Day 2

Day 2
>
> April 12, 1:46 am, Chennai
> Okay I'm counting Friday and Saturday together as day 1 since it was
> just one big travel marathon. Time zones and days melted together as
> we sat on plane after plane. Overall, I think it was about 30 hours
> of travel time, or a little under that. But we are here!
>
> The highlight of yesterday was the layover in Brussels. Neuhaus
> Belgian chocolates. Need I say more? Those who know, know. It was a
> trip down memory lane biting into those sweet morsels filled with
> soft fluffy cremes.
>
> The Brussels to Chennai flight was not too bad. A little over 9
> hours but the food was pretty good. I'm already getting excited
> about the food. Such flavors! It's exciting to put things into your
> mouth and realize that you have never experienced these flavors in
> your life. And that was just on the plane. We also had personal tv
> screens and choice of movies, which was nice. I only watched one,
> but Katherine was able to rack up 4 and a half.
>
> Walking out of Chennai airport was an experience. You're never fully
> prepared for that initial shock of... let's see... heat and humidity
> that just doesn't seem possible at midnight, then there are tons and
> tons of people standing there where you come out, waiting and
> staring and make you feel painfully aware that you stick out like a
> sore thumb. It does definitely take me back to the Philippines
> though. Smells the same, sounds the same. It's such a trip. It
> honestly felt great, made me feel very happy.
>
> We were in kind of a bad position because we didn't have anywhere
> set up for tonight and didn't really know where to go. So we were at
> their mercy. We found a guy that said he would find a place for us
> to stay and get a car to take us. We were very wary but didn't
> really know what else to do, so we said okay. We waited a while for
> the car, which he said would be free. In the end, the only catch
> seemed to be that he wanted Rs 100 for arranging it for us.
> Reasonable enough. The ride was a little scary. We seem to be in a
> pretty scary area and the streets were empty. The cows in the road
> were about the only forms of life. Thoughts started to race through
> my head. I started to think about the movie "Taken" and how this guy
> could be taking us anywhere to do anything with us. It was a little
> scary.
>
> It was a big relief when we saw the sign for Suvi and knew it was a
> real place. Thank goodness. It was even the same price the guy at
> the airport told us, so maybe not that shady afterall. We're
> probably paying more than we should be, but oh well. We have a king
> size bed (for the 3 of us) and AC and a shower, so I guess we can't
> complain too much.
>
> In the morning we'll head to the bus station and catch a bus to
> Vellore. But for now... try to catch some sleep. It's hard with all
> the excitement.
>
> 9:41 pm, Vellore
> Well it's been a fun day. I'm waiting for a computer at the Internet
> cafe right now, so I thought I'd put down some stuff while I'm
> waiting. The night was uneventful last night. It actually got pretty
> cold in our room with the AC all the way up and be fan all the way
> up. I slept pretty well, but woke up kind of early an then couldn't
> really fall back to sleep.
>
> The shower was nice and cool, which actually felt pretty good in
> that sweltering bathroom (it had a window open to the outside).
> Again, it felt like I was back in the Philippines, taking cold
> showers.
>
> We got out and had them drive us to the bus station in their car.
> Paid 300 for it... not really sure if that was a good price or not.
> It probably wasn't too bad. Once we got there this guy jumped on our
> luggage and wanted to help. They are very insistent about helping
> because they want you to pay them. He was actually quite helpful
> though. This was a pretty huge bus terminal and we would have been
> clueless as to where to go. Computer is open... more later.
>
> 11:33 pm, Vellore
> Anyway, so we managed to get all our stuff on the bus and only got
> charged one extra fare for the luggage. The trip was about 3 hours.
> It's pretty crazy driving. I had the front row seat, so I was able
> to see how many times we almost hit people or cows or other buses.
> The roads were actually not too bad as far as quality, but they are
> chaotic. There is no observance of lanes or anything like that. Just
> a lot of honking. It's funny how the cows just wander around and
> walk through the street. Apparently they have the right of way here.
