The airport at Chennai was nowhere near as manic as Steph had lead me to be. I think Chennai is a bit more chilled, cause less tourists come here, and so the entry experience was just like any other developing world country. Actually, I've found that i've settled in really easily, no culture shock (as yet anyway).
The ride into Chennai was funny though - because it was new years, the traffic was mental, and we were stuck in it well into the new year. We hopped into a taxi with two very chatty enthusiastic young men, who preceeded to crank the Bollywood music to almost unbearable levels (this seems very common here - I may have permanent hearing loss by the time I return) :)
The taxis are awesome, actually most of the cars are cool - they are old ambassadors, mercs, astons etc... all old 60's models that they continue to make brand new over here. It means the streets look amazing, but I shudder to think of the carbon emissions :s
Midnight was marked by the sounds of the hysterical girls on the radio shreiking at the top of their lungs..someone gave those girls too much red cordial!
I met Aaron for the first time when I got to the hotel, and I really like him. He's an affable knockabout Aussie country boy, very enthusiastic about being overseas for the first time and making heaps of new Indian friends. We went for a brief walk around the streets that night, but not much was happening, so we gave in and retired to bed. Thank god - I was exhausted!
We spent the next morning just running around looking for salwars and drugs to buy - I managed to get one nice one and one ok one, so hopefully we can pick more up along the way. They kept showing us these massive tents of things, which I wasn't too keen on. The ones I got are still really loose, but at least i'm not going to have a train trailing on the ground behind me :)
Chennai was quite a frustrating, Industrial kinda city, not particularly interesting to tourists, and not all that friendly either, so we decided to hightail it outta there that afternoon. After a bladder testing four hour bus ride (oh, how little did I know of what was to come) we arrive in Pondicherry. Now Pondi was cool.
