Trip prep.

On day 2 in Chennai, Nancy and I wanted to go back to Spencer Plaza to pick up a few more items.  We had a little time before we had to be back for a SAS sponsored trip (more about that later).  We were really soured on the Tuk-tuk rides from the previous night, so we were prepared to walk the gauntlet of the 100 drivers outside the gate and walk down a street and catch a ride farther from the ship.  When we got to the third and final security point--just before the spot where all the drivers are waiting for you, we ran into two of the med students who had just gotten back from a search for an ATM and had had the trip from hell on the tuk-tuk.

Then we noticed that a some of the ship crewmembers were walking along the high fence instead of down the road, so I asked the security guy if we could get out that way.  He said you could walk down and use the crosswalk over the railroad tracks.  That sounded like an adventure to me, so we headed that way only to be overtaken by an enterprising tuk-tuk driver. He flashed a rubber bracelet like I had on.

When we first got on the ship, the Zimmerman family had given all the faculty a rubber wristband bracelet that said "World Peace."  I hadn't taken mine off the entire voyage.  Someone had given him one, and he proudly showed it in brotherhood.  He offered a reasonable price to Spencer Plaza, so we stipulated "straight, no stops".  He agreed and we got in and went back through the rest of the drivers.  Our guy  asked if I had a bracelet he could have for his son.  I started off by saying that "a friend had given mine to me" and started to say that I didn't want to part with it, but that felt selfish, so I said "and you are my new friend, so please take it."  It felt so good to make this simple gift.  We saw him later in the day, and he proudly held it up, and I have no doubt that his young son is proudly wearing his.

We got a narrated ride to the Plaza, and saw the new Administrative Building that was going to be dedicated the next day with the Prime Minister present.  Everyone in Chennai was excited, but the building sure seemed a long way from being finished.  The new cricket stadium had just opened.

We had all been warned to not drink the water--just bottle water.  Even the locals, including the security officers in the mall drank bottle water.

I also wanted to see how the fastfoods differed, so I saw this add for Subway and tried out the meatball sandwich made with chicken since the cow is sacred.  They use a different version of the "Jared" advertisment. The sandwiches taste much the same.






When we left the mall, we bent out the back door through the motorcycle parking lot and caught a  tuk-tuk back to the port with the driver grumbling about the price all the way.  It was a good ride, so I gave him a tip since he didn't try anything funny on us.

We did the long, grimy walk back to the ship from the gate and were happy to spot the ship through the rest of this industrial port.  We were also glad this would be the last time we made this walk.

We hadn't planned too much this day since we were catching a train in the late afternoon for a SAS trip to Nagercoil, in the very southern tip of India.

We met at 3:30 to catch our 5:00 bus to the train station, and one student was missing out of the eleven of us. One of the other students had  seen her headed to the pool a little earlier.  I knew who she was from the library, so I headed for the pool, and someone else headed for her room.  She was just getting out of the pool, and I told her that we were supposed to be meeting at 15:30 for out trip.  She said "I'll be there" and then I informed her that 15:30 had already happened 10 min earlier.  She had misread the time and thought it was 5:30, so she flew to her room and met us just in time.  It made me happy to have Nancy as a double-check on all the times.

The trip to the train by bus took us through some of the poor sections that you see mixed in everywhere.  Many people live on fewer than 120 rupees per day, and a rupee equals just over 45 cents. An extended  family lives in a one room shack about the size of our cabin on the ship.  The poverty is one of the things about India that just hits you in the face, and yet, they get by somehow.

One of the clues that the train was going to be crowded was the motorcycle parking area.

Thankfully, we had a guide to get us on our train and find our car and our seats.  This makes me appreciate even more the students who manage all this on their own.  Our train pulled out at 5:40 pm with the eleven of us scattered around two cars, separated by one car.  This was pretty basic stuff with our sleeping compartments closed off from the aisle with only a curtain.  People came and went all night along the way, and the guy across from us was playing a computer game that made noise most of the night after the lights went out.  The windows were so dirty and scratched up that you could really not see out of them at all.  This was first class which I took to mean that the multitude of roaches were small ones.  I 'm pretty sure I slept a total of about 30 min all night during this 13 hour ride.  The title of the book that I was reading was ironically "Dead before Dying" and reflected the way I felt in the morning. Nancy can sleep anywhere, so she did pretty well.  So ended day two of our India adventure.