Dazed and Confused in Chennai

Hellooooo!

I am, again, happy to be back. I have a strange couple of days. Last time I wrote I was on a brief visit from my room and then went for some dinner I think. Other than that, I didn't leave the room all day. The next day I was no better (manky lungs and cough you may remember) so stayed in the room alllllllll day, didn't come out once. Luckily this was fine for me because DB had been out the night previous and scouted out some drugs for me. I had some Halls sweets, some expectorant tablets (no instructions but apparently an overdose could cause liver failure. It was a case of fingers crossed and down the hatch) and a lovely bottle of something called 'Cofdex'. Now, I am not terribly au fait with American prescription drugs, I only hear about them in terms of 'addictions' of the Stars'. Well, I now know that they are a marvellous invention, and that they are readily available in India without even a prescription makes my stay here look very rosy indeed. I was swigging my Cofdex - only as much as it recommended on the bottle mind - and after the first day realised that perhaps my sleepy haze was a bit more than jetlag. In fact, on my second day of house arrest and yesterday morning I was quite stoned and blethery, or asleep. DB would leave me for hours at a time to go a-wondering while I lay there, zonked out to the world. Basically, I have worked out that two sips of the stuff (approximate teaspoon-fulls in a land that lacks cutlery) will happily knock me out for at least an hour, after about half an hour of taking it. In the UK we are not used to such reactions and it was, I have to admit, quite pleasing. Sadly, I have now run out of the bright green magic that is Cofdex, which DB is grateful for as a) he now has his girlfriend back, b) he is more than aware of my addictive personality and c) doesn't want his popularity to be supplanted by the bright green sleeping-poison of wondrousness.

So that has been me really. Yesterday we made it to a tour though! A half day tour of Chennai! It was pretty rubbish but brilliant to see the crocodiles that inhabit our part of the world (happily in a cage, unhappily in a bare cage), and get a sense of the city from above ground (autorickshaw) level. The tour finished at night time, on the Marina Beach which I thought was odd and had a chuckle with DB about how many tours in the UK would take their patrons to the beach for a visit at night. How useless! The whole idea of the beach is to sunbathe and the sun is pretty important when doing that. However, I was soon silenced by the magical wonder of marina beach at night! In the UK and in general in Europe I would say, beaches are nothing much at nighttime... You walk along them under moonlight, and eat next to/in front of them, but wow! In chennai it is amazing! So much so that DB concluded that actually it may even be a special nighttime beach, not a daytime beach like at home, because having seen it in the day it was pretty manky. At this nighttime beach there are children flying kites! Children playing catch! There are tiny little fairground rides that are totally mental, for children. There was a mini-ferris wheel that was so fast I wondered at the stomach of these childers, and little merri-go-rounds, and stalls selling day-glo ball-things, and food, - ah! we had the most delicious meal for about 15 pence. Samosa Chana - crushed samosa shells with a dall-like spicy sauce on it. Yum! It was a place of intense activity - as if at home with the sun out, but at nighttime. And there were people in the sea (lovely and warm - I had a paddle - *then* wondered what to do with my wet, sandy feet when I got back onto the very public bus) sat down having a jolly time, with all their clothes on. Really, it was a place of cultural opposites. And wonder. DB and I are going every night now.

Today we are going to do some more exploring and later we may head to the beach and read our books in the sunshee-ine for a while and chill out and watch the sunset and transformation to night-beach. My lungs are generally better now but I am still coughing a lot. Pain so it is. Actually, I have a confession to make. We are going to see if this fancy hotel will let us stay there for our meagre pennies. It has a pool! And Wi-Fi (so I can work easier see?! ;0) ) A pool... A sweet, cool, clean pool that I can sunbathe next too... Arggggggggggg dribble dribble. I know, I know, it's hardly getting to meet the people... But... but. There is always a but. We are currently staying in a pretty gritty part of town (and enjoying it I may add) and chattering (mostly misguidedly) in Tamil and are going south to do some research on Tuesday (my first interview beckons I think!) and this would be a wee reward! And then two weeks Monday we are volunteering and staying in their accommodation so... You know. It would like a wee holiday?! Just for a couple of nights?! Hehe. They won't let us in anyway. Not with my hippy skirt, hacking cough, and enormous backpack...

We found the public pool by the beach last night. Didn't actually see it though. I don't think swimming would be quite the same as at home though. By seeing how peeps drive here I doubt that lane discipline would be high on the list of priorities... and getting pretty nekkid to dive in would be rather taboo. So I, in my colonial imagination, am divining that a swim here would consist of having to wear all my clothes, and fight to get to the end of each lap as if in some kind of pointless, aggressive race. Hehe. I am ready! Let's do it!! I await for my prejudices to be challenged...

So, apart from reading a couple of uni articles and learning Tamil, these have been the thoughts that have occupied me for the past 48 hours.

I am a simpleton!

Better take my simple ariss off... Exploring needs to be done!

Toodle-pip

x J