The Waiting Period
After a few days of traveling, I am now somewhat settled in my new home in Chennai, India. My journey started with a day of heavy pacing last Tuesday, waiting for 4PM when Martin was going to come and pick me up and take me to LAX. I had pretty much finished packing the day before, so most of the afternoon of my actual departure date was spent checking the clock every five minutes or so…. Thankfully, Martin rolled up in his Jeep right on time, and we were soon on our way to the airport.
We got to LAX with plenty of time to spare. The ticket counter wasn’t open yet, so Martin and I had some dinner at a Chinese place, kind of like a Panda Express. Then I went and checked in and got my boarding pass, then headed back to the waiting area and got some coffee and killed some time while waiting for a decent hour to get in the security checkpoint line. It was really nice to have some company, especially since I knew that I had a very long solitary trip ahead of me.
Time passed quickly enough, and soon, I was on my way to the departure gate. I made some last minute phone calls to use up some of my minutes, got my MiniDisc player for some trans-Pacific entertainment, and boarded the plane for my long flight to Bangkok.
The flight was alright, but I didn’t sleep nearly as much as I had hoped that I would. Unfortunately, I didn’t really bring very much stuff to keep me entertained while flying, so I spent a lot of time watching a big selection of pretty bad movies on the on-flight entertainment system. The combination of staying awake for so long and watching long movies on a tiny LCD screen in the headrest in front of me meant that my eyes were killing me by the end of my flight.
Eventually, however, I ended up in Bangkok, where I had a horribly long layover. My travel agent had neglected to point out when I was booking my tickets that I would be staying just over 24 hours in Bangkok, meaning that my bags couldn’t be checked all the way through, and that I would have to go through customs there, thus exiting the airport. So, a little while after landing, I walked around a bit and found a decently priced hotel to spend the day at. I thought about heading into Bangkok again, as I sort of remembered the areas Amy and I had visited some years back, but I opted for having a long shower and a long sleep instead. Later in the evening I walked around the area by my hotel a little bit, thinking that I should get some food, but I found myself not really hungry, so I settled for some coffee and water and some sugary pastry thing instead. Then went back to the hotel and forced myself to sleep some more.
Early the next morning (Friday—local time) I was on another plane to see Amy in Chennai.
Chennai
Chennai has been pretty cool so far. I’m still trying to get the city sorted out in my mind. Basically, you have a big collection of villages that have grown into a big city, and each of these regions has its own name. So, for example, I live in Chetput, and to my east is Egmore. Amy works in Nungambakkam. I don’t get the feeling that these regions are clearly defined, but generally, they help you figure out where you are in the city.
Geographically, the city is quite small, but in my few days here, I haven’t given it much of a chance as a walking city. Honestly, I don’t know how much of a walking city it really is. The pollution is very bad—and while I’m accustomed to smoky smoggy air quality from living in China, there are a slew of other smells that I don’t know if you’d ever really get accustomed to. The most pervasive smell walking around the city roads in general is that of stale urine. And if you are anywhere near one of the rivers in the city, you invariably smell the sewage that is largely a result of the slums being built up on the river banks.
So, for traveling around, you usually take an “auto.” Autos are like motorized tricycle rickshaws. They have a motorcycle-like handle for steering, and a seat behind the driver that comfortably fits two passengers. They are covered on top and open on the sides, so you are shaded from the sun and there is a nice breeze while you drive. When you travel around, you usually ask the auto drivers first if they can take you to a particular region, then you tell them more specifically where you’d like to go—either by a street intersection or by naming something well known in the area. Before getting in, you also make an offer of how much you’d pay. The price varies depending on a variety of factors including the time of day, the ease of the route, and so on, but sometimes you just need to start sort of low and ask a few autos that stop and see if they accept before raising your offer. At any rate, there are always tons of autos around, so you’re never really worried about being able to get one. And when you convert the prices that you are negotiating on, they really are just a matter of pennies. Most rides are probably between 15 and 30Rs, which is between about 30 and 70 cents, so bargaining over 5Rs can seem sort of silly at times.
Food is great, and cheap. For lunch for the past few days, Amy and I have been getting what are called “meals” from various restaurants. Meals are basically comprised of these little metal cups, each one holding about two-thirds of a cup of some kind of vegetable dish prepared with different spices. You usually start off with a collection of about 8 or 9 of these cups, and a mound of rice on a big leaf, and get started eating. As you finish what is in one of the cups, someone usually shows up and ladles another spoonful of food into the cup until you tell them you’ve had enough. At a less expensive restaurant, two meals would cost about $1.25, and at a more expensive restaurant, you would be paying about $4.00 for two meals. These are all-you-can-eat too, so one meal can keep you going for quite a while.
There is still a lot more that I could write about my first impressions here, but right now, I am more interested in getting some more first impressions by actually going out and walking about—maybe taking some pictures while I’m at it…. So, check back for more….
No related posts.
