29/01/2011
Chennai Day 2 When the vehicle in front of you is driving into you, hoot.
When the vehicle in front of you is suddenly slowing down, hoot.
When the vehicle in front of you is coming to a stop at a red light, hoot.
When you are trying to overtake by crossing a solid line and driving towards oncoming traffic but don't want them to drive into you, hoot.
When in doubt, hoot. These are the rules of driving I learnt today whilst I sat in the auto rickshaw. As a passenger, don't look, don't think, don't question. Just let the drivers do their thing as scary as it may be, because they seem to know what they are doing. Once again, organized chaos. Animals spotted: 1 goat, 1 cat, 2 chickens, 3 dogs, 4 cows (one of them was very pretty). Shaking heads - too many to count. The midday heat was almost unbearable and I decided to hide out at the cinemas, enjoying the blissful air-con and worldwide familiar Coca-Cola! I never thought that watching a movie in another country would be any different, but gosh was I surprised. Firstly, people are loud before the movie AND during the movie. They talk to each other, their phones ring, and they actually answer it and talk loudly. Secondly, halfway through the movie, it stops. There is an interval in the middle of the movie. I mean seriously? I thought there was some technical problem, but nope, people got up to go to the bathroom or to buy refreshments. When the interval was over, they played another 5 good minutes if adverts before the movie continued. Just plain weird. Opinion on India thus far? I'm loving it! People are mostly very friendly and helpful even when they look angry or uninterested. A random gentleman, who was stopped by the rickshaw driver who didn't understand where I wanted to go, too 5 minutes of his time to help me google the exact address and map of where my hotel was and showed it to then driver. Are the locals just really friendly or am I just one of the most blessed girls in the world? :D 30/01/2011
Chennai Day 3 15:30 Okay so I was going to do more exploring today but I am having a bit of a difficult time fixing my jet lag. So 3 and a half hour time difference is not huge, but "bedtime" in India equals my nap time back home so I keep waking up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep... =.= So for today I'm just going to stay at the hotel and enjoy room service, old movies on the Telly and reading up on what else I can do during my time in India. While we complain about roadworks causing major traffic in South Africa, an article in the newspaper today reads "Jumbos descend on road, block traffic for 2 hours". AND this is on page 5 of the Sunday news, so 13 elephants straying from the jungle and into the village was ranked fairly newsworthy (it got a bigger space than a strike action and an attack with petrol bombs, with a picture insert even). 22:15
You would expect that eating at a hotel would be somewhat expensive, but I'm on holiday so I'm just going to go all out. This is exactly what I had for my dinner for one: soda water, chicken Tom yum soup, mushroom salt and pepper (some mushroom dish with salt and pepper), crunchy lamb (wasn't that crunchy but it was nice), naan, bottled water, mango ice cream. All of this cost me around R90. Yeah it's probably a bit expensive for India, but in my world its still really cheap! There's something about eating on your own at a restaurant, you really get to enjoy every bite you take. There's no one talking to you distracting you from your food. It's kinda nice. I really enjoyed dining with me tonight, plus that waiter walking around the restaurant with an electric mosquito squat/racket thingie. Ooooh first day of school tomorrow! Better get to sleep, would not want to be late!
Chennai Day 2 When the vehicle in front of you is driving into you, hoot.
When the vehicle in front of you is suddenly slowing down, hoot.
When the vehicle in front of you is coming to a stop at a red light, hoot.
When you are trying to overtake by crossing a solid line and driving towards oncoming traffic but don't want them to drive into you, hoot.
When in doubt, hoot. These are the rules of driving I learnt today whilst I sat in the auto rickshaw. As a passenger, don't look, don't think, don't question. Just let the drivers do their thing as scary as it may be, because they seem to know what they are doing. Once again, organized chaos. Animals spotted: 1 goat, 1 cat, 2 chickens, 3 dogs, 4 cows (one of them was very pretty). Shaking heads - too many to count. The midday heat was almost unbearable and I decided to hide out at the cinemas, enjoying the blissful air-con and worldwide familiar Coca-Cola! I never thought that watching a movie in another country would be any different, but gosh was I surprised. Firstly, people are loud before the movie AND during the movie. They talk to each other, their phones ring, and they actually answer it and talk loudly. Secondly, halfway through the movie, it stops. There is an interval in the middle of the movie. I mean seriously? I thought there was some technical problem, but nope, people got up to go to the bathroom or to buy refreshments. When the interval was over, they played another 5 good minutes if adverts before the movie continued. Just plain weird. Opinion on India thus far? I'm loving it! People are mostly very friendly and helpful even when they look angry or uninterested. A random gentleman, who was stopped by the rickshaw driver who didn't understand where I wanted to go, too 5 minutes of his time to help me google the exact address and map of where my hotel was and showed it to then driver. Are the locals just really friendly or am I just one of the most blessed girls in the world? :D 30/01/2011
Chennai Day 3 15:30 Okay so I was going to do more exploring today but I am having a bit of a difficult time fixing my jet lag. So 3 and a half hour time difference is not huge, but "bedtime" in India equals my nap time back home so I keep waking up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep... =.= So for today I'm just going to stay at the hotel and enjoy room service, old movies on the Telly and reading up on what else I can do during my time in India. While we complain about roadworks causing major traffic in South Africa, an article in the newspaper today reads "Jumbos descend on road, block traffic for 2 hours". AND this is on page 5 of the Sunday news, so 13 elephants straying from the jungle and into the village was ranked fairly newsworthy (it got a bigger space than a strike action and an attack with petrol bombs, with a picture insert even). 22:15
You would expect that eating at a hotel would be somewhat expensive, but I'm on holiday so I'm just going to go all out. This is exactly what I had for my dinner for one: soda water, chicken Tom yum soup, mushroom salt and pepper (some mushroom dish with salt and pepper), crunchy lamb (wasn't that crunchy but it was nice), naan, bottled water, mango ice cream. All of this cost me around R90. Yeah it's probably a bit expensive for India, but in my world its still really cheap! There's something about eating on your own at a restaurant, you really get to enjoy every bite you take. There's no one talking to you distracting you from your food. It's kinda nice. I really enjoyed dining with me tonight, plus that waiter walking around the restaurant with an electric mosquito squat/racket thingie. Ooooh first day of school tomorrow! Better get to sleep, would not want to be late!
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