Chennai

The capital of my current state was a fun-filled shopping experience for the most part. Chennai is famous for it's great shops and, guided by my hosts, I took full advantage. Less interested in the multi-story fashion designer shops that my Indian friends seemed to love, I was more interested in the grungy Mint Street. It is located in the old part of Chennai (earlier named Madras) and somewhat difficult to find, even for people who have been living in the city for upwards of 25 years. The dirty narrow streets filled with cows, trash, and tiny little shops didn't much appeal to them, but I was in heaven. I loved every smell, every honk (well not every one), every small vegetable cart, and every street that was too small for anything wider than a bicycle rickshaw. We spent 3 or 4 hours looking in dozens of jewelry shops- both real and fake pieces- and later progressed down to clothing and material. I bought a saree that was so beautiful and different I couldn't live without; it is turquoise with gold, green, and red border and designs. I love it! It was more fun just to see the place than to buy anything, and I will never forget that experience.

On day 2 we visited a small temple built on the beach in the 7th century. It was standing perfectly well, but the carvings had been eroded away by the sand and sea air. There used to be seven other temples in that area, but they are all underwater now. In Chennai the weather is so hot that people usually don't go out of the house between one and five, but we were kind of stuck so we shopped around for another few hours before going to the next temple. When we got to this one, it had just closed but we got a private tour from a guy who was selling handicrafts nearby. It was great to see the place in the sunset without the crowd. The dozen or so goats walking around near the temple was crowd enough. The driver, who had come with us, liked talking to the goats by making some weird goat-like noise. After our little tour, we went to a restaurant where we were served with dosa (like a crepe made out of rice) that were HUGE! Picture to the right -->

The last day was the most exhausting. We woke up at five thirty to go to the 2d largest beach in the world, Marina Beach. After the slow beginning it was really an experience for me to run alongside the waves in bare feet and see exactly the kind of gross things that are littered on this large, very public beach. Full of trash, although there were trash cans and people cleaning the beach, random religious offerings, poor fishermen sleeping on the upper side, and worst of all it was used as a bathroom for dogs, monkeys, humans, you name it. I chose not to swim. As it was explained to me, the government has built nice housing for many of the homeless and people who live in slums, but they choose to live on the beach because here they can try to at least make a living via fishing. The afternoon was occupied by visiting a kind of outside museum which I forget the name of right now. It showed different housing styles for the different southern states of India, and it was interesting to see how different they were. There were little crafts at each place, like pottery, basket weaving, etc. At the entrance/exit there was a small area for people who had come from small villages to come sell their handicrafts. Some were the same old same old, but some of them were really original and impressive. In fact the first guy we came to made mats out of dried and treated banana leaves which he cut a design into and then inked over to make a picture. I can't explain it very well, but there is a picture. All of these artisans had either made the things themselves, or they were made by their close family. "Madam this was made by my mother last week".

Exhausted, my host mom's good friend who took me and I, boarded our flight back to Coimbatore. It was a very tiring and busy trip to Chennai, but I loved it. Next time I will wait until the winter months though, so I don't have to run to the A/C every half hour. The city itself was pretty similar to Coimbatore, but much larger and busier. I came back and immediately got many more offers to travel with families to other parts of India. So glad I am able to be here with all these wonderful people!