The first experience I had in Chennai included watching auto rickshaw drivers play tug-a-war over the one guy that was in our group…enlightening first day if you ask me. After fighting our war through the horde of drivers, we attempted to go to a market in one, but the driver took us to a completely different place and tried to tell us that the market was closed until a certain time – LIES! Other SASers went to the same place we were trying to go before that time; consider it a lesson learned quickly. We also went to a temple, which was cool until we were cursed at by a beggar because we didn’t give her money. It is extremely difficult to walk by all these people and not give them something, but at the same time, it’s impossible to give to every person you see, and if you give to one, the rest will cause a scene. We also saw a lot of cows along the roads in certain areas of Chennai. Great thing about autos – they are made for 2-3 people. We consistently fit five: three sitting on the seat, one on top of those, and one on the driver’s seat. It was pretty intense. I went to a Welcome Reception on the first night in port; I got a Henna tattoo, watched a dance performance, and ate some interesting food. I am also just now realizing how much I use the word interesting, but there just really aren’t any other good ways to describe the experiences I have had in one word.
On the second day in Chennai, we found Spencer’s Market – the place we wanted to go the day before. We were there for a good few hours and got to talk to a few people our age. After that, we walked on a beach a ways and saw a statue of Gandhi. There were so many stray dogs in India that were just laying on sidewalks or on the beach; there were some cases in which I couldn’t even tell if they were alive or dead.
In Cochin, I went on a river tour of the Alleppey Backwaters, and there were a ton of house boats. At night, some friends and I took a ferry to New Cochin and saw a movie called My Name is Khan – ah. maze. ing. We couldn’t understand what they were saying of course, but we understood the plot well enough. When this movie is on DVD, I am going to buy it so that I can watch it with subtitles. The second day in Cochin was spent finding post cards, a post office, Indian clothing, and other souvenirs. I bought postcards from a woman outside of the port, and she was asking for pencils for her children, so when we were out shopping, I bought a lot of pencils and pencil sharpeners to give to her and the other women.
On a side note – Traffic in India is even more intense than in Viet Nam.
So yea, that was India for me.
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