Wednesday, January 03, 2007

India, installment 2

On day six here and still waiting for one of our bags. British Airways can go do some anatomically impossible things to themselves.

That's about how we feel in the mornings when waiting for the word, then we move on to enjoying our days. To some extent that's included picking up some new clothes, but we've tried to buy some things we can't get at home, or pieces that would be much more expensive back in the US and A.

We found out when we got here that the Chennai Open, the first ATP tennis event of the season, coincided with our visit. So, avid tennis fans and Rafael Nadal lovers that we (especially Jenny) are, we forked over the $1.25 (Rs50) for tickets. The total tab for snack, drink, tickets and auto-rickshaw home was a paltry $8! It's enough to make one use excessive exclamation points, especially when compared with the $30-plus it costs for one ticket to an event such as the US Open (with its admittedly more interesting field). In addition to the dreamy Nadal, we saw highly-ranked fellas such as Carlos Moya and David Nalbandian, the fiery Argentine who proceeded to lose his first-round match for some reason.

Some photos from the event:



The stadium


Jenny's new boyfriend. I can't compete with that.



We also made it to a terrific dance performance this evening at the Madras Music Academy, the first-such one ever held there. I'll report more specifics about it another time. I'm running up a tab of over 25 cents here at the Net Cafe so I have to keep this short.



A note to world-travellers: when you pack for a place that, on the whole, doesn't use toilet paper, bring it in your carry-on. We are sad to report that we have become TP thieves. Scenes of the crimes: upscale restaurants and hotels, shopping malls, etc. I am really beginning to understand the thrill of theft.

And here's our shower:


Random observation and accompanying photo #4569: In Chennai there are temples EVERYWHERE you look. Big, big ones like the Kapalishwara Temple (famous and not accessible to westerners, though yours truly had an 'in' last time), and smaller ones for any god you can think of, like this one:



Hope this finds you all well, and keep your fingers crossed for the arrival of a giant duffle bag to our doorstep in Chennai.

2 comments:

KLS said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
KLS said...

Hope I'm not the fifteenth person to send you this, but the NY Times Travel section just ran an article on Kerala -

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/travel/07next.html?ref=travel

It sounds incredible!

-Katy

PS - Snorri and Talley were ELATED to see the Cowboys lose yesterday. You've trained them well.