This city is way too big

So the bus ride was fine today. I wasn't even totally squished. I got to Chennai and figured the bus stopped at the city bus stand that I found on my map and that I'd be able to get a cheap rickshaw to a hotel near the train station that will take me to the airport tomorrow. Apparently the map didn't have the major bus station on it because it was so much farther away. So I got ripped off by a rickshaw driver despite MAJOR fighting on my part (damn I need to take a picture of a rickshaw... tomorrow) I found a hotel, which is gross. There was a guy sleeping in the hallway. But it has multiple locks on the door from the inside and there is a TV. It's also less than a block from the train station. I checked in and went and had a lovely finger-food lunch. Then I took a rickshaw to the handicraft place that I had to go to after the fiasco in Trichy. I got there and they don't have the thing I was going to have exported. The guy lied. I was SO pissed because it was the perfect thing for the person it's for (heehee. can't tell!) So I picked out something else after much debating which ended up costing me more than I planned. SO annoyed. And it's going to take 2 months to get there. Really I think I'm annoyed because I haven't had enough coffee today. So the plan tonight is to be a hermit until I get hungry, and then get dinner and then be a hermit again. Because if I go out I might get mad at someone... like the guy with no legs on the skateboard that was following me down the street earlier. and I really can't get mad at him. Must just hide for the night. Will probably update tomorrow before I go to the airport - my flight doesn't leave until 2am.

So today was interesting. I decided to get up and walk to a museum that wasn't too far away and get coffee across the street from it. I couldn't find it. I ended up at the fanciest hotel in Chennai for breakfast and spent almost three times what my room cost for a breakfast buffet. Luckily I ate enough to fill me through basically the whole day. Then I went walking a little farther and when I succeeded in getting lost I took a rickshaw back to my hotel. I repacked and discovered that my bugspray had been stolen as had my extra purse with my eye cover for the plane, Henry's harmonica (Sorry dude - Ill get you a new one!), and a few christmas gifts I had bought for mom and sus... nothing big though. It must have been taken on the bus, although the bag would have taken some effort to get to. Anyway, I went to the left luggage counter at the train station after checking out of my hotel and they were very reluctant to take my bag without a lock on it... but as it's a backpack there are like 8 million ways to get in, so a lock wouldn't do any good anyway. I finally persuaded them to take it and then went to have a chai to figure out what to do. I tried to call Theresa, Susannah's nanny who is here now but her phone was busy. I ultimately decided to go to the open air bazaar which is always fun. I find it so strange to see some of the things they sell there, but always thoroughly enjoyable. I traded my India guidebook for a copy of Eragon (sus be proud) and then immediately forgot the name of the train station near my hotel. I figured it out again luckily. I sat and read for a while and had a soda and then went back to the area near my hotel. I went to a bar and had a beer to kill some time and then sat in a hotel lobby that was not my own. I met two Australian women there and they invited me to dinner, at which there was also an Indian man who had grown up in the UK and was now living in Australia and two Malaysian (?) women. They were all very nice and I got to try 4 different dishes for dinner instead of one, which was awesome. Anyway, now I'm headed to the airport, which apparently is just as overcrowded as the rest of the public transportation here and will probably take me 3 hours. But the airport in Kuala Lumpur where I have a 6 hour layover apparently has a lot to do which is exciting. Ok, so signing off from India (although maybe I will add airport hassles later...)

Yeah so the airport was ok except for the fact that I got sent through the wrong security screening so I had to go back and get my bag scanned again, and then the guy forgot to give me my departure card so i got to immigration and had to go all the way back to check in for the card (they let me skip the line the second time.) all this was exasperated by the fact that i had my first illness... throwing up in the airport is better than throwing up on the plane i've decided. The guy sitting next to me on the plane... I think it was his first time on a plane, he kept looking out the window and watching him try to put on and take off his seatbelt was a riot. They served a meal at 2:30am, which I didn't understand. I put my blanket over my head and went to sleep.