Bangalore-Chennai-Singapore: 24Aug07

End of my Holiday...

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. :)

Bhuneswar-Chennai,India -20Aug07

My Last Long Long Train Ride

* This keyboard has problem with "h". So if i do not hit the keyboard hard enough, the 'H' will be missing. !#$%^*&(&%

One whole day of train. My last long train ride in India. Like usual, food and books. "Picnic" at my upper berth.
There is a family from Bangladesh sharing the cabin with me. Te grandson said the grandpa is going to Bangalore for a bypass operation. it took them 3 days by bus and train to go to Bangalore from Bangladesh! The grandson later invited me to stay with them, but i said i am meeting my husband. :P
During this boring and trapped almost 22 hours of train ride, i have finished 3 books! One book is about the life of the Muslim women in India. It makes me feel that, many Indian muslim women is the victim of men intepretated Islam. Not allowed to go out alone or go out from the house without chaperon means the woman is not pure. Of course they are some women who go against this, but with great hard time from the society and even her own family. The other book is about Kumari, the living goddess in Nepal. Interesting story about how a gril living as or worshipped as the living goddess for 8 years and eventually or inevitably go back to her own family and live as a mortal again. Some of her stories especially in school reminded me of my time from Primary school until university. The other book is about Vippassana meditation, a book which teach us to be happy. :)
i also recalled that, when i first arrive in India, i won't eat anything that people sell in the train. i am always sceptical wit te hygien issue. But now, i would look forward to see what i could eat! Someone took an airconditioning coach told me that, they have guards for AC coach and food is included in the inflated ticket price. Of course in tis case, it is safer as no people other than the passengers with ticket is allow to go inside to the cabin. However i would think, they actually miss the fun of people shouting, "Chai, Chai, Chai!" (Tea) or "Samosa, Samosa!"
Back home, it is impossible for me to buy food wrapped in newspaper. But in India, this is a norm. i am now eating peanuts, samosa, pakoda and whatever in newspaper 'container'.
May be one of the reasons that people should come to India is to let you yourself realised that, while you have many choices in your life, but many are not as fortunate as you to have an option.



Indian Railway, Sleeper Class. The train ride from Bhuneswar to Chennai. It was so long and everyone got so bored that most of the people just sleep. i got an upper berth.

Chennai-My Sore, India: 30May07

Oh, Chennai ...

i visited the museum, high court and St George Fort. Nothing really impressive but wandering around the building of high court was kind of 'interesting'. i don't think one is allowed to do so in Malaysia or Singapore. The architectual of the buildings are beautiful. Somehow almost all buildings and train stations (you have to say railway station as nobody i asked would know what is train station) look like a mosque. There are a fair share of Muslim community.

i went to T. Nagar to shop, trying to buy a Indian Salwar Kalmeez. Tried a few but never managed to get any. Other look too colorful and too much "indian" to me. i would prefer something more plain and could just fit me without any extra alteration. All shops said, alteration could be done in just 20 minutes, which i am not sure i trust them. All shops are run by male and just every few have female shopkeeper. In a way, this is making me feel uncomfortable too.

There seems to have a lof of digging, construction and renovation all around the town. The traffic is almost like in Vietnam but less in motorbikes and more in cow carriage or cart. i had grabbed the orientation in the city now and i just followed to local for the short cut from Egmore train station to my guest house.

The central train station in Georgetown was like a picnic scene. One Indian girl told me that it is the two months summer holiday (April and May, ended on 4 June), so there are many people traveling around. People just put mat on the floor (some without) and sleep there while waiting for the train. i got a sleeper train to My Sore and shared my compartment with two families. This made me felt more released on regards to the safety.

Cost: SGD 26



The beautiful yet crowded Egmore Railway Station.



The 'picnic' scene at Central Railway Station.



The British-built buildings are now the Government Musuem.



This beautiful red structure, High Court, is said to be the largest judicial building in the world after the Courts London.

Chennai, India - 29May07

First Time, First Day India

My first ripped off in India was i paid 400 Rs from the airport to the guest house at Egmore. Later, i further found out that to many merchants and autorishaw drivers, tourists are just walking wallets. They would not rob you or snag your wallet but cheating you in this way and other are just kind of 'nothing wrong' and 'not' God damn.

You are about to read tonnes of things that i could 'complaint' about Chennai. Skipped this if you don't want to read my grumbling.

After roaming around the city, i decided that, i couldn't like Chennai at all. The people is unfriendly and unhelpful. The city is a combination of noise, dirt, urine smell, beggars, handicapped and people who treated you as walking ATM. The autorishaw drivers are so determined to overcharge you that their left no room of negotiation. If there is anything that i like about this city, then may be it is the conveniency for me to find vegetarian food.

Chennai has no city centre. The area is so extensive that one just couldn't walk to everywhere. When i walked on the street, people from children to women to men, stare at me from head to toes for 3 minutes! It was really uncomfortable.

i shared a dorm with a German guy. He was leaving to go back home after 4 months in South India. We chatted a bit and he shared me some of his experience. There was a group of Indian young guys from the other province who have just found a job in Chennai. They were staying in the next dorm. ALL of them were so curious about EVERYTHING about two of us. For some of the things such as Education level, i really don't see how this could be related to them at all.

The first day in India or Chennai basically had do a fair share to drain up some of my energy. i remember some people commented that Vietnam is difficult to travel. But if compare with India, Vietnam is just one over ten of difficulties. i have never found Vietnam 'consuming' my energy at all.

Cost: SGD 262 including flight, AirIndia Express.



This 13km sandy stretch of Marina Beach is the most disgusting and gross beach that i have ever visited in my whole life! The sand is the mixture of all kind of rubbish and waste and yet people walking bare feet in it. It was summer holiday when i was there and it was very crowded with so many people and hawkers there. The sea water is murky with floating rubbish.



The sunset at Marina Beach. The beach was the scene of devastation after the 2004 tsunami, when fishing shanties lining the foreshore were inundated.