"On the Trail"
Friday, July 27, 2001: Traffic, new friends, and dripping elbows. - Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India (Penny)
Penny here,
The next morning, after a good snooze, we went to get some food and cash for the trip. To get to the bank we got to take my favorite mode of transportation, the auto rickshaw. It is like a three-wheeled motorcycle with a yellow cage around it and a seat in the back for passengers. They can zip around through traffic like you wouldn't believe. At first it seemed that there was no order to the chaos of the city traffic, but with a closer look, there was organization, in a way. There were traffic lights changing (observed
some of the time) and in many intersections a traffic cop was directing traffic with whistle and white gloves. But with all this organization, this did not look like a very nice place to ride my bike.Of course this is from a totally different perspective than the locals would have. I am used to a nice shoulder, and sometimes even a bike lane. To grasp the whole sense of the scene you really have to be here, but here are a few things I noticed from this and past trips to India: The biggest vehicle gets the right of way. The bigger you are, the bigger horn you have (some are EXTREMELY loud). Cows are a normal part of the scenery and are for the most part ignored even as they lounge and graze on the divider of a highway.
After our adventure on the roads of Chennai, we headed for a restaurant recommended for its South Indian rice meal, the Doveton Cafe. For 17 rupees (around 40 cents) you get as much rice and sauces as you could eat. Of course, to make it truly a rice meal, it is served on the traditional banana leaf plate. Yum! We seemed to be the main attraction in the restaurant, so we had lots of service, with about 5-10 of the workers watching us.
We headed back to meet the Iswariahs again, and then went to find an internet cafe. These cafes seemed to be very common in the city (a change from even 3 years ago). I felt spoiled when we walked into an air-conditioned room and we each had our own computer connection!! Tad got to catch up on some web work, and I got to email my family, and a few friends. Fun Fun!!
Later that afternoon we went to call home. It was in this small sauna-like glass booth inside a roadside tea stand. I went in there with Tad so we could both talk. Soon, I felt this drip, drip, drip. I had no I idea what was leaking so I looked up to find the dripping coming off of Tad's elbow. I thought, "Ok, it's just sweat. It's not that gross, Penny, come on." When the drips began to flow more like a very leaky faucet, I decided to talk to mom and dad very fast and get out. Later we laughed about it, but at the time MAN,
WAS IT HOT!!!The hotel was a nice place to crash for the afternoon. Later we had some dinner and hit the hay.
Penny
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