I ended up in Chennai!

So very suddenly I am in India! It is a funny story about how I ended up here, I was looking for somewhere warmer! But if you have been to India you may be thinking, why of all places are you in Chennai?!

Welcome to India

I am not going to write about India overall, and how different EVERYTHING is. The food, the smells, the culture, the noise! It really is an assault on the senses, and definitely a culture shock considering where I have just come from! But I could spend a whole post talking about that (maybe I will!) but I would like to tell you more about this southern, costal region I am in at the moment.

Chennai

So the reason I ended up here is again just looking for the cheapest flights when I want to leave. And I even got an upgrade on the flight this time which has never happened before! Chennai itself is not necessarily a tourist destination. It is a business hub. I had an old school friend that works out here a lot. There are not many ‘white’ people around and often I do get stared at for quite a bit. However, despite these facts, this place is absolutely lovely!

Indian Ocean

Sign to my part of the beach in Chennai

Chennai has a very busy bustling city life. But I have been staying on the coast. The beaches seem to stretch on forever and ever and there really are somedays where you walk for miles and do not see a single living soul! Which is what I like actually, it doesn’t feel touristy at all. My hotel opens right out onto the beach, the water is so warm, and I find it incredible just looking out across the Indian ocean, knowing that there is nothing else in the way for hundreds of miles. Its a feeling I haven’t felt before.

Not much else to do

I have to admit, that there isn’t a huge else to do here in Chennai. I have been to a few history museums about the navy which were fairly interesting but I felt told a biased tale. There are of course cinemas and bowling alleys around but nothing else much. and again I actually quite like that. Time to myself to just think about things, and not necessarily feel pressure to meet up with other tourists.

Temples

My favourite temple so far

Despite not having a huge amount to offer to tourists (apart from tranquility and peace) there are a huge amount of fantastic temples. Its really hard to know how old some of them are, at least a few hundreds of years I would say. There are not many signs to tell you about them, and the language barrier is quite hard. But it is really nice in a way to not know anything about these huge sculptures and temples, its nice to speculate and wonder about who, when and why they were constructed. I find that contemplation almost as spiritual as being in the holy places themselves.