Chennai at last
The Waiting Period
After a few days of traveling, I am now somewhat settled in my new home in Chennai, India. My journey started with a day of heavy pacing last Tuesday, waiting for 4PM when Martin was going to come and pick me up and take me to LAX. I had pretty much finished packing the day before, so most of the afternoon of my actual departure date was spent checking the clock every five minutes or so…. Thankfully, Martin rolled up in his Jeep right on time, and we were soon on our way to the airport.
We got to LAX with plenty of time to spare. The ticket counter wasn’t open yet, so Martin and I had some dinner at a Chinese place, kind of like a Panda Express. Then I went and checked in and got my boarding pass, then headed back to the waiting area and got some coffee and killed some time while waiting for a decent hour to get in the security checkpoint line. It was really nice to have some company, especially since I knew that I had a very long solitary trip ahead of me.
Time passed quickly enough, and soon, I was on my way to the departure gate. I made some last minute phone calls to use up some of my minutes, got my MiniDisc player for some trans-Pacific entertainment, and boarded the plane for my long flight to Bangkok.
The flight was alright, but I didn’t sleep nearly as much as I had hoped that I would. Unfortunately, I didn’t really bring very much stuff to keep me entertained while flying, so I spent a lot of time watching a big selection of pretty bad movies on the on-flight entertainment system. The combination of staying awake for so long and watching long movies on a tiny LCD screen in the headrest in front of me meant that my eyes were killing me by the end of my flight.
Eventually, however, I ended up in Bangkok, where I had a horribly long layover. My travel agent had neglected to point out when I was booking my tickets that I would be staying just over 24 hours in Bangkok, meaning that my bags couldn’t be checked all the way through, and that I would have to go through customs there, thus exiting the airport. So, a little while after landing, I walked around a bit and found a decently priced hotel to spend the day at. I thought about heading into Bangkok again, as I sort of remembered the areas Amy and I had visited some years back, but I opted for having a long shower and a long sleep instead. Later in the evening I walked around the area by my hotel a little bit, thinking that I should get some food, but I found myself not really hungry, so I settled for some coffee and water and some sugary pastry thing instead. Then went back to the hotel and forced myself to sleep some more.
Early the next morning (Friday—local time) I was on another plane to see Amy in Chennai.
Chennai
Chennai has been pretty cool so far. I’m still trying to get the city sorted out in my mind. Basically, you have a big collection of villages that have grown into a big city, and each of these regions has its own name. So, for example, I live in Chetput, and to my east is Egmore. Amy works in Nungambakkam. I don’t get the feeling that these regions are clearly defined, but generally, they help you figure out where you are in the city.
Geographically, the city is quite small, but in my few days here, I haven’t given it much of a chance as a walking city. Honestly, I don’t know how much of a walking city it really is. The pollution is very bad—and while I’m accustomed to smoky smoggy air quality from living in China, there are a slew of other smells that I don’t know if you’d ever really get accustomed to. The most pervasive smell walking around the city roads in general is that of stale urine. And if you are anywhere near one of the rivers in the city, you invariably smell the sewage that is largely a result of the slums being built up on the river banks.
So, for traveling around, you usually take an “auto.” Autos are like motorized tricycle rickshaws. They have a motorcycle-like handle for steering, and a seat behind the driver that comfortably fits two passengers. They are covered on top and open on the sides, so you are shaded from the sun and there is a nice breeze while you drive. When you travel around, you usually ask the auto drivers first if they can take you to a particular region, then you tell them more specifically where you’d like to go—either by a street intersection or by naming something well known in the area. Before getting in, you also make an offer of how much you’d pay. The price varies depending on a variety of factors including the time of day, the ease of the route, and so on, but sometimes you just need to start sort of low and ask a few autos that stop and see if they accept before raising your offer. At any rate, there are always tons of autos around, so you’re never really worried about being able to get one. And when you convert the prices that you are negotiating on, they really are just a matter of pennies. Most rides are probably between 15 and 30Rs, which is between about 30 and 70 cents, so bargaining over 5Rs can seem sort of silly at times.
Food is great, and cheap. For lunch for the past few days, Amy and I have been getting what are called “meals” from various restaurants. Meals are basically comprised of these little metal cups, each one holding about two-thirds of a cup of some kind of vegetable dish prepared with different spices. You usually start off with a collection of about 8 or 9 of these cups, and a mound of rice on a big leaf, and get started eating. As you finish what is in one of the cups, someone usually shows up and ladles another spoonful of food into the cup until you tell them you’ve had enough. At a less expensive restaurant, two meals would cost about $1.25, and at a more expensive restaurant, you would be paying about $4.00 for two meals. These are all-you-can-eat too, so one meal can keep you going for quite a while.
There is still a lot more that I could write about my first impressions here, but right now, I am more interested in getting some more first impressions by actually going out and walking about—maybe taking some pictures while I’m at it…. So, check back for more….
No related posts.