As expected, it’s not much of a traditional tourist town. I stayed mostly to get acclimatized to India (and of course, my flight landed here, as I wanted to start in south India). Two full days (and a half morning) was more than enough, and the pollution was getting to me (sore throat); of course, … Continue reading Highlights of Chennai
Map of my India trip note that some town names in my “flags” will have slightly different spelling (due to new and old names), but if it sounds close, it’s the same Here is the list of places I visited (with state name for the first time entering a state): Chennai, Tamil Nadu Mamallapuram Pondy … Continue reading Map of India and my stops
You may have noticed in some photos that I’m wearing a wood (sandalwood? rosewood?) bead necklace… I bought it in from a girl on the street in Chennai (surely overpaid at Rs20/$0.50) hoping that would deter further bead necklace salespeople – but I fear it probably had the opposite effect, as in this tourist was … Continue reading What’s up with the wood bead necklace?
Pondy has a split personality: the one side (closest to the ocean) has a French heritage, with wide tree-lined streets (nice shade!), with little traffic, French street names (even using “rue” instead of road ), a central park with big trees for shade, and quite clean; the other side of the canal (away from the ocean) is typical Indian. … Continue reading Highlights of Pondy (Pondicherry, now Puducherry)
About 60km south of Chennai, the World Heritage village of Mamallapuram (pop 12,000) was more laid back and more touristy but definitely worth a stop. I ended up taking an auto-rickshaw (tuk-tuk) to here from Chennai, Rs680/$17 to avoid the (scary, unknown) hassle of taking a long distance bus (plus avoiding a ride out to the Chennai … Continue reading Highlights of Mamallapuram
I arrived in Mamallapuram, about 75km south of Chennai and half way to Pondi (Puducherry (Pondicherry)), which is where I’m heading tomorrow. 2 days was certainly enough in Chennai I seem to have a sore throat, sniffles… a cold! And I went to bed at 21:00 each of the last two nights, I was soooo tired, … Continue reading Quick update from Mamallapuram
My flights via Brussels on Jet Airways were good, and thankfully not full! Despite landing at 1am and making it to bed in my little hotel room in Triplicane (a part of Chennai) by 3am, I woke up 6 hours later and feel pretty good. During the flight, I finally did some more trip planning (most of the … Continue reading First day in India!
What a temperature change this will be: from a hi/lo of -7/-12°C (feels like -14 with the windchill!) in Toronto to a hi/lo of 30/22°C in Chennai, in the southeast of India. You can check out weather in Chennai, India at weather underground. I still haven’t planned much, but now I’m considering flying to the … Continue reading Leaving for the airport in an just over an hour