In January 16, 2008, I joined an international non profit in Canada covering the India and Bangladesh portfolio. This Christian organization is a partnership with several support and national offices worldwide. I traveled to India in February 22 as part of my orientation to my new role. The orientation involved participating in a workshop, courtesy calls to the powers that be in the India national office and visits to community development programs.
I travelled with my boss which made my orientation a lot easier as someone expert in the organization’s operations was there to mentor and guide me. We took Emirates Airways via Dubai to Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. The trip was a bit tiring since we had a layover of about seven hours in Dubai. This is my nth time to India and my first to Chennai, formerly called Madras. Based on the information sent to us by our national office in India, we should change our USD at the airport. That was a big mistake. Aside from a low rate of Rs 36.50, the agent (Thomas Cook) also collected a commission. We later found out that it is Rs 39.50 in the city. First lesson learned: always take the national office’s advice with a grain of salt. Thankfully, we were picked up at the airport, so we did not have to haggle with taxi drivers for your ride to Green Park Hotel in the district of Vadalapani where we were billeted.
We arrived to Chennai on Sunday, February 24th morning. To avoid going to slumber immediately – which will worsen the feeling of jetlag later – we decided to take a look at the city’s surroundings. Of course, the easiest was to visit a mall. We were told by the hotel staff while Chennai has several small shops, the largest is Spencer’s. We took an auto taxi (actually a motorized rickshaw or tricycle) to Spencer’s. The hotel bell boy negotiated for our fare to Spencer’s which was Rs 120. The mall is about five kilometres away. Considering that crowded streets of the city, the trip took longer than initially thought as the driver had to adroitly squeeze the vehicle in between lorries, other auto rickshaws and cars not to mention avoiding people who cross the street without warning. As normal in any Indian city, Chennai is so dusty and excruciatingly humid. Loud honks and shouts filled our ears. The city is replete with movie posters and bill boards. I found our later that Chennai is the epicentre of Kollywood, which is the Tamil counterpart for Hindi tinsel town’s Bollywood in Mumbai.
Spencer is a three or four-storey mall which reminds me of MBK in Bengkoko. It’s underutilized as many spaces are not yet occupied. It contains a mix of internationally-branded outlets and low-quality stuff from China and the middle-East. Lots of bootleg products of course. We had our lunch at the food court and explored a bookstore inside a shop called Landmark. The book store is considered the largest in Chennai, although it is nothing compared to other large book shops in Asia. I bought two books – The Document by Irving Wallace and My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk a Turkish Nobel Prize awardee for literature. Books in India are cheap – about 30 – 50 percent cheaper than US or Canada prices.
The ride back to the hotel was a real headache. We had to negotiate with several auto taxi drivers. The first driver we approached asked Rs 250 citing bad traffic at the time. I reasoned that the traffic in India is bad all the time anyway. When I said that we only paid Rs 120 on our way to Spencer’s, the driver got clever. He said the return trip is much longer by two kilometres since we have to make several U-turns. Obviously, we attracted attention as other drivers joined the fray. When we decided to talk to other drivers, the first one we approached lowered his price saying we will only pay Rs 200 but on condition that he would show us some shops along the way (where he presumably gets commission – what a racket!!!). I raised my hands in frustration and shouted NO and proceeded to look for other drivers. He followed us and offered Rs 150. It was getting dark so we relented. On arrival to the hotel we gave him the Rs 150 and he protested saying we agreed on Rs 180. I called the hotel bell boy to deal with him. Only when we were inside the hotel, I found out that we actually agreed on Rs 180 when my colleague told me about it. The problem was I did not hear it right. I felt guilty of course but well, this people are really trying to milk foreigners out.
That was a (mis) adventure! By the time we reached the hotel, it was already about 8pm and I was a bit tired. I tried not to sleep too soon and succeeded. The hotel is quite expensive. For Rs 4,500 (more than USD 100) the hotel room looks very basic. However, there is a kettle for free coffee and tea. Two liters of water, two bottles of softdrinks, chocolates and a mix of snacks are also for the taking daily. On top of that, there is broadband Internet connection which made our communication with the outside world much convenient. Not bad, afterall!
