Chennai Weekend (Part One)

This weekend we had yet another holiday. Monday the 26th of January was India's Republic (Independence) Day- therefore no class. Nina and I decided it was about time to get out of Hyderabad and doing some Indian exploring. It's starting to turn out that nothing in India never works as planned, which this time made for the best weekend so far.

We began our journey on Thursday afternoon. To make sure we caught our 7pm train in Secunderabad we left campus extra early with lots of time to spare. So we thought. But then the Indian obstacles jump in... like sickness, missing the first connecting train, and then getting on the slowest rickshaw in town to make sure to get to the Secunderabad station on time. Moments before we finally got to the station our train departed, without us, of course. I was not surprised. I was already learning to never count on Indian transportation. Since it was a holiday weekend and we had booked our tickets way ahead of time we knew that there would be no tickets available for any later trains to Chennai that day, so we thought maybe we could try to just get a ticket anywhere. So we got in the ladies ticket line thinking it would be easy. That was an experience of its own. It's a madhouse sort of line. Everyone is yelling and pushing and crazy! Long story short- we got no new ticket and returned to campus for the night.

The next morning we headed back to Secunderabad to see what we could do about getting a ticket. After talking to some special official people (who were excited to talk about Obama when they found out we were from the US) we got hooked up with some tickets and were finally on our way Chennai. We found our seats in the sleeper class and got settled. The Indian boys surrounded us and took turns sitting next to and staring at us throughout the ride. Tourists (white folk) are just not common in the Hyderabad area. After a long, cold, 13 hour ride we made it! We got off the train and were bombarded by rickshaw drivers trying to give us a ride. So we stepped into a little breakfast place and had delicious masala dosas. After breakfast we dropped out bags off at our hostel and went exploring.

The first place we went was a part of town called Mylapore. In Mylapore we visited the very elaborate and beautiful Kapaleashwarar Temple, pictured below:


The rest of the day was spent somewhat lazily, as we were so tired from the train ride. We spent part of the day napping and most of the rest of it on Marina Beach (on the Bay of Bengal), the 2nd longest city beach in the world. It's so different to be on a beach on a very hot day and see hardly anyone swimming. For the few swimmers their swimwear included tighty-whities for the guys and saris/skirts for the ladies.


We happened to be in Chennai during a big arts and music festival that was going on at one of the universities. There was a DJ from London (DJ Rekha) who Nina had been wanting to see for a while that was playing the festival that evening- for free! So we went to the festival and got in the intense search line. They tried to confiscate Nina's malaria pills. And water was not allowed inside- and there was none for sale inside. We had to lie about having cameras because they would've taken them too. We walked into to some crazy Indian metal band playing. They finished and it was time for DJ Rekha. Her music is sort of a mix of hip hop and Bhangra music, and lots of fun! Almost only males were dancing, but we decided that we would ignore the stares and dance anyway. And it was so much fun! Some of the Indian boys tried to teach us some dances, but that didn't work too well. I got a little video clip of some Indian fellas dancing. Since cameras weren't allowed I hid it, so it's not quality, and definitely did not capture the awesome dancing we saw, but gives you an idea. Enjoy.



Since it was such an eventful weekend and I have so much more to say, I'm breaking this story into parts. So this is the end of part one. Chennai Weekend blog, to be continued...