Chennai

From getting off the bus at 7am i hated Chennai. A huge throbbing dirty traffic-roaring dusty polluted smelly monster metropolis. With no-one that actually wants to help you, unless there's money involved.

The lonely planet try and fluff it up but essentially there's no reason to come here apart from transit to other places, as it's well connected. 

A tuk-tuk driver takes me to an internet cafe and i wait for 2 hours for it to open. He keeps coming back past and speaking, trying to get me to go up into the central area to find an internet cafe that's open, and hoping to charge me 300 rupees for the pleasure. I decline 9 times before the non-talkative lady opens the "internet cafe" (room with 5 computers in it). I scurry in and try and find out where on earth the coach dumped me! Miles from anywhere. 

My reason for coming to Chennai is to get a visa for Sri Lanka. After finding out where the consulate is i flag a tuk-tuk and give him the address, and landmark! He seems to know where it is and after agreeing on 150 rupees (it's a long way and rush hour of course) we zip off. It takes ages. I start to realise that he has NO idea where he's going. Asking people along the way seems to get him no-where. Eventually, after speaking to some police, he stops and says "here" and rudely ushers me out. I say "where??" and he points to a big building then ushers me out again. I get out, annoyed at his vagueness and rudeness and head over to the building, which turns out to be the American embassy. Tuk-tuk drivers just went even lower down my Christmas card list. 

 To cut a long blog short, i walked for nearly an hour with my backpack in searing heat, asking people where the Sri Lanka consulate was. Eventually, down some hidden back roads, i located it. The tuk-tuk driver was miles away. 

 The rest of the day is spent waiting for the visa, which was successful (woop!) so i get ripped off by another tuk-tuk driver and head to the bus station, to find a hotel nearby. At this point i'm dripping with sweat, exhausted from not eating much and so infuriated with tuk-tuk drivers. I think Chennai broke me! 

I find a nice calm hotel and stay in the room, with a long shower, a chicken and olive pizza and a film. Bliss.