Summary of what has happened so far

I find myself very tempted to blog ALL of my daily activities. It is so good that I wanted to share with everyone. BUT of course, this is not feasible and damn boring. Hahaha... Anyway, things are starting to slow down for me (so fast u might ask? I don't know :P). Let me describe abit of my experience in Chennai in the sections below.

People
I think more than 98% of the population here are Indians if not all! The Indians I met so far in restaurants, VR Home, at office are extremely friendly and "trustworthy". As in I don't get the feeling that they want to eat me up. Very different from what I would find in KL. During my KL trip, that was horrible! Everyone looked dangerous and ready to pounce on you. I would prefer to walk alone at night in Chennai than in KL. There seem to be also some form of mutual understanding and respect between people here especially when driving.

Traffic
Ironically, on the way to Changi that day, the taxi driver who drove me was having a fight with another taxi driver. This was because the other driver was flashing his headlights at him for no reason. He drove dangerously to show his anger at that guy. I was abit frigthened by it... 6hrs later in Chennai.... heh... EVEN WORSE! But the driver was not in a rage. He was just going around as if normal. Everyone sound their horns, everyone flashes their headlights. It is very important to sound your horn in Chennai as traffic is damn messy. But then again, I find that despite the messy traffic, people seem to know when to let others pass and when not to. It is weird. I would be stuck in a junction if you ask me to drive here.

In addition, trucks have "Sound Horn" notices written at the back to warn drivers to sound horn if they can read. An interesting fact is that during normal hours, one can hardly shift into 4th gear on the street. At most, just 3rd gear and you might have to start shifting down to 2nd liao.

Food
Idly, poori, sumber, chutney, chappati, dosa, uttapam, lassi, and so on.... are well... acceptable. Some are delicious while others are just plain not suitable for me to eat. The worst was the sour pickle. It was way too sour. The food overall was not as bad as how the reception package I read described it. I suppose it is only relevant to people who can't handle spicy food. A meal in TCS caffeteria for worth Rs30 would leave me so full that I could barely move. Restaurants however are abit costlier. Minimum of Rs100 for a complete meal. Quite worth it though.

Although..... I would like to note that it is quite hard to find a restaurant selling meat here. The other day, my friends and I were hunting for chicken at restaurants near our place of stay. We walked for quite a distance.. like pgp to bizad canteen before we finally found a "KFC" like fast food restaurant which is situated in the middle of nowhere. The shops beside it was all closed. If I was alone, I would NOT go there. Quite scary...

Last night, we went to a restaurant in the hotel near VR Home. The chef was so delighted to see us because we were "different". First he asked where we were from and of course we said Singapore. He immediately boasted his culinary skills which were not included in the menu. Singapore fried rice, ee mian, etc... He was like "You want S'pore food? I can cook for you. Make you feel at home."

Shopping
Ok.. First of all, I'll have to admit I have poor bargaining skills. Full stop. I shall not elaborate further as my friends here have been reminding me over and over on something I've bought. Other than that, I went to this place called Spencer's Plaza, supposedly the biggest shopping center here in Chennai. Here, we are able to see various types of people... as more like S'pore except with majority Indians rather than Chinese.. Hahaha.. I'll continue to say that I've spent quite heavily recently and will eat idly and dosa (maybe vada once in a while) for the next few months to save up.

Autorickshaw (just 'auto')
Today just had the experience of bargaining hard with an auto driver. These drivers would drive up prices so high to cheat us. I mean .. a short trip which was suppose to cost Rs40, they tried to charge Rs120 for the ride. Fortunately, there was another auto driver who came a little later, offered to give us the ride at that cost. The first auto driver was abit unhappy because the other guy wanted to try and take his business. They were arguing abit in Tamil. We were bargaining with the first guy. So when we requested the price, the 2nd driver laughed at the first guy and would gladly accept our offer. Unwillingly, the first guy accepted our offer, the 2nd guy just laughed and drove off. We were also smiling at this incident. :P