Chennai - So this is what they call culture shock

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  Chennai (Madras), India
Thursday, December 20, 2007

Incredible India the ads say.  And yes, I have to agree - it's incredible how dirty, depressing and dull one city can be.  Smelly, noisy, polluted, overcrowded are probably the best adjectives to describe Chennai so it's hardly surprising it's not exactly a favoured spot on most tourist iteneries.

Okay, I'm being a bit harsh here - we'd just come from the pristine environs of Singapore so any place in India was bound to look a bit rough around the edges.  And we did spend the first day or two in a slight state of shock as we tried to get used to curry for breakfast, the constant sound of horns blaring, the continual presence of beggars and the unrelenting charm attacks of the auto-rickshaw drivers.  Personally I blame the shock on the sudden withdrawal of our green tea supply.

And Chennai does have its good points.  It's got a beach which is kindof okay even if the water smells foul and the rip currents are so strong that it's probably 50/50 whether you'd come out alive if you attempted to swim there (so maybe the stench is quite a good thing really).  And it's got a shopping centre where you can buy really nice homemade cookies.  And the people in general are pretty friendly (except the rickshaw drivers who are a bit too friendy - they all want to take you on a city tour, on which apparently the only highlights are their friends shops!).  And, well that's about all the positives we found really but I've a feeling it'd be a much easier place to deal with at the end rather than the start of a trip to India.

And so, when Jono suggested a trip to the tropical beach islands of the Andamans rather unsurprisingly I was all for it and we ended up catching a flight out the next day.  On the plane out I asked him was there any place he'd been happier to get away from and he replied that in fact there was - Angola.  So there you have it - Chennai beats somewhere where you have to drive around in an armoured car for fear of your life but not much place else!

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