First Impressions of Chennai

A few things on the city that will be our home for the next week:

- Chennai is not the most inspiring Indian city. It is fairly sprawling and spread out, and I do not think the sites here really stack up against the other big Indian cities. I can see why from a pure tourist standpoint is it written up in the Book as more of just a place to arrive or depart from. It is not well set up like Mumbai either, just the basic Indian chaos.

- That being said, the modern stuff here seems better then anyplace else. Near the AID INDIA office are 3 nice modern grocery stores. The only other one I have ever seen was in Kolkata, and that was just one. We went to a massive mall here tonight that was like a real mall. We ate Chinese at a great restaurant court that also had Pizza Hut (more high end in India then in US) and South Indian. I know this may not seem like a big deal for those at home, and against the idea of being in India, but after so long away from these things you start to appreciate them more.

- The only things that separate Chennai autorickshaw men from pirates is that they don't have a parrot on their shoulder and they don't say "Arrrrrr". They all don't use the meter and no matter how much haggling you do and you end up paying 2 to 3 times the km cost of anywhere else in India. This includes Mumbai where you at least get to ride in a real car. I would have a much easier time forking over 80 rupees to go 3 km if at least I had a parrot to talk to.

- We are staying in a pretty nice place called the Hotel Himalaya. Room is 1100 rupees and we have a new AC unit and a fridge in our big clean room. Also 24 hour Internet cafe. The only drawback is that the neighborhood is the least appealing I have seen in Chennai, it is a real dump out there. We will also be lulled to sleep by the symphony of 1000 car horns. I kind of wish the AC unit was old and rattled more.

- The work at AID INDIA seems pretty good so far. Nisha is working on some materials for health education and I am working on computerizing their files of students they sponsor. The people are nice and the office is in a nice pleasant area of town.

- South Indian food rocks. The little fast food places usually have very nice dosas (thin lentil pancake) and other great light snacks. They have great fruit juice as well.

- We took our longest (15 hours) and last ride on the Indian rails last night. Great sleep as always, 2AC class rocks, especially when you get the big 4 berth area to yourself. Also Nisha and I are big into Backgammon and Rummy 500 these days, really helps pass the time, thanks Ern.