Chennai Wait Listing
Chennai, by smurphy
I’m in Chennai, which feels like Pettah, but somehow everything feels like Pettah. It’s a big town, big highways, big buildings, imposing offices. Walking around, it also smells a bit like pee. Around the train station at least. I really regret wearing shoes, and packing my things in a handbag. Now I’m walking around this strange town with duty free bags, wearing white trainers. And nobody speaks English.
That said, I got lost and found this Samsung Solar Guru phone which I’ve been looking for since it came out. It is solar powered, not fully, but I think enough for a few calls on vacay. It’s the correct price, and I think it’s real, so I got one. Plus those guys walked me to this Internet Cafe. What they seem to call an Internet Provisioning Center. Some backpackers are sitting next to me speaking some language I don’t understand. Polish?
This is only a cursory impression, but is damn big and cludgy, but I suspect it works. The Indian Rail website for example, is not the prettiest 2.0 machine around, but it has sorted me out. I registered there, checked available trains, chose one, booked it and then – chagrin – I was waitlisted, so I was like WTF. I read about this on India Mike and apparently they overbook. So I took it anyway, paid with my credit card through Axis Bank and I’m walking around with a printout.
Luckily I can check the waitlist status online, which I’m doing here, above this dusty, hot street where few people understand what I even mean by Internet. And I’ve got a seat, which means I’m getting the effa out of Chennai.
Today on the 
Janith has updated 
This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like 
Sri Lankan domestics never say anything, they just stop coming. My maid just stopped coming and when I finally pressed her she said I needed to get a washing machine. I was hoping to ride this one out, but I’ve run out of underwear and I have no choice. I finally caved and bought a washing machine, from 
chennai ain’t so bad…the imax theatres are awesome, so is the cheese popcorn and the nachos! you’ve probably stumbled onto the yucky part of it…the ‘posher’ side of chennai is quite pretty, smells nice and has great, great food! =] go to the crocodile place – if you’re into crocs that is… =]
Where’s the Ladies Hostel? Inside THAT building?
Sorry to be a pain, but what exactly was “damn big and cludgy”? The phone? The city? The country? The Internet Provisioning Centre? The Indian Railways website? The Polish language?
Chennai has its nicer areas check out amethyst coffee shop if u got time
Tolds ya (actually I was telling jcnars) Chennai was a stinkhole. Looks like nothing has changed; it’s filthy, dirty, crowded and makes Colombo look almost like Singapore. Beware of that huge open sewer that runs through the city, and the piles of human faeces that dot the place. It smells like piss because people actually piss on the streets, on the walls, on the ground, you name it. Marina beach is another hell hole. After the recent Thai Pongal it is probably a rubbish dump stinking to high heaven. Incredible India indeed.
go to citycentre man.. i had a very very negative image about chennai until quite recently. but it all changed last time cause i only went to the posher areas. royapet, anna nagar, etc. And BTW DONT go to renganathan street, u just have to enter the street and u will automatically reach the other end of the street by the sweating crowd pushing you. with regard to language, u should have taken a tamil or muslim friend(who speaks tamil), and now u are gonna get ripped off if u havent been already. hope u dont lose too much.:)