My only free day

Sunday was my only free day in Chennai. I got up early and went upstairs for complimentary breakfast and then went exploring the hotel. The Hotel Park Sheraton & Towers is very nice, despite the ever present mildewy smell and the fact that my toilet was broken when I got here (its fixed now thankfully). I roamed around and checked out the pool and the health spa and the little shops, bars, and restaurants. I will probably be spending a lot of my free time here, so at least it is interesting.

Around 11:30 Keval came to pick me up and take me to the office. He had an interview scheduled and I was going to tag along until lunch time. I met him in the lobby and he said he recognized me from my picture from our website, which I had forgotten we'd updated recently. Still I'm sure he would have been able to pick me out from the crowd. We got along well, and he drove us to the office. More about driving in India later...

We stayed at the office for awhile waiting for the interviewee to show up, and chatted about what there was to do in Chennai. Keval told me that there really wasn't much to do or see here, that there wasn't much nightlife since the city is largely made up of the older generation who sent their kids to the UK and US for work and get money sent back to them. Only since the recent tech boom is there a growing community of young people staying in Chennai, and the so the nightlife is lagging behind. I asked about temples, and ruins, and that sort of thing and he suggested we take a drive down the coast to Maamallapuram and the Shore Temple after lunch.

After the applicant showed up and the interview was over we got back in the car and headed out. They say if you can drive in India you can drive anywhere, and I believe it. The streets are absolute chaos. Keval is a very conservative driver by Indian standards and I was white knuckling for most of the trip. Traffic laws are almost none existent and signs and signals are basically just recommendations. Forget about staying in your own lane, playing chicken with oncoming traffic is standard practice, and cramming 4 vehicles into 2 lanes is very common. The roads were full of buses, cars, 3 wheeled taxis, motorcycles and scooters, bicycles, people, and of course cows, goats, and dogs all interweaving and dodging around each other. Every inch counts, and honking of horns isn't rude, instead it replaces turn signals. We saw the aftermath of two very bad looking accidents during the drive, but I'm surprised that there wasn't ten times that many more.

On the way out to the Maamallapuram we stopped at a resort outside of Chennai for lunch called Sea Crest. It was right on the beach and we got a table in the shade in front of the band, which was a guy on a yamaha keyboard and his buddy playing the bass. I got to listen to Indian renditions of classic tunes by the Scorpions, Aerosmith, and other 80s and 90s hits. Its so great to come thousands of miles away from home and be able to relive junior high and highschool memories. We had a buffet style lunch and I sampled a few things that looked safe. We had a couple beers and tried to talk over the music, but soon gave up and continued on our way.

There was still some evidence of the major Tsunami that had hit this area in December 2004. Many fishing villages of closely packed huts dotted the coastline, springing up again and recovering with the help of the government.

I was glad to finally get to Maamallapuram, but the heat of the day was at its peak and I began to sweat as soon as I was out of the car. I was approached by many trinket sellers showing me one thing after another hoping something would catch my eye. Keval had told me about how there is one price for Indians and another for everyone else. One story he shared was how he witness a foreign woman asking a junk seller how much for a ring, and he said "two for fifty" so fast that she said "two-fifty? That's too much, how about two-hundred" and the deal was made and she was happy because she had saved fifty rupees. The posted admission to the site for me was 250 rupees, Keval only cost 10 rupees. Very much a double standard. Keval decided a guide would be helpful, and an elderly Indian walked us through the site and pointed out things of interest, but it became evident that Keval knew as much as he did and had to help me understand what the guide was saying anyways.

So these chariots, five for the five Paandava brothers and one for their wife, are all carved from a single massive granite outcropping. The story goes that the strongest and most famous brother, sort of like the Indian equivalent of Hercules, won the hand of a princess in an archery contest. When he brought her back to his mother he told her "I have brought something back for the family" and his mother not knowing what he meant said "Well share it with your brothers". Being the dutiful son he did just that...

Anyways, after checking out the chariots we headed over to see the Shore Temple. It was very crowded and hot so we didn't stay long, but I got some nice pictures. The coast is beautiful and Keval tells me the water is warm all year long, but you wouldn't want to swim in it. He said there are fishermen who will take you further out where it is safer to swim, but I wasn't about to do that, seeing as how my paranoia with the cab drivers in Poland was bad enough, imagine being in the middle of the ocean with just a hungry looking fisherman.

On the way back into town we stopped for some bottled water, which was much needed at this point. He asked if I wanted to go shopping, but my energy was fading fast and I wasn't ready to be hounded by junk sellers. I got back to the hotel around 17:30 and went to take a quick nap. Once again my quick nap turned into an all evening thing and I woke up 6 hours later. That's when I got up to post my pics for the day and compose this. Tomorrow Keval picks me up at 9:00 to go to work. It sounds like they do 12 hour days here most of the time. No wonder its such a popular place to outsource to. Maybe I can take Friday off and get another chance to see something outside the city.

Hope you all are well, good night.