Chaotic, noisy and loud - so finally managed to get connect to the internet here in our hotel, so let me fast try to recap what has happened over the last so-what 12 hours, i landing in Chennai, after a fairly nice flight, not to many problems besides those i already mentioned.. we (a colleague of mine and i) wait for roughly 30 min for our luggage so we can finally leave the airport, and right at that time it strikes me how "sweet" the smell is, i mean incredibly sweet, i mean sooooo sweet that it just goes to your head! Anyways we come out to be greeted with flowers and big smiles, and fast get introduced to two more colleagues (Arnaud and Christian) the rush off to what is a 30 year old caravan that would eventually take us to our hotel. - Now in the meanwhile i must have been looked upon by at least a 100 Indians, as i stand a bit out in the crowd here (blond and blue eyes...) - okay interesting, not a big thing, but what really got me - was the fact that i though i would be killed by rickshaws and cars, WOW they are so close to you - i mean they are really really close to you, i felt the wind-shield touch my arm at least a couple of times.. - how insane is this, they are fast, close, chaotic, noisy, loud yet the funniest thing came to my mind, there are no accidents, that is no stress, there are no frustrations ... HANG ON now so they drive like crazy, honking their horns all the time, in and out of lanes (that barely exists) break, gas, break, gas, honk the horn, break and some more gas... - and there are no accidents - yupp nothing, nula, nada... - and what is worse (or better not sure yet) is that nobody seem to be concerned with time or the noise level ... and for sure nobody i have seen till now has shown the slightest sign of stress or frustrations ---- impressive ...
Okay so i have been here for less than 24 hours, what do i know right, well let me give you another example, so after not being able to fall asleep this morning (thanks to some wild dogs outside - seriously i mean some wild dogs..) i got up fairly early, did a bit of work-out in my room (yes believe it or not - i actually have a work-out program with me here...laugh if you must), then down (i should rather say up) for some breakfast, two slices of toast with jam (hhmm how original), back in my room and a bit of internet, a shower (bare in mind the water boiler is plug and play with electricity..) oh boy was i wrong, all of a sudden - bingo, off goes the electricity in the whole building .. - we foreigners start to wonder when it doesnt come back on after a couple of min. we go to ask at the reception - and the answer is "its normal sir, it will come back on at 11.00".. needless to say i found that answer somewhat interesting - how do you know it comes on at 11.00 ? well experience i guess, at 10.56, guess what - back comes the electricity .. and the receptionist looks at us, smiles and says "i told you so"... yes sir, that you did... :-))
Okay another story that just happened now - was that me and 4 other guys would of course like to have a proper welcome drink so we decided to go and buy some beers (dont start thinking we bought anything but beer - we didnt ... only beers!!) unfortunately for us - you cant just buy beers in any shop on every corner, so we did the only thing you should never do, when you have been less that 24 hours in India, we hopped on a rickshaw and off we went (we didnt even bother to negotiate the price of 150 rupees - is a lot for that trip and back, but oh well) .. But let me tell you one thing - i would gladly give 200 rupees for that experience WOW - that was soo cool, to see Chennai from a rickshaw, to feel that gas - break and gas approach, honking the horn all the time, waiting for the traffic light to change, signalling left or right with your hands, to be so close to cars, and people, other rickshaws, seriously that was such a cool experience, and i cant wait for the next ride - which i hope will be tomorrow :-))
...my friends - till our next time, i am off to try some local beer .. - stay safe..