>
> We talked to a nice guy on the bus who told us where we should get
> off. He then was waiting for us when we got off and was like "come
> with me, I'll show you". He took us over to the rickshaws and talked
> to someone and told us how much we should pay. It was really nice of
> him. We were talking while we walked and he saw I was from Texas so
> he started asking me about WWF wrestlers that are from Texas. Haha.
> I didn't know who he was talking about but it was funny.
>
> Amazingly, we fit all of our luggage and the three of us in one of
> these little rickshaws, which is basically a motorcycle modified to
> have a little cab on the back. It only has 1 little bench, so it was
> quite hilarious that everything could fit.
>
> We made it to the Hotel Aavana Inn without trouble and then the
> checking-in process began. Oh boy. The price was more than the CMC
> had told us it was going to be, but it was printed on their little
> flyer, so we couldn't really argue. Well, I mean, we did argue, but
> we were unsuccessful. They probably have a separate flyer that they
> give to foreigners with higher rates. It's still only costing us
> like $9 a day each though, so I don't know how much we can really
> complain. Anyway, but then they have this whole deal about
> registering with police. They ask for copies of your passport an
> visa but then they want money to process stuff with the police.
> Right. Except that we already knew that tourists don't have to
> register with the police. We argued with them for a long time about
> this and it was actually quite comical. They kept trying to tell us
> that we were students and we told them about 50 times that we are
> here on TOURIST visas and we don't have to register. Then they start
> trying to tell us that if we don't do it then the police are going
> to come looking for us and harass us. Sure. An then they tell us
> okay, let's just take you over to the police station and we'll see
> how much they want you to pay. They said it would be ever more. Us:
> we're TOURISTS! We don't have to go to register with the police!
> Them: but there have been terrorist attacks recently and blah blah
> blah. Us: We read the form when we came into the country that said
> tourists do not have to register if they are there less than 6
> months! Them: oh but the rules are different here than in Chennai.
> Anyway, this carried on for a while until we finally agreed on the
> fact that this was just money to keep the police happy and they
> basically said as much. We told them that was their problem, but
> they insisted we pay them. In the end we gave in and gave them Rs 50
> each, but at least this was less than the 300 they started out
> asking for. We couldn't stop laughing about it later, once the
> annoyance had worn off.
>
> We had a couple of meals in the restaurant here at the hotel.
> Delicious food and super super cheap. We ate lunch for a total of $9
> and dinner was like half that. Mmmm. We ate lunch with our hands but
> decided to resort to asking for forks at dinner.
>
> I have to say the thing that cracks me up the most is the way they
> do their little bobble head thing. I think that it is our version of
> nodding in the affirmative, but it looks more like they are shaking
> their head no. It cracks me up whenever they do it though.
>
> We found the Internet cafe nextdoor tonight, after our 4 hour naps,
> so we got to check email and stuff.
>
> Oh yeah, the room. It's not bad. It has a queen size bed I think and
> then we are paying extra for this little pad that they brought us
> for a third bed. Pretty funny. They made us sign for it, I guess to
> make sure we didn't take off with it when we leave here. ;) The AC
> works fine though and there's a tv. The bathroom also is fine,
> though it has a number of little bugs... just visitors I guess.
>
> It was interesting to get a view of the area from the bus. Lot's of
> people that appear to just be scraping by. It hits you how well most
> people are living in the States. It also made me wonder.. what do
> these people do? All of these people going from place to place,
> sitting, walking, riding... I just couldn't help thinking that I
> have no clue what these people do, how they live, how they put food
> on their plates. Back home you pretty much know what people do more
> or less, but here... I have no idea! It's a completely different
> life. I guess there is a fundamental gap there. It's like you could
> probably never really comprehend India and it's people unless you
> spent a lot of time an were willing to live among them and do the
> things they do. But what American would ever do that? We're happy
> with what we have, so why bother trying to really understand how
> this huge bulk of humanity lives? So we come and we look and we
> stare and we feel like our eyes are opened. And they are, a little.
> But I feel that we are really only scratching the surface here. And
> perhaps this is what keeps us from doing more.