I travelled with my boss which made my orientation a lot easier as someone expert in the organization’s operations was there to mentor and guide me. We took Emirates Airways via Dubai to Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. The trip was a bit tiring since we had a layover of about seven hours in Dubai. This is my nth time to India and my first to Chennai, formerly called Madras. Based on the information sent to us by our national office in India, we should change our USD at the airport. That was a big mistake. Aside from a low rate of Rs 36.50, the agent (Thomas Cook) also collected a commission. We later found out that it is Rs 39.50 in the city. First lesson learned: always take the national office’s advice with a grain of salt. Thankfully, we were picked up at the airport, so we did not have to haggle with taxi drivers for your ride to Green Park Hotel in the district of Vadalapani where we were billeted.
We arrived to Chennai on Sunday, February 24th morning. To avoid going to slumber immediately – which will worsen the feeling of jetlag later – we decided to take a look at the city’s surroundings. Of course, the easiest was to visit a mall. We were told by the hotel staff while Chennai has several small shops, the largest is Spencer’s. We took an auto taxi (actually a motorized rickshaw or tricycle) to Spencer’s. The hotel bell boy negotiated for our fare to Spencer’s which was Rs 120. The mall is about five kilometres away. Considering that crowded streets of the city, the trip took longer than initially thought as the driver had to adroitly squeeze the vehicle in between lorries, other auto rickshaws and cars not to mention avoiding people who cross the street without warning. As normal in any Indian city, Chennai is so dusty and excruciatingly humid. Loud honks and shouts filled our ears. The city is replete with movie posters and bill boards. I found our later that Chennai is the epicentre of Kollywood, which is the Tamil counterpart for Hindi tinsel town’s Bollywood in Mumbai.
Spencer is a three or four-storey mall which reminds me of MBK in Bengkoko. It’s underutilized as many spaces are not yet occupied. It contains a mix of internationally-branded outlets and low-quality stuff from China and the middle-East. Lots of bootleg products of course. We had our lunch at the food court and explored a bookstore inside a shop called Landmark. The book store is considered the largest in Chennai, although it is nothing compared to other large book shops in Asia. I bought two books – The Document by Irving Wallace and My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk a Turkish Nobel Prize awardee for literature. Books in India are cheap – about 30 – 50 percent cheaper than US or Canada prices.The ride back to the hotel was a real headache. We had to negotiate with several auto taxi drivers. The first driver we approached asked Rs 250 citing bad traffic at the time. I reasoned that the traffic in India is bad all the time anyway. When I said that we only paid Rs 120 on our way to Spencer’s, the driver got clever. He said the return trip is much longer by two kilometres since we have to make several U-turns. Obviously, we attracted attention as other drivers joined the fray. When we decided to talk to other drivers, the first one we approached lowered his price saying we will only pay Rs 200 but on condition that he would show us some shops along the way (where he presumably gets commission – what a racket!!!). I raised my hands in frustration and shouted NO and proceeded to look for other drivers. He followed us and offered Rs 150. It was getting dark so we relented. On arrival to the hotel we gave him the Rs 150 and he protested saying we agreed on Rs 180. I called the hotel bell boy to deal with him. Only when we were inside the hotel, I found out that we actually agreed on Rs 180 when my colleague told me about it. The problem was I did not hear it right. I felt guilty of course but well, this people are really trying to milk foreigners out.
That was a (mis) adventure! By the time we reached the hotel, it was already about 8pm and I was a bit tired. I tried not to sleep too soon and succeeded. The hotel is quite expensive. For Rs 4,500 (more than USD 100) the hotel room looks very basic. However, there is a kettle for free coffee and tea. Two liters of water, two bottles of softdrinks, chocolates and a mix of snacks are also for the taking daily. On top of that, there is broadband Internet connection which made our communication with the outside world much convenient. Not bad, afterall!
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