#iisac

In my driving post, I mentioned that driving in India is crazy. 

I forgot to mention, however, that everyone here is good at it. I've seen less accidents here than in the US, which I think is because people know they have to really concentrate on what they're doing... so they do. 

Checken.

So I went to Chennai two weekends ago. 

Shamelessly copied directly from Wikipedia: 

Chennai ([ˈtɕennəj]), formerly known as Madras ([mæˈdrəs]) or Madrasapattinam), is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, it is a major commercial, cultural, and educational centre in South India, while the port of Chennai is the second largest port in India. As of 2011 census, the city had 4.6 million residents making it the sixth most populous city in India; the urban agglomeration, which comprises the city and its suburbs, was home to approximately 8.9 million, making it the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the country. As a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Chennai confronts substantial urban pollution, traffic congestion, poverty, overpopulation, and other logistic and socioeconomic problems.

We only went for a two day/one night trip, but it was a blast. We hired a car to drive us the three hours from Pondicherry (henceforth to be known as Pondy in this post) to Chennai. Windows were down and loud Indian music bumped us the whole way along the East Coast Road. There's not too much to stare at besides brief flashes of ocean, signs for prawn farms and a giant salt field. That was enough for me, though. I gawked out the window the whole time. 

Here's a teeny little bit of what the area around where we stayed looked like:

p.s One thing about Chennai is that it is GRIMY. Like, full-on clouds of smog and gray buildings from pollution. Still, I liked it.

We pulled up to our pretty swanky hotel (for a 3 star, it was awesome) - Hotel Priyadarshini (p.s. if anyone ever travels to Chennai, I highly recommend it). Everyone that worked there was super nice. Like, above and beyond call-of-duty Nice. 

The rooms are nice too (and they have TOILET PAPER). 

After relaxing for a bit, we took off to hit a pretty swag gigantic bookstore called Higginbotham's, which I believe is a left over from Raj-era India.

And then we shopped. and shopped. and shopped. Pretty much all we did that afternoon was shop and have dinner on the rooftop of our hotel where they were playing Indian music videos from a projector.

Most notably, this one: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=924-AQzyZaA

Go on, watch it. It's worth it.

After dinner, we dropped Robyn off at her room and Kristin, Kati and I ventured into the subterranean bar of our hotel called the "Submarine Lounge".

 Incidentally, this is the description of the bar from the hotel website:

I love India.

Anyway, being the only white people and the only women, to say we were stared at would be an understatement. Luckily, the man who owns the bar is super nice and had saved us a table in the back corner of the place. He kind of looked like a 70s pit boss in a matador jacket, and his mustache was the lord of all the mustaches. Lesser mustaches would quiver in fear as he walked past. 

I drew you a diagram with my animation skills. 

The sight of a full bar was exciting. We've all been knocking back a beer here called Kingfisher, which appears to be the only beer in India.

Truth.

We all desperately wanted a mixed drink. Unfortunately, we were informed that the bartender didn't know how to make anything on the menu besides screwdrivers. So, after many repeated orderings (seriously- I had to flag down the waiter 3 times to get him to get our drinks), Kati and I ended up with a couple of rum and cokes and Kristin got a screwdriver. 

Indian bars are funny places. This one started blasting American music when we walked in. Watching 50 year old men pelvic thrust to the Shots song (SHOTS, SHOTS, SHOT SHOT SHOT SHOOOTTSS) was pretty hilarious. Everyone 4-5 songs, they'd all clear out of the dance floor to take a breather at their tables and down some more Kingfisher.

Also, the men all dance in India. Doesn't matter how old they are - the people in the bar ranged from 20-60ish. They dance like they're in the third round of a Bollywood audition - lots of hip wiggling and mustache jiggling. 

We had a couple of guys come over and ask to take pictures with us (which is normal - I'll explain that in a later post), which we declined, and one guy who came back after we told him no the first time. The pit boss owner drew himself up to his full 6'4" height, puffed out his chest, and had the guy escorted away from our table. Like half an hour later the same dude was kicked out of the bar - not sure why, but I don't think it was because of us. 

It was still a great night, though - I promise.

The next day we went to a sunday market on the beach. 

A HUGE market. HUUUGE. So many stalls and people. So much of the same kitschy crap. Not much to say about it other than I got a pretty sweet holographic Ganesh poster and a picture of Kali and one of Lakshmi. Still, the market was one of my favorite things on the trip. 

After that, we went to our first temple in India. Yes, we made it 1.5 months without visiting a Hindu temple. It was a Shiva temple, and we didn't stay long, but it was really interesting to peek around. 

And that pretty much ended our time in Chennai.

It was short and sweet.

Let's talk food.

