Good bye, India. i woke up in the morning feeling excited. i am going back to the modern, clean and real world today!
i took my breakfast and then called Mathieu. We didn't talk very long, as i thought the phone call will cost me a few hundred rupee and i need to keep some rupee for my subsequent transportation fees. However in the end, the call was merely 60 Rs, well, i think this is quite dirt cheap.
i did my final shopping to use up all my rupee. By noon, i took the auto rickshaw to the train station, boarded my train and arrived at Chennai 7 hours later at 9pm.
Obviously the auto-riskshaw drive knew that the tourist will have extra rupee to give away, so they were eager to take me to the airport. The fare was supposed to be 165 Rs, but i gave him 200 Rs to finish off my rupee. Unfortunately, the flight got a delay for more than one hour and i was hungry but i have no rupee to buy food. :) (They don't take US dollar, not to mention Singapore dollar.)
i would say that, it got one last "Incredible India" experience. i now reaslised that my arrival to India 3 months ago was at the basic domestic airport as the flight got a transit at Trichy. So i am pretty much surprised with this modern, clean and air-conditioned international airport. However this modern airport immigration needs more than 2 hours for immigration clearance! I think every depature tourists will remember the bureaucracy and inefficiency.
i am very happy to finally leave here. i don't see how myself will come back in the near future. May be, one day, i will go back to India again, but i would definitely don't want to come back to India alone. The country has much to offer, but dealing with the people here is just too much for me.
O Reeva, India! May be we will 'see' again!
My train from Bangalore to Chennai.
I don't like Chennai, so i don't want to stay a night there. That is why i purposely took the flight at 2am, so that i can leave Bangalore in the noon and get to Chennai airport as soon as i arrived at Chennai Central Railway Station at night.
Meter of long queue waiting for immigration clearance.
A young Indian lady trying to cut my queue and i politely asked her: "Madam, are you cutting my queue?" She then 'gracefully' go behind of me and cut the queue of the Indian man. The Indian man is normally kind of 'gentleman' to let lady first. :)
6 comments:
Hey, i am happy for you that you feel contented and pleasant with the place you are staying.
Stop acting like a rude and impulsive bloke, i do not take any of your abusive words.
Enjoy your city and try to be open to people's views.
I came across your blog while searching for some photos of Chennai, my hometown. It was a very interesting and refreshingly candid report. I'm sick of foreigners feigning admiration for India, while in reality most of them are only trying to hide their pity. Your blog was very honest and I wish more Indians would try to travel outside and learn to see India objectively thereafter. It's still a great country, but not nearly as perfect as some would pretend it to be. It's a pity that you didn't get to see the more hospitable side of Indians, but I'm glad you still found many things to appreciate in India and I am sure the experience has made your life richer.
i went to India with a very romantic feelings or thoughts about India. May be that was why i got such a big cultural shock. India is incredible, despite some of my unpleasant experiences (one of them was nearly been robbed), i would still say India is very worth to visit. Full with lives, real and different.
May be i did not manage to put all my India trip diaries in my blog (i travelled very extensively in the past one year), but i do remember the kind Indian man in Bombay who gave up his seat to me in a scorching hot and jam packed bus, the concerned Indian lady boss at the internet shop of New Delhi who advised me not to wandering around by myself when it gets dark, the Indian family who escorted me at a remote areas of Hampi ...
When i was working in Singapore, many of my colleagues are from Chennai. They too can't believe my experiences in Chennai. Deep down, i do know that, my short encounter in Chennai didn't tell me too much about the city itself.
Well... but first impression counts and it is not easy to over pass that. :)
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