Chennai

Well, I got confirmed on the train and here I am after a 23 hour journey. It's not as bad as you think it would be. I treated myself to Air con so you've got a proper bed sheets, blankets, pillow. There was an Indian family either side of me and they were great. Also there was what they call a pantry car. (This trains whole journey was over 50 hours). This means that they come round and take orders for hot meals for pennies. Every hour they come round with hot Indian snacks. You can hear them shouting but I don't understand half of it. BUT! You can smell it like when someone opens a bag of chips. I kept eating whatever they brought round. At one time I had two huge samosas that were burning my fingers and they were 11/- about 14p.
I won't be on a train for a while now.
I realised this morning that I've really shifted south. It got light over half an hour later today than it did yesterday. And it's hot. Not really hot but humid the type that makes it hard to breathe. I was sat outside the station this morning drinking chai waiting for the world to waken up because I hadn't booked a hotel. I got my first choice no bother and it's only 200/- with cable TV. So I'll do my usual Saturday and get a couple of bottles of beer and sit and watch a good film.
I was temted to skip this place all together. The Rough Guide and the Lonely planet both say very little about this city. Other people have said that there isn't much here and I believe them now. I've had a wander round the beach which is dirty and hot and I've been to the fort museum which was crap so I went for lunch. A huge chicken biryiani and a bottle of lemonade for under 50p.
Tmorrow I'm bussing it to the seaside town of Mamallapuram which is further south in Tamil Nadu and still on the Bay of Bengal. After that I'm going to Pondicherry which is apparently more French than anything else. Not too many miles over the next week I think I've done enough this week. I'm just going to enjoy the beaches. Probably this time next week I'll be stood on the very southern tip of India which I think I remember is called Kanniyakamara or something. (If you look on a map it's at the bottom!). Off now to force a thali down me before I get a beer and lie naked under the fan going a million miles an hour!
Now there's an image for you!!!!!!!