Everyone knows that Indian food is the best food to pull up on grubhub some lazy evening when you decide that yes, I deserve to blow $30 on one meal for myself. This, although very delicious, is not at all what I've been eating (for the most part).

That's almost always North Indian food. South Indian food is a bit different. I'm not really going to compare the two, but I'll just lay out what we've been munching on so far. 

BREAKFAST

Say hello to my little friend:

This is a masala dosa. This is the thing we ate most on the trip.. to the point where whenever Sunny said "they are supposed to be having very good dosas here" we'd all collectively groan. It's a thin rice crepe-y pancake thing, usually stuffed with spiced potatoes and onions, served with a little soupy thing called sambar and, at least in Kerala, coconut chutney. 

Yes, let's chat about coconut chutney. 

It is delicious. Also, vicious (hyuck hyuck hyuck). No. But seriously. I loved it and ate it all the time in Kerala. However, one particular morning we were served idlys, sambar and coconut chutney for breakfast and I felt a bit off after the meal. The chutney isn't cooked, and that particular morning it looked pretty watery. I'm about 95% it was the cause of the "Delhi Belly" that I just dealt with for six days this week. ANYWAY. That's another story.

Basically, coconut chutney good. Watery chutney bad. What was I saying? Crap. Ok. 

Idly. Idly are fluffy little rice flour cakes that don't have much taste. They're pleasant, but boring without the sambar or coconut. 

The last thing we've really been eating in the breakfast rotation has been omelets and toast. But like, indian omelets chock full of onions and salt. Yummay. 

LUNCH AND DINNER

Can be pretty much anything. Couple of favorites:

Biryani. It's pretty much indian fried rice with cashews, veggies (*hopefully* cauliflower, because obviously cauliflower is the best thing) and meat if you so desire (I don't).

Masala dosa - any time at all. Want a snack? Dosa. Breakfast? Dosa. Drunk food? Dosa. Dosadosadosadosa. 

Thali - Thali is an interesting meal. There are sooo many different varieties. The one we usually had consisted of 4-10 little side dishes, a big honkin' scoop of puffy rice and a crispy lentil chip called a pappadum. It's served on a banana leaf or big tin plate. That little orange doody-looking thing is a dessert that tastes vaguely like someone dumped a pound of sugar into a bottle of dish detergent. Oh, sorry, kilogram. Metric over here.

Ootthapam (uttapam, uthapam, oottapam, etc.) - I think this is a rice pancake thing chock full of onion, tomato and chilis, plus whatever else the chef feels like throwing in. It. is. delicious. I don't know why I like these so much, but I do. They usually come with a couple of little side chutneys/sauces/whatevers too. 

Hostel (dorm) food - For lunch and dinner we usually get a big 'ol pot of rice, and one of chappatis (tortillas). Then there's usually sambar, some yellow lentil thing and one different thing that changes up every meal. I'm calling them curries for lack of a better word. We've had some really good ones. There was an okra one, a beet one, mutter paneer (hey, like the American indian restaurants!), kidney beans, etc. It's all been real' real' good. 

SNACKS AND JUNK

Best snack foods thus far:

TimTams (Hi Kaitlyn!) I think these are probably technically from New Zealand, but we can get these at a store in town and yum.

Bourbons 

Chocos cereal (aka the only cereal I've ever enjoyed eating dry - like cocoa puffs, but denser)

bananas! alllll the bananas.

Mango icecream!

Tapioca chips! They're like crispier potato chips with indian spices.

Roasted cashews!

um

this is a boring list

I included snacks, because we all almost always eat them in the afternoon. Dinner is served at 7:30-8, which means there's a sizable gap between lunch and dinner. Plus, white rice is only so filling if the stuff it's served with isn't straight up beans. 

ON EATING:

There's not really any silverware here. We're spoiled americans and have some spoons at our hostel (dorm), but really, to eat the Indian way, it's all hands. Well, right hands. The left hand is considered unclean for reasons I'll let you google (hint: India, along with not being into silverware, is not into toilet paper). People will look at you funny if you're using both hands.

Anyway. eating rice mixed with soupy stuff requires a bit of technique. You have to sort of make your fingers into a shovel and push the food into your mouth with your thumb. Boy, that sentence doesn't make much sense. Whatever. It's actually really fun. Indians (well, clean ones) wash their hands before and after every meal, and restaurants always have a little wash station outside of the toilets. 

Another little thing to worry about for us delicate Americans is the water. Unfortunately, we can't really eat anything that's been washed in it like fresh fruit without a peel and fresh vegetables. All of us are severely missing both. I would lick the outside of a rickshaw to be able to eat salads for the rest of this trip. No. That's not true. I would like a salad, though. 

I'm out of things to say right now, but hopefully I'll muster up the gumption to write again soon! Coming up: