Trip to India

Last week, my gf and me made a trip to India to attend one of my close friend's wedding. This trip was an "eye opening" experience.

Let me start the whole post by going day by day of the 7 days we spend in India:

Day 1 - Arrival (17th June 2009)

We left home at about 5am to catch the 7.40 am flight.

We landed in a small little town call Tiruchilappalli or Trichy (for short) at about 9.30am local time. Upon arrival, due to pandemic outbreak of the AH1N1 virus, we were given a form to be filled with our personal particulars.

The thing that I don't understand with this form is that 99% of the passengers arriving are Indian nationality, the whole form is in English only. No Indian languages are available. It had made lots of people required assistance of the officers there at the airport to help them fill in the form and created a long queue. How can the government officials do not foresee this problem when they printed the forms? Strange...

Anyway, the airport which I landed was relatively new. It was just open back on the 1st of June, just 17 days before my arrival. We were greeted by my friend's father which had also gone to there to pick up some other friends and brother of his that was on the same flight as us.

After rounding everyone up, we went to check in the hotel there in Trichy. It seems the hotel is rated to be 3 Star, but I seriously doubted it. Anyhow, the basic facilities is there, air condition, bed, shower, wash basin, closet, merely basic amenities are available.

We then went to the friend's house for our lunch first meal in India - vegetarian lunch. However, before the meal starts, we were served with "wadir", a snacks which uses 'dhall' and flour mixed together with small red onions and some spices. Then the meal starts....

The meal was very different. It started with some sweets cakes, then some briyani rice. Then, white rice with sambar, then again white rice with rasem, again white rice with plain yogurt and finally some more sweets / dessert. Imagine, the locals there can eat 4 serving of rice, full portions and then still have sweets for desert. While eating the rice there were about 4 to 5 types of condiments that came together with it. We truly enjoyed the lunch.

Then, after the lunch, we made our way back to the hotel to take some rest. However, upon reaching the hotel, we were told that there is a departmental store which sells clothing just behind our hotel. Then, instead of resting, we went window shopping.

This supermarket sells all sorts of cloths / fabrics. Accessories from head till toe for both men and women is available there. No one bought anything there. We were just browsing around as there had already an appointments for the ladies to go to another different location to get their cloths later that day.

Then, at 5pm, the ladies left for a bazaar for their clothing shopping. Leaving us a few men. So, we headed for the local tea shop to enjoy a cuppa. The tea there in India is really good. Nothing to compare to what we can get here locally. Even the coffee was brewed well and it was cheap. Each cup of tea / coffee is only RS10 = 10 Rupees. However, the thing is it is rather a smaller cup compare to what we can get here. We ended up drinking a few glasses each before we start our walking rounding the town.

Along the whole walking journey, we came to notice that the workers there in India never care about safety. There were one group of workers painting a 3 storey building external wall. Not even one of them have any safety harnesses, no safety boots, no safety scaffolding. Just merely standing on their bare feet and reach out to paint standing on windows.

Then, along the walk we came across lots of tea stalls around the streets. Tea that was sold in the tea stalls were much cheaper. It ranges from as low as RS3 to RS5. So, as we walk, we stumble upon a RS3 tea stalls, we again stop for another cuppa. However, this cup is even smaller that what we had earlier.

After the 3 hours walk, we headed to the hotel to grab our shower and waited for the ladies to come back from their shopping. Shortly after that, we went to a non-veg dinner at a nearby hotel. Again, here, the food is really different from what we can get here locally. The food is not burning hot / spicy. You can taste the spices they use in the cooking which feels kinda warm in the stomach.

After the dinner, we ended on he roof top of the hotel for some cold beers. The local beer there doesn't taste as good as what we can have here.

Day 2 - Pre-Wedding day (18th June 2009)

Today there were a simple morning ceremony at 1030 at the wedding hall. The hall was beautifully decorated with fresh flowers.

After the prayers ceremony, vegetarian lunch was provided. This is the first time we attended a full scale wedding vegetarian lunch. The crowd was about 200 people or so. We were served by a group of waiters which is walking up and down the aisle with rice, sambars, rasam etc and it was served on banana leaves.

After the lunch, we adjourn to a place call Thanjavur. Here, we visited a place where it was once the palace of the Raja - Raja Chola.

Then, we went to another temple, Sri Brahadeeswarar Temple. This temple was build by Raja-Raja Chola. We arrived there late in the evening, hence, we get to see the night view of this temple.

We had dinner on the way back to the hotel. Here, we have local delicacies e.g. paratas, samosas and some badam milk drink. By the time we reach our hotel it is already 11pm and we decided to call it a day as tomorrow's wedding ceremony is at 0700 which means we have to wake up at 0530 to get ourselves prepared.

Day 3 - Wedding Day (19th June 2009)

This day started very early. We were there at the hall at about 0630 after my gf had herself dressed in the traditional Indian dress - Saree which she bought 2 days ago. She look really outstanding in the Saree.

