after stepping in to the mall, I had shop merchants trying to persuade me to go in to their shops and purchase something. They all sell the same shit and none of it I want; scarves, jewellery, ornaments and meditation bowls are not things I need on my travels at all. I was there to eat some chicken and that was all, so I just ignored them. I stood outside to have cigarette at one point and ended up conversing with a devout muslim man. He was a pleasant chap and didn't mind me being an atheist who does not want to convert to islam. He didn't go all jihad on me, which is what the UK media and a lot of EDL members would like everybody to believe would happen in such a scenerio. Go figure. In fact, every muslim I have ever spoke to have all been kind people. But who wants to hear nice, pleasant things in the news? He soon left me alone when I told him I wasn't interested in purchasing anything from his shop though.
I had passed a park on my way back from the plaza and decided to have a relaxing day there the following day. Of course, I brought along my ukulele to practice. I also went long walks around the vacinity of where my hotel was, sat in cafes for some tea or coffee, or just grabbed a small and cheap cup from the many stalls on the streets.
I'm a member on a website called couchserfing - a site for travellers to meet and for people to host travellers, so another reason for me staying in Chennai was to meet up with some fellow couchserfers. One guy I had been speaking to surprised me by waiting outside my hotel room; I had told him where I was staying, but weren't sure when he was wanting to meet. He is a nice chap by the name of Jeba, but unfortunetly he did not stay long. He only dropped by to give me some recommendations on places to visit in Chennai - most of which I had been to already. I was quite interested in visiting the national park, though, so after we said our goodbyes I headed there by bus.
I paid 20 rupees entry fee and soon observed that it was actually more of a zoo. Not a particularly good one at that. I was mildly interested watching emus getting fed some biscuits by a couple but that was about it. I'm not particularly fond of zoos anyway; staring at animals in cages, all of which can be observed in the wild if people weren't so damn lazy. I mean some of the animals they had there you can see everyday in India! Monkeys for one and also a wild dog. India's streets are full of fucking dogs! Why on earth would I want see one locked up in a cage?! Indian logic strikes again (it's just occurred to me that I don't think I have mentioned the great phenomenon that is Indian logic before. I will soon enough). After about an hour of walking and uninterestingly observing animals sleeping, shitting and eating, I disappointingly headed back to my hotel.
And that's all that I got up to Chennai. For the most part I was alone and bored. Suffice to say I much prefer my time spent in rural places with company. I do like to be left alone, sure. But I don't think a city is the right place for it. Not Chennai anyway. Maybe Bangalore and Dehli will be different?
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