The City of Chennai

This city is crazy!!! It is unlike anything I could have ever imagined...wow. So it first "hit me" as we exited the airport because outside hundreds of people were waiting to pick up those arriving from the airport. It was 1:00am when we landed and probably closer to 2am when we left with our luggage. Our guide, Baskar, and our driver picked us up in this outrageous looking bus that fits the twelve of us; it seriously looked like a Barbie camper from the outside because it was pink and white and had flowers. I'm not kidding.

Here people drive like maniacs. I legit think that we or the others driving around us might die each and every time we travel in our bus. Firstly, we drive on the left hand side. Mostly people drive motocycles or very small cars. Second, there are no lanes and very few lights and absolutely no rules of the road. People just drive and honk their horns ALL THE TIME - every 2 seconds it seems. Also pedestrians walk in the street and their are cyclists. The side streets are so small only one car can fit at a time. I've learned to either look out the window at the shops and restaurants, or just cover my eyes. But we haven't had any traffic accidents yet so I think we'll be fine. The vehicles don't go very quickly anyway.

This city is so crowded...there are buildings everywhere and they are right next to each other. But there is also an abundance of vegetation; there are palm trees and other trees everywhere. It helps make the city beautiful. There is extreme poverty here and it can't be ignored. We drive past homeless people sleeping on doorsteps or short walls outside of houses. There are beggars in the street and outside sites who approach us. We drive through the slums everyday because they are everywhere. Sometimes when we walk or drive, depending on which street we are on or which way the wind is blowing, it smells really badly. But it's not so bad that you can't deal with it. The poverty here can't be ignored because it stares you in the face, but it's not inhibiting our experience, only adding to it.

I like our hotel, it's no holiday inn and not the place we thought we were staying at, but it's modern. There's a flat screen samsung in the room we haven't figured out how to use. The shower runs hot water, but they are very conscious of conserving resources in India so there is a bucket in the shower we fill to rinse ourselves with. The only thing I don't like is the 10 year olds who work here, but Megan said they probably need the money for their families. That's sad because they should be in school. It's really nice though and I'm so hapy to be here!!!