There were a breakfast served at about 10am. The hall was filled with easily 500 people and hence, breakfast is again taken by groups / batches of people. Then, the ceremony continue

After about 2 hours, lunch is served for a small group of people but still it came to about 100 people was there. It seems only the close relatives / families / friends was suppose to attend this lunch. The lunch is again vegetarian lunch with the 4 main servings + sweets and ice-cream.

My gf and me left the wedding after the lunch with a hired car to another destination at 1500. To hire a car there is expensive. The place we were heading is call Chidambaram. The distance is about 150km or so, but due to the road conditions there, it took us about 4 hours to reach there. Just to travel for 150km with a hired car, it cost RS3,150.

We visited a close family friend there in Chidambaram. This family friend of ours use to me my neighbour where my mom baby sit their small boy when he was still small back in 1994 / 1995. Hence, this small boy until today is still very close to my mom. He still use to come to our house to stay overnight during weekends and school holidays.

It so happen that my direct reporting manager is also from there, hence, when he knew that I am going there to his home town, he felt it is his delighted and insist that he will pick me up from there to bring me to his house in Chennai.

Now, back to the tour. We arrived at Chidambaram town at about 7pm. However, due to the lack of signboard / road sign / street name, the cab driver have some difficulties to find the place. Therefore, we to couple of U-Turns and finally, we arrived at our destination, greet with smiles from this family friend.

As we were so happy to see each other, we quickly unload our bags from the car and went into the house. At this greeting and shaking hand moment, my gf accidentally drop her mobile phone on the cab and only to realise it after the cab left the house. However, the honest cab drive drove back and return the phone to us. What a relief.

We sat down and chatted and then dinner was served. It is a non-vegetarian dinner and again, the food there is good... and I mean really nice and tasty. We were served with curry chicken and tosai, idlee and of course sweets. A really good dinner again.

After dinner, we sat down chat until about 10pm, me and my gf went to the local hotel. The hotel had just newly open. The room was nice and clean. We checked in and only to realise that the hotel is on the same road as a temple main entrance. It so happen that on the night we arrived, it was the eve of a 10 days prayers celebration. The musics and chanting started as early as 3am, however, it didn't bother us too much as we were tired and slept all the way until 7am.

Day 4 - Chidambaram - Chennai (20th June 2009)

At 8am, the family friend came to meet us at the hotel. As we leave the hotel, we met my manager on the street. What a coincident. Out of hundreds of people on the street, we are able to meet and greet each other. We introduced ourselves and went to the nearest tea stall to have our cuppa.

After tea, my gf and myself + the family friend proceeded to visit the temple and my manager proceeded to another different agenda. The temple was amazing. There were 4 main towers facing 4 main direction - North, South, East and West. The perimeter wall around the temple was surrounded by stone carvings of a dancing moves / posture.

After the visit to the temple, we checked out from our hotel and went to the house where we had breakfast. We were served "Chettinad" breakfast. Again, I enjoyed the food and it was really nice. The mutton curry was really good. Unlike the mutton here, the mutton there do not smell like mutton and the meat is really tender.

We then proceeded to the "Backwaters" where it is a mangrove forest. My gf and me went there with the youngest daugther of the family friend and also another cousin of hers which is working in Chennai that had came back for the weekend.

After the one hour boat ride, we took a drive thru tour at the Annamalai University to see their buildings and what a hugh area the university is covering.

By about 12.30pm, we were all back home we had lunch together. This time, the lunch was good, but as we have had a good portion of breakfast earlier and didn't do much of physical activity, we just had some light lunch and it was enjoyable.

Then, at about 2.30pm my manager (Mr. R) arrive at the family friend home with his wife (Mrs R). Mr. R also happens to know this family friend as he was once the Dean of Engineering at the university Mr. R studied. They chatted for a while before we pack and leave.

We drove to a place called Pondicherry, it use to be a French colony. We spend a few hours walking in the on once the French colony area. Just by crossing a street, the atmosphere changed totally. The French side of town looks so different from the typical India town. We also manage to catch some time to visit the Ashram.

From there we drove to north towards Chennai and had a dinner stop-over near a seaside for seafood. India also have a good fresh prawns and fish. The seafood dinner was simple but tasty. A friend of Mr. R came to join us for dinner. I have met this person when he was working in my country about a year back. Its nice to see him again.

After dinner, we drove all the way until we arrived at Mr. R house. I have heard stories of his house but never seen it. So, for the first time I am seeing it. It is indeed big and its full with decorative items.

It is a triple storey with multiple bedrooms. We were given a room on the first floor with bathroom attached and a living room with home teather system in the front. We went to bed at about 11pm that night.

Day 5 - Chennai Tour (21st June 2009)

The day started as early as 7am. We had breakfast with Mr. R and then a hired car took us to Mahabalipuram. The drive is about an hour. Mahabalipuram is where the Palavas king left their mark with their impressive artistic stone carvings. Lots of stone carvings here.

