Back in India...
Thankfully, just about. The journey to the airport was far more stressful than was needed, but we landed in Chennai airport, and that's all that matters. Thankfully no hitches with Dani entering on her second visa either, so all went swimmingly post-flight.
We spent our last night together at 5* apart-hotel Citadines OMR, in Shogallangur, an area south of Chennai city centre. Mentioned on the "Finance/budget" blog post, this worked out to only be ~€33, and is something we probably didn't make enough use of in India. There's not many places where you can stay somewhere as nice as Citadines was, for that sort of money.
Unfortunately as we had got there in the evening time, and Dani was off to the airport again the very next morning, we weren't able to take full advantage of the above pictured rooftop infinity pool. We did, however, take full advantage of the breakfast:
So there it is, Dani is in Goa for the next 3.5 weeks, while Stu carries on with his own adventure. So at this point, it'll by myself (Stu), writing again. Dani hopes to be able to get a paragraph in covering her experience of the YTT course, but with no laptop it might be difficult, we'll wait and hope!
But yes, I again made the taxi trip back to the hotel, and made good use of the midday check-out time, fitting in a dip in the pool, and staying back in the lobby to print out my itinerary/documents for China, which are required to obtain your visa.
Once I'd felt it'd be awkward if I stayed any longer, I headed off to my hostel for the next two nights, Red Lollipop Hostel. It's based in central Chennai, and the journey there wasn't the most pleasant. Beggars, and tuk-tuk drivers quoting extortionate prices, is I suppose the positive thing that we missed out on by not staying at 5* hotels. I was swarmed with them though. And central Chennai itself was fairly rough around the edges too. Not off to a flying start on my lonesome.
The hostel was grand enough, nothing special either. The "walking tour" they brought us on that evening was even worse. A tour guide from the hostel brought us to one temple and two churches, and didn't explain much about either:
Old reliable - went to a cafe rated well on Google and the likes, The Brew Room, which gave me a bit of headspace to try and figure out what on Earth was going on with Chennai.
Currently Listening to:
We spent our last night together at 5* apart-hotel Citadines OMR, in Shogallangur, an area south of Chennai city centre. Mentioned on the "Finance/budget" blog post, this worked out to only be ~€33, and is something we probably didn't make enough use of in India. There's not many places where you can stay somewhere as nice as Citadines was, for that sort of money.
Unfortunately as we had got there in the evening time, and Dani was off to the airport again the very next morning, we weren't able to take full advantage of the above pictured rooftop infinity pool. We did, however, take full advantage of the breakfast:
Before getting back into a taxi for the reverse of the journey we'd made the evening before, and get Dani on her way to Goa, to start her yoga teacher training course:
But yes, I again made the taxi trip back to the hotel, and made good use of the midday check-out time, fitting in a dip in the pool, and staying back in the lobby to print out my itinerary/documents for China, which are required to obtain your visa.
Once I'd felt it'd be awkward if I stayed any longer, I headed off to my hostel for the next two nights, Red Lollipop Hostel. It's based in central Chennai, and the journey there wasn't the most pleasant. Beggars, and tuk-tuk drivers quoting extortionate prices, is I suppose the positive thing that we missed out on by not staying at 5* hotels. I was swarmed with them though. And central Chennai itself was fairly rough around the edges too. Not off to a flying start on my lonesome.
The hostel was grand enough, nothing special either. The "walking tour" they brought us on that evening was even worse. A tour guide from the hostel brought us to one temple and two churches, and didn't explain much about either:
Before bringing us to a packed windy beach, and one of the worst bars I've ever been to, which before we got there had 100% male clientele sitting in pretty much darkness.
Party central in Chennai
So you can put it down that day one on my own wasn't the greatest experience I've had so far on this trip. I'd probably say the worst in all honesty, it was the first place that I felt hassled, a little bit unsafe, and really noticed the divide between the wealthy part and the poorer part.
It didn't leave me feeling too great about Chennai, so when waking up the next day it left me at a bit of a loss of what to do.Old reliable - went to a cafe rated well on Google and the likes, The Brew Room, which gave me a bit of headspace to try and figure out what on Earth was going on with Chennai.
Here I cracked the code - my hostel was just in a very rough area. Cheers Hostelworld reviews (if backpacking here, stay at the lesser rated Zostel). There wasn't too much jumping out at me as a good way to spend my last day here, but one thing nearby was an American-style mall, which I wouldn't usually seek out - especially in India, where the wealth divide can be so visually apparent. They did however, have a bowling alley, so I made an exception.
As you can see, it is quite massive/luxurious, so again - very different to the part near my hostel. It wasn't the nicest way to spend my first days on my own, I did struggle a bit with appraising a few things in Chennai/Indian society, which I didn't have come up before. I did get 4 strikes in a row in my first game of bowling, so that was a slight positive, I suppose. I also bought a new phone, to add to my sense of unease about the wealth divide even more. Next stop is Kolkata, which I'd heard is worse.
I'll try and update you on how I got on there, but taking on the Great Firewall of China (as you can see from Polarsteps, is where I currently am) on a Chromebook has proven very difficult, so being able to type large amounts won't be fun.
Happy (early) Paddy's Day to everyone at home!
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