And now, after far too many blog posts, I am almost caught up to today. I am in India. My arrival was really smooth. I am staying at a 5 star hotel with my friend Colin from Seattle who is here on business. My plane got in early and Colin had the hotel send a car to pick me up. It was really nice to not have to worry about it! The hotel is huge and very comfortable but not really my scene. It’s weird to be in such a ritzy place in India.
My first day I went to the ATM which involved crossing a Cairo like street only this time with buses, trucks, cars, motorcycles, bikes and Oxen pulling carts (of course!). I then took a rickshaw (a little three wheeled motorized cart type thing) to Mylapore temple to just get out in the streets and see what it was all about. Its nuts, that’s for sure. It’s crowded and loud but its also colorful and alive. I got to the temple, let my driver go (he was charging me far too much) and walked through the temple barefoot (cause you have to). Another rickshaw driver talked to me and offered me a good price to go to St Thomas Basilica and the beach and back to the hotel so I took him up on it. His name was Raju. The Basilica was very strange after being in a Hindu temple but still interesting and the beach is the 2nd widest (from the start of the sand to the water) in the world. I put my feet in the Indian Ocean and it was warm.
Colin has to work from 10am to 7pm so we don’t get that much time together while I am here, so the next morning we got up early and called Raju who took us to the temple and beach again for Colin to see. It was a nice morning. I stayed in the rest of the day to recoup some more. I can’t seem to shake this cold. Colin and I had dinner in the hotel restaurant.
And today I went with my rickshaw driver again but this time for a long journey to Mamallapuram. I went to a crocodile farm, and a ton of temples. They were really amazing to see but I have to say, I am still feeling a little over temples from Egypt. I am glad I saw them but I don’t think I need to do any more of that while I am here. After a 6 hour trip all over the place, I got back to the hotel to get my stuff together for the tip to the beach tomorrow.
Now is when I really start the introspective part of my trip so the blog entries are going to slow (if not stop for a while). Thank you for reading all the way though these…I hope you are still enjoying the journey.
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