Jan 2006

So the beat goes on,

Woke this morn at 0230, totally awake, Chennai is not a 24 hour town, streets are deserted from around 12 (except for stray dogs and homeless), so I had nothin to do but put on BBC world news for 2 hours. Finally fell asleep around 0500.

Another 8 varieties of curry for brekkie and off I went, visited the Mahatma Gandhi monument at the beach, he's a good lad, won independence for India peacefully "Back of the net" for the India! Always been a fan of his, so I had my picture taken with him, my rickshaw (suicidal) driver named Kulimuthu took the photo, they stick with you for the day, and are happy to wait up to an hour after a drop off while you're off doin whatever. We went to Guindy National Park then, the guide books don't tell you that you're not actually allowed in to the park itself, only to the small zoo and snake park at the entrance. This I thought was great news for the animals in the park, no silly pale (although I'm beggining to 'redden') boys from 'Oireland' trying to take their picture, or in Indians case, simulate throwing objects at them, or trying to wake them, like they were at the zoo. The zoo had quite good exhibits for their birds, lots of space for egrets and cranes, but their mammals had the short straw. Dholes (wild Indian dog), striped hyena and Jackals all had exhibits that were far too small. Saying that, all animals appeared to be in very good physical condition, no (visible) parasites, no overweight or underweight animals, all coats in good nic, plenty of shade, clean water and very clean exhibits, fair play to the staff, they prob get paid very little.

Snake park wasn't bad, great to see reptiles outdoors for a change, some exhibits were tiny, but again all animals looked to be in great physical condition, including about 8 species of croc, tried to find out if they had bred any, but the keepers could not speak English, although it was fun to try and explain the word 'baby' in body language! He replied with a snapping of his hands (in a croc slaming his jaws fashion) and pointed at a big Nile croc, not sure what was goin on, so moved on.

I'd imagine most people here get paid very little, but that doesn't stop them being happy, they're a lovely race, always happy to smile and return a 'hello', which is often followed by a very excited "where you from?", they're very helpful, even the homeless people who appear to have nothing will give you directions with a big smile, we (westerners) could learn a lot from them!

Went to the main train station to get to Bangalore (Bertie wanted to meet for an 'in fact eh' scoop), what an experience, the place is nuts, deformed, poor, wealthy, filthy people everywhere, massive queus, horrible, sent to 5 different wrong queus, needless to say, not happy. Finally directed to correct area by one of the rifle holding soldiers that were in every corner holding back the queus.

At last, some other tourists in the 'foreigner only' ticket area, two French girls, about my age, also going to Bangalore, so we booked tickets together. Very formal way of buying tickets, you have to reserve in advance and fill out an application form, and show a passport, eh hello? So all 3 trains were sold out for the rest of the day, (this is India after all, more than a billion people, scary), so we're goin at 6 in the morn and are staying in a hotel on the south of the city, triple room, tiny, but clean, and that's all that matters! Nice girls, Pauline and Amadine.

Walked past loads of homeless people, cooking curries on the street, looking very happy, sure why not, sun is shinin, and curry on the go, no mortgage or 2 hour daily jouneys to worry about! Again, they're great people!

Finally seeing more tourists now, I'm in a cyber cafe, goin for grub soon, hope all is well, talk again soon, Bren

Hello from Chennai,
Havin a mad time, I'll start from the start!

One hour delayed take off from Heathrow and three screamin babies around me, but I didn't care, put on my headphones and blasted some prodigy, was great for the take off, "Smack my b#tch up'', great track!. An Indian man with the exotic name of 'Stephen' was sitting beside me with his family. Sound chap, about 55. Anyway, after about ten minutes, he asked me would I like to join his family on a three day tour of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, starting tomorrow! Didn't know what to say, but made it to be a polite 'no thanks'!

Landed in Chennai at 2 a.m., the view of the weather from the window looked Irish! Foggy and very dark. Although when I got off the plane I noticed it was a typically non Irish 22 C! Not bad for 2 in the morn!

Immigration dude got one of his colleagues to look at my face, he wasn't certain that it was my photo on my passport (it's 8 years old, I look about 12), so they were both comparin my eyes and ears to the photo, they eventually let me through.

Soldiers, guns and a major smell of curry and spices in the airport. Got my bag and went to loo to put on my 'hidden money belt' thing. Got my first sight of a typical Indian loo, barf inducing stuff! But I'm used to them already. Have been asked numerous times if I'm from America, eh no! "I'm Oirish!"

Got to hotel where i had reserved a room a week ago, "sorry sir, all rooms gone, you can stay in business suite'. Too tired to argue, thought it sounded good anyway. Bizarrelly, the cheeky... had just put a bed in to their computer room, so that's where I slept! Demanded a reduction today, got a whopping 15% off, wow! In a new room today, very nice, and not a computer to be seen anywhere!

Had a typical Indian brekkie this morn, there was ten pots on a table, self service job. Started with scrambled eggs and toast, all very normal there, but the other 9 pots all had different types of curry in them! Tried them all, very nice! Also had 3 kinds of food similar to naan, but quite different if ya know what I mean! Never seen them before!

Got a 'rickshaw' to the beach or 'marina', total lunatic drivers, the travel programmes don't exagerate, they never stop, totally mad, speeding along, and surprisngly, looking totally chilled!

Beach was very nice, obeyed the 'stricly no swimming' sign. Got another rickshaw to Guindy national park, but it was closed, then travelled another 40km to their zoo, also closed, or as they say 'holiday', of course they'b be closed, it is tueday after all. Didn't mind too much...the drive was like somethin outta funderland, (Irish carnival)the roads were at times like the old roads in cavan, you wouldn't believe how dangerous the drivin was, but I'm confident there'll be no crashes, they obviously know what there doin! Will go back to the national park and zoo tomorrow. Goodbye for now, Bren

P.S. the dude beside me (in internet cafe) just let a ripper of a fart with no hiding or emabarrasement, go India!