Chennai - 12/26

From Madurai we took an overnight train to Chennai, the largest city and capital of Tamil Nadu but for us just a stepping stone on our way North. Peter couldn't sleep on the train at all so when we arrived at the central rail station, we decided to abandon our plan of trekking toward a hotel near the airport and find something nearby quickly. We found a hotel recommended by our trusty guidebook and made our way there. We passed it several times as the location looked like a construction site. We asked around and sure enough we were directed to the construction site. At the entrance was an elderly security guard who yelled at us “You want room?”. Sure enough there was a sign indicating “Nest Inn” and pointing at the construction zone. He told us to go through the scaffolding, over some cement, and take the elevator to the second floor. The second floor looked to be in the final stages of construction, but nowhere near being finished. Hmmm? The guidebook did mention some renovation being done...but our copy is from 2008..... We were skeptical but asked to see the room and we were led to the finest hotel room we have stayed in so far. It was like stepping into a new European hotel decked out in Ikea's finest. The beds were soft, it was super clean, there was a flat screen TV, and hot water in the shower. We couldn't believe our luck!

There is not all that much to do in Chennai It's a huge, sprawling city and much more modern than Madurai. They have traffic lights, less cars, less people and a shopping mall. They still have tons of auto rickshaws, though, so we were of course pestered all day. In Chennai, they are known to be ruthless and to take advantage of tourists so we tried to avoid them as much as possible. We asked one guy how much it would cost for a ride back to our hotel and he quoted us some number and said he would have to take a round about route due to the street being a one way (which we knew wasn't so because we just walked that way) and that he had a shop he could also take us to. Also, in Chennai, we noticed that there were men everywhere urinating in the streets. They would just pull over as they were driving, step out, and go. It was pretty stinky.

Crazy Mall Directory.

We spent most of the day at the shopping mall...which was a maze of shops full of scarves and handicrafts interspersed with stores such as Nike and Levis. All the handicraft stores looked like they were selling the same things. Even at the shopping mall there was a guy outside every shop trying to get us to come in. We purchased an internet stick...a USB modem so that we could connect to the internet on our laptop wherever we go. Also, I got a fancy new camera very cheap...almost too cheap...but this was a legitimate shopping mall after all.