Quick Visit to Chennai

Location: Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

 

DAY 1
 

It was 27^th Oct 2013, ~3.30pm when me and my friend landed at the Chennai airport. We got out and took a cab to the Hotel Crystal Residency, where we already had a booking. It took some 20-30minutes to reach the hotel from the airport. We quickly got fresh and by ~5.30pm we were out on the Chennai streets to hang around.

Flavored Chutnies

Coffee in the steel glass and bowl

Chennai started making us feel it, by its humidity. Just 5-10minutes walk to find the restaurant made us sweat badly. The restaurant had a different ambience. They had kept four dishes at the entrance with their names, those were the special snacks items available at that time. When I checked menu, I saw some words which I struggled to pronounce. I understood that the regular dish named DOSA (in Mumbai/ Pune) is here known as DOSAI. Me and my friend ordered south Indian snacks. We got our food on the leaf of Banana tree. The leaf was cut round and placed inside the plate, and on that leaf the food was served. I must say that food was awesome, especially the chutnies of different flavors. I also liked the coffee served in steel glass and a bowl.  

It was almost 6pm, so we thought of just to be around our hotel and not to go anywhere else. Our hotel’s receptionist suggested visiting the nearby mall and theatre. 10minutes walk led us to the big mall ‘Express Avenue’. The mall was heavily crowded as that was the last Sunday for Diwali shopping. The mall was good but the best part was the top floor known as ‘Escape’, which was nothing but the theatre with 8 screens. The interior of this place was really good with lots of glass work. The projectors were kept outside the movie halls and were visible to everyone. The big screens showing the promos of upcoming films were really nice and appealed us to go check the availability of any movie that we can watch. We were unfortunate as all the Hindi\English movies were houseful. We spent some more time at the mall and then headed back to our hotel. On the way we checked out the theatre called ‘Sathyam’. Sathyam was 5-6 story building with 12 movie screens and dedicated floors for video games and bowling. We were so unfortunate that we did not find any show there as well. With the hope that we will try our luck next day we left for the hotel. We ended the day with dinner at our hotel.  

DAY 2

The view of chennai street (Anna Salai road) from the bus stop

A typical auto driver with auto

28^th Oct 2013, we got free by 11.30am from our work and we had rest of the time to spend wherever we wanted. After a long discussion with our hotel’s receptionist we decided not to hire any cab or auto but explore the Chennai using public transport. The real fun began then with the language. Most of the local people in Chennai know only Tamil language. We had really hard time communicating with them. But luckily there were people who understood English or Hindi language and guided us. We caught the bus numbered 23C to reach Adyar and from there another bus numbered 5E to reach Besant Nagar. 

The colorful dome of the Ashthalakshmi Temple

Typical pattern seen on the temples

As per our plan we reached the Ashthalakshmi temple at Besant Nagar. But we were late, temple got closed at 12pm. We could only see the exterior of the temple from outside. The temple had a very colorful dome with lots of idols on it. I think that’s the specialty of Chennai temples, all the temples that I saw there, had colorful domes with lots of idols of gods and goddess. 

We walked little further to reach the beach known as the Elliot’s beach. There were not many people around except few fishermen. There was a sign board warning not to enter/swim in the sea, and maybe that’s why the ocean looked clean. I captured few snaps of the clear blue ocean with fishermen working hard to set the traps for fishes. 
 

Fishermen trying their luck in the blue ocean

The Velankanni Church

Just near the church

 From the beach we headed towards the church called Velankanni. It was just 5-6minutes walk from the Ashthalakshmi temple.  Just outside the church there was an interesting setup (grotto) of a small hindu looking boy offering some pot to the divine Christian lady. I could not find any boards/signs telling more about this setup. On googaling, I came to know about the story associated with that boy and the divine lady. This story has connection with the big Velankanni church at Nagapattinam in Tamilnadu.

My friend enjoying the lunch

It was a lunch time and we were fortunate to find a good vegetarian restaurant in Besant Nagar area. I smelled the typical south Indian sweets, the moment we entered the restaurant ‘Shri Krishna Sweets’. My friend was delighted to see the south Indian lunch in the menu, which he quickly ordered. And I must say that we had a delicious lunch. 

The Dinosaur near the entrance looked like the laughing one

We planned to visit the Guindy National Park, which we had seen on the way while we were travelling to the Besant Nagar. We caught the bus numbered 5E and reached the Guindy National Park in some 15minutes. We paid entry fees of Rs. 20 per head, plus Rs. 20 for the camera. It was actually a small zoo and a park for children. We moved around looking at those sleeping animals and caged birds. In the children park instead of children I found couples enjoying the silence of the park. There were no big wild animals in the zoo but freely moving deers were grabbing the attention of all the people. 

Deers at The Guindy National Park, My friend could not resist staying away from them

The statue of Gandhi

We spent some 1.5hr there in the park and thought of skipping Snake Park which was just near the zoo and decided to move for the next spot. We had a quick tea outside the park and got the bus numbered 29G to reach the famous Marina beach. It took some 20-25minutes to reach the Marina beach. We got down from the bus and started walking towards the beach. There was a statue of the great Gandhi posing with his stick as if he was ready to accompany us for the beach walk.

The guards taking a round at beach

The Marina beach runs for 13km, which makes it the longest beach in India and the second longest beach in the world. Swimming and entering in the sea was not allowed, there were guards riding on horses and keeping eyes on the beach. 

The beach was full of fishermen’s boats, and there were many couples sitting on the edge of these boats and enjoying the view of the beautiful ocean. There were some folks walking on the beach in their joggers suit, they looked like the regular visitors of that beach. I saw many groups of local youngsters trying back flips at the shore. Few local guys were selling the sea shells ranging from really small size to the big conch shells (Shankha), which could be blown to make sound.

The beautiful Marina Beach

The big entrance seen from inside

The tomb surrounded by big pillars

We kept walking on the beach towards the bright white structure which looked like the letter ‘M’. We nearly walked for 1 to 1.5km on the beach until we reached that structure. That M shaped structure was actually the entrance to the memorial of Tamilnadu chief minister Dr.M.G.Ramchandran. The memorial entrance was really huge. The statue of golden horse ready to fly with big wings looked amazing at the entrance. The tomb was surrounded by the big pillars looking like the giant tusks of elephants. We spent some 10minutes at the memorial and decided to get back to the hotel. We caught the bus numbered 25G from the nearby depot. In some 20minutes time we were at the hotel and with dinner at hotel we ended our day.

DAY3

 

29^th Oct 2013, the last day at Chennai. We were finished with our work by 12.30pm. We ended up waiting for our friend at hotel till 3pm and by the time we finished with our lunch it was almost 4.30pm. We had a cab to the airport at 7pm, so we thought of not to go anywhere. But we tried our luck to Express Avenue mall to catch up with any movie show at Escape. But again shows were full. We spent rest of the time at mall and caught our cab to the airport at 7pm. Flight was on time and I was back home at Pune by midnight.

In all I had a good time at Chennai. And whenever I think of this trip the first thing that comes to my mind is the view of that blue ocean at Marina beach. I hope to visit Chennai again, but next time with more time to explore more places.

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