Sri Lanka to India

Spicejet flight SG2 from Colombo, Sri Lanka to Chennai, India. Back home, or what strangely feels like home as i've already been here for one month.

Had a browse of the visa at the airport: "no re-entry permitted within 60 days of exit" - hmm, this could be an issue with me getting back into India after only 14 days away. Spoke to the nice spicejet (nicejet?) people and they called someone, who called someone else, who called someone else. Came back as fine, and I checked in. Phew.

Quick flight to Chennai, some very beautiful Indian hostesses on the plane. Now I had to catch a plane to Delhi, but I'd give myself quite a large buffer in case of issues: 5 hours to be exact! Chennai airport is not the most exciting place in the world, but I read my book and time went quickly.

Coming out at Delhi airport around 11pm in was almost cold. A lovely change from the humidity of the last 2 weeks. Ahhh! I'd already booked a guest house here as I knew i'd be late. I'd confirmed with the driver four times via email my arrival time, flight number etc. so was confident he would be there to pick me up. An hour passed - dug out the contact details and called the guest house. "Our driver is there!" he said. "No, he's not here at the domestic terminal". "Ah, you're at the domestic terminal?". "Yes, as per the four confirmation emails!". 30 minutes later the smiley driver turns up and we speed into Delhi centre. 

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.

Madurai to Chennai

Today in Madurai is all about getting to Chennai. Trying to get on a train last minute in India is near impossible. There are taktal (emergency) tickets for tourists but you should give them 24hours warning before attempting. I was pushing my luck with 8 hours notice. However, the station supervisor (at the time) was very sympathetic. I purchased a ticket and became number 1 in the waiting queue. Go back at 5pm and all should be fine.
Shocked, i left the station and headed for some food and a look at the HUGE temple here. Annoyed by touts everywhere around it. "come see the temple from high!" they say, and would try and lead you into their shop, which is 5 stories high and probably did have a great view from the top. Brushing all of these aside, and ever-persistent tuk-tuk drivers became a chore, and i sat back at the station in a quiet corner. Ahhh! 5pm came and i headed back to the supervisors office, there was now a different man on duty, who flat refused me on taktal.

Plan B was a flight. I called the airport and they quoted me 180 pounds for a last minute flight to Chennai. Whatever happened to cheap last second flights??

Plan C was the dreaded coach. Only dreaded from my last experience. At the coach station i scouted around for a single bed sleeper. They're mostly doubles, meaning if you're travelling alone you share with a complete stranger (they're extremely cosy) or nothing. You can't have a double for yourself, even if you pay for it. I eventually found a company that had a single bed coach spare, for a great price. I snapped it up and waited 3 hours for it to show up. I sat in one of  the very dingy (no women allowed) holes at the side of the bus station and had a beer, while all the time being observed by groups of Indian men.

The bus arrived. Very cosy little bed! Fell asleep instantly. I was woken up very loudly in Chennai, in the middle of nowhere and ushered off the bus. Looking around me there were sewers, motorways and dust. Great.