Chen(*yawn*)nai

Today I'm in ugly, boring Chennai (formerly called Madras). I arrived here last night from Vishakapatnam (not sure about the spelling). I arrived there at about 11pm from Puri.

When I got to Vishakapatnam I knew I would be leaving at 6am the next morning for Chennai, so I just booked a room at the train station (yeah, I didn't know I could do that either). That was interesting, it was a huge room with a tiny bed (but no footboard, so I didn't mind), just right above and next to the trains. It wasn't so bad considering at first I thought I would just have to sleep on the ground by the trains (like many, many people here do all the time). Anyway, I was there all of 7 hours or so, then back on the train to Chennai.

Like I said before I arrived in Chennai last night, around 8pm. I booked a hotel room (not easy here, they fill up early according to the guide book), and luckily this hotel room is for 24 hours, so I don't need to check out until tonight, right before my next train! Well this morning I went out to see the "sights". The most apt word would probably be "underwhelming". I went to see St. Andrew's church (one of only 3 churches in India with circular seating! That's exciting, right?!?), then went to see the "fort", which consisted of some old office buildings. Don't worry, I got to walk next to heavy traffic for an hour each way in order to see all the glorious buildings.

Well luckily I'm out of here tonight as the only worthwhile thing here is the food. I got dinner last night, served on a giant banana leaf, all you can eat for 70 cents (excellent eggplant curry by the way). I plan to go back tonight before I leave. Tonight I leave for Madurai, which should be excellent. It's over 2,000 years old, referenced by the Romans and Greeks, with some very cool temples and a reputation as the quintessential South Indian city. I'm looking forward to it. It's also about as far south as I plan to go, so it marks the end of my east coast, south-bound train journey. Hooray!

Oh, and Happy Halloween. I plan to dress up as a really tall Westerner and see how many people stare and ask for pictures. It should be fun. Maybe I'll do a little trick or treating as well; I'm sure that would go over really well.