The tour started with a visit to 5 Ratnas, Mahabalipuram Light House, then the Mahabalipuram Shore Temple, the Krishnas Butter Ball and Tiger Caves along the way. The stone carving was amazing.

One thing about India is that all the carvings / art works there is left as they way they were made hundreds and thousands of years ago. The Indians did not artificially add on items to it and it was not even painted to beautify it. It was history as real as it can be.

The whole visit took us about 3 hours and while on our way back to drop by a place known as Dakshina Chitra. There is a display of different types of houses / lifestyles of different clans in India. It is some kind like a cultural village where they display the houses of different places for different clans. My gf got her long waited Henna drawing on her hand here for RS50 which is consider very very cheap.

The visit lasted us about 2 hours and by the time we got back to Mr. R's house, it was about 2pm already. We had our lunch and after that, Mrs. R took us out for a drive and showed us the Chennai town. It was quite modern as compared to what we have been seeing for the last few days. Perhaps the place that we have been for the last few days we a little on the village / smaller town side, therefore, we can see a vast difference between Chennai and those places.

We ended up in the beach in Chennai and soak our feet in to the Indian Ocean waters. According to Mr. R, the sea there is not safe to swim. The current had been very unpredictable and lots of people drown year in year out.

After soaking our feet on the incoming waves, I bought ice cream for all of us.

That night, Mr. R showed us the night life of Chennai. He and Mrs. R took us to a pub there - 10 Downing Street, what a name for a pub. Anyway, almost immediately I notice that the pubs in India is actually smoke free zone. No one is allowed to smoke inside the pub. Hence, the air was clean unlike here the pub is filled with cigarettes smokes.

We had some local whiskey and a couple of tequila shots and have some nice vegetarian and non-vegetarian snacks there. In the pub, there came a Prof. N and his wife. Prof. N is the cousin to Mrs. R. We were there at the pub until about 12am before returning to Mr. R's house to sleep.

Day 6 - Chennai - Trichy (22nd June 2009)

This morning, we woke up about 7am and have our breakfast together with Mr and Mrs R. After breakfast, we went out with Mrs R for some quick shopping. We bought some souvenirs, murukus and some sweets to be brought back to share with friends and families.

After the shopping, we came back to the house for lunch before pushing off to the bus station to catch our bus to Trichy. I have pre-booked the bus ticket online way before we went for the trip. Mrs R send us off to the bus station.

In the bus, we were seat on the first row, right in front of the bus. Along the way we noticed some humours things. One of it was the road lines painting was done badly.

The bus ride took about 6 hours and by the time we arrived at Trichy it was already 8.30pm. We took an "auto" - a three wheeler something like "tuk - tuk" in Thailand back to the hotel which is clearly visible to us, but we took the auto because we have luggage with us and it is not safe to walk around with luggage at night. The ride cost us RS30 for the short ride which was ridiculous.

We checked in back to the hotel we stayed previously, took our shower and went our for our dinner as it is getting late. If we were to go any later than 10pm, all the shops would have been closed.

My gf had a piece of chapatti and I had a vegetarian briyani rice. Both the meal plus a cup of tea and a bottle of mineral water cost only RS63. After dinner, my gf which had long wanted to taste the badam milk got what she wanted. We took a short walk around and very quickly, we were back into our hotel room and call it a day.

Day 7 - Departure (23rd June 2009)

We woke up at about 6am this morning and prepared our self for our cab which was booked at 7am to the airport. My friend's brother met us at the hotel to pass to us a package which my friend wanted me to help bring back. So, we checked out and paid the hotel bill. For a hotel that we stayed, it is to be considered expensive. Just a one night stay cost RS1,800.

The ride from the hotel to the airport is cost RS200. When we arrived at the airport, the cab driver requested RS250 instead. However, having already enquire about the price before in the hotel, I insisted that it is only RS200 and that is only what I am going to pay and that is only what I paid.

One thing I noticed about Indian is that they are considered to be opportunist. Whenever they see a foreign person, they will try to take advantage. Two separate incidents happen, one is the auto ride and one is the cab from hotel to the airport ride.

We touch down at our local airport at about 4pm and by 5.30pm we were home.

The whole trip was really wonderful. We were blessed with so many good friends that had shown us the great sides of Southern India - Tamil Nadu.

Here, I would like to thank all my friends, be it in Trichy, Chidambaram or Chennai that have made our trip so enjoyable.

Sincerely thank them for their warm hospitality during our visit there to their home garden.

Also, here, I would sincerely wish Mr. R's brother who was hospitalized, to get well soon and speedy recovery.

This trip have also proven a Chinese saying "when we are outside of the house, we need to rely of friends". During this trip, we have either made some new friends or we have manage to make our friendship close.

Without those friends we have along the way, the trip might not be as enjoyable.