Welcome to India

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What to say about Chennai...the phrase "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times" comes to mind.

I stepped off the plane and was immediately confronted with India.  There were people yelling in the airport, it was 32 degrees at 11 pm, the taxi driver ripped me off, and my hotel room was less than desirable (let's just say that the bathroom had probably not been cleaned in a decade).

The next morning, I headed out to Fort St. George, thinking that I could walk around that area and explore Chennai.  The first auto rickshaw driver I came across told me that it would be 30 rupees to get to the fort, this was fine with me since it was lower than I had been told to anticipate.  I agreed, and he got one of his friends to drive me.  About halfway there, in a remote area, he pulled over and told me that he was going to take me to some of his friends houses to see some silk shirts.  I told him I had no intention of going to this place, and he got quite angry, saying that if I wouldn't go then I would have to pay 60 rupees.  Thankfully he kept on driving and we eventually got to the fort.  I gave him the 30 rupees that we had agreed on, but he was angry.

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Upon leaving the forst (which is not worth visiting), the autorickshaw driver was waiting for me with a group of his friends.  He started followng me and telling me that he needed to drive me to his friends shop.  I finally outran him, but the whole experience was terrifying.

I stumbled upon another autorickshaw driver (who was much much nicer) and he took me to the market and to the beach.  The beach in Chennai is absolutely amazing.  It is very wide and there must have been thousands of people on it Sunday afternoon, doing everything from selling corn, setting up amusement rides, swimming, practicing gymnastic moves, and just generally staring at my every movement.

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The beach was the site of some of the worst of the Tsunami's devastation.  This is evident from the fact that all of the fishing boats on the beach are new and fear the name of some aid agency that donated them after all of the old fishing boats were wrecked in the Tsunami.

After the beach I discovered that none of my ATM cards seem to work in India--a wonderful situation when traveling alone.  Not sure what to do about that...But looking forward to leaving Chennai!