April 12, 1:46 am, Chennai
Okay I'm counting Friday and Saturday together as day 1 since it was
just one big travel marathon. Time zones and days melted together as
we sat on plane after plane. Overall, I think it was about 30 hours of
travel time, or a little under that. But we are here!
The highlight of yesterday was the layover in Brussels. Neuhaus
Belgian chocolates. Need I say more? Those who know, know. It was a
trip down memory lane biting into those sweet morsels filled with soft
fluffy cremes.
The Brussels to Chennai flight was not too bad. A little over 9 hours
but the food was pretty good. I'm already getting excited about the
food. Such flavors! It's exciting to put things into your mouth and
realize that you have never experienced these flavors in your life.
And that was just on the plane. We also had personal tv screens and
choice of movies, which was nice. I only watched one, but Katherine
was able to rack up 4 and a half.
Walking out of Chennai airport was an experience. You're never fully
prepared for that initial shock of... let's see... heat and humidity
that just doesn't seem possible at midnight, then there are tons and
tons of people standing there where you come out, waiting and staring
and make you feel painfully aware that you stick out like a sore
thumb. It does definitely take me back to the Philippines though.
Smells the same, sounds the same. It's such a trip. It honestly felt
great, made me feel very happy.
We were in kind of a bad position because we didn't have anywhere set
up for tonight and didn't really know where to go. So we were at their
mercy. We found a guy that said he would find a place for us to stay
and get a car to take us. We were very wary but didn't really know
what else to do, so we said okay. We waited a while for the car, which
he said would be free. In the end, the only catch seemed to be that he
wanted Rs 100 for arranging it for us. Reasonable enough. The ride was
a little scary. We seem to be in a pretty scary area and the streets
were empty. The cows in the road were about the only forms of life.
Thoughts started to race through my head. I started to think about the
movie "Taken" and how this guy could be taking us anywhere to do
anything with us. It was a little scary.
It was a big relief when we saw the sign for Suvi and knew it was a
real place. Thank goodness. It was even the same price the guy at the
airport told us, so maybe not that shady afterall. We're probably
paying more than we should be, but oh well. We have a king size bed
(for the 3 of us) and AC and a shower, so I guess we can't complain
too much.
In the morning we'll head to the bus station and catch a bus to
Vellore. But for now... try to catch some sleep. It's hard with all
the excitement.
9:41 pm, Vellore
Well it's been a fun day. I'm waiting for a computer at the Internet
cafe right now, so I thought I'd put down some stuff while I'm
waiting. The night was uneventful last night. It actually got pretty
cold in our room with the AC all the way up and be fan all the way up.
I slept pretty well, but woke up kind of early an then couldn't really
fall back to sleep.
The shower was nice and cool, which actually felt pretty good in that
sweltering bathroom (it had a window open to the outside). Again, it
felt like I was back in the Philippines, taking cold showers.
We got out and had them drive us to the bus station in their car. Paid
300 for it... not really sure if that was a good price or not. It
probably wasn't too bad. Once we got there this guy jumped on our
luggage and wanted to help. They are very insistent about helping
because they want you to pay them. He was actually quite helpful
though. This was a pretty huge bus terminal and we would have been
clueless as to where to go. Computer is open... more later.
11:33 pm, Vellore
Anyway, so we managed to get all our stuff on the bus and only got
charged one extra fare for the luggage. The trip was about 3 hours.
It's pretty crazy driving. I had the front row seat, so I was able to
see how many times we almost hit people or cows or other buses. The
roads were actually not too bad as far as quality, but they are
chaotic. There is no observance of lanes or anything like that. Just a
lot of honking. It's funny how the cows just wander around and walk
through the street. Apparently they have the right of way here.
We talked to a nice guy on the bus who told us where we should get
off. He then was waiting for us when we got off and was like "come
with me, I'll show you". He took us over to the rickshaws and talked
to someone and told us how much we should pay. It was really nice of
him. We were talking while we walked and he saw I was from Texas so he
started asking me about WWF wrestlers that are from Texas. Haha. I
didn't know who he was talking about but it was funny.
Amazingly, we fit all of our luggage and the three of us in one of
these little rickshaws, which is basically a motorcycle modified to
have a little cab on the back. It only has 1 little bench, so it was
quite hilarious that everything could fit.
We made it to the Hotel Aavana Inn without trouble and then the
checking-in process began. Oh boy. The price was more than the CMC had
told us it was going to be, but it was printed on their little flyer,
so we couldn't really argue. Well, I mean, we did argue, but we were
unsuccessful. They probably have a separate flyer that they give to
foreigners with higher rates. It's still only costing us like $9 a day
each though, so I don't know how much we can really complain. Anyway,
but then they have this whole deal about registering with police. They
ask for copies of your passport an visa but then they want money to
process stuff with the police. Right. Except that we already knew that
tourists don't have to register with the police. We argued with them
for a long time about this and it was actually quite comical. They
kept trying to tell us that we were students and we told them about 50
times that we are here on TOURIST visas and we don't have to register.
Then they start trying to tell us that if we don't do it then the
police are going to come looking for us and harass us. Sure. An then
they tell us okay, let's just take you over to the police station and
we'll see how much they want you to pay. They said it would be ever
more. Us: we're TOURISTS! We don't have to go to register with the
police! Them: but there have been terrorist attacks recently and blah
blah blah. Us: We read the form when we came into the country that
said tourists do not have to register if they are there less than 6
months! Them: oh but the rules are different here than in Chennai.
Anyway, this carried on for a while until we finally agreed on the
fact that this was just money to keep the police happy and they
basically said as much. We told them that was their problem, but they
insisted we pay them. In the end we gave in and gave them Rs 50 each,
but at least this was less than the 300 they started out asking for.
We couldn't stop laughing about it later, once the annoyance had worn
off.
We had a couple of meals in the restaurant here at the hotel.
Delicious food and super super cheap. We ate lunch for a total of $9
and dinner was like half that. Mmmm. We ate lunch with our hands but
decided to resort to asking for forks at dinner.
I have to say the thing that cracks me up the most is the way they do
their little bobble head thing. I think that it is our version of
nodding in the affirmative, but it looks more like they are shaking
their head no. It cracks me up whenever they do it though.
We found the Internet cafe nextdoor tonight, after our 4 hour naps, so
we got to check email and stuff.
Oh yeah, the room. It's not bad. It has a queen size bed I think and
then we are paying extra for this little pad that they brought us for
a third bed. Pretty funny. They made us sign for it, I guess to make
sure we didn't take off with it when we leave here. ;) The AC works
fine though and there's a tv. The bathroom also is fine, though it has
a number of little bugs... just visitors I guess.
It was interesting to get a view of the area from the bus. Lot's of
people that appear to just be scraping by. It hits you how well most
people are living in the States. It also made me wonder.. what do
these people do? All of these people going from place to place,
sitting, walking, riding... I just couldn't help thinking that I have
no clue what these people do, how they live, how they put food on
their plates. Back home you pretty much know what people do more or
less, but here... I have no idea! It's a completely different life. I
guess there is a fundamental gap there. It's like you could probably
never really comprehend India and it's people unless you spent a lot
of time an were willing to live among them and do the things they do.
But what American would ever do that? We're happy with what we have,
so why bother trying to really understand how this huge bulk of
humanity lives? So we come and we look and we stare and we feel like
our eyes are opened. And they are, a little. But I feel that we are
really only scratching the surface here. And perhaps this is what
keeps us from doing more.
No comments:
Post a Comment