First Week in Chennai

Well I'm finishing up my first work week here. It's been a pretty enlightening week. I'm really liking the food here. I'm trying to remember the names of the things that I eat, but it's hard. So far, I can remember Chicken Chettinad that was good. Really spicy, but really good. The Biriyani is also real good. I guess it's kind of a "dirty rice" mix, but with Indian spices. I've had it once with chicken and once with lamb.

We were treated to dinner the other evening by one of the contracting firms that we work with. We went to the Radisson hotel here to a place called, "The Kabob Factory." This was one of those "dinner experiences." Who knows how long it took to eat. Maybe an hour. They served one thing at a time, and probably served us 7 or 8 items. Seafood, chicken leg, spicy stuff you put in bread, and some strange drinks. What they called a yogurt drink I thought was really terrible. I'll take the Yoplait.

We went shopping last Sunday after we arrived at a mall. Not too much to say about it, it was really crowded. I did manage to buy some cheap DVDs there.

The food prices here are pretty funny. I eat lunch every day, complete with water, for about 65 rupees which comes out to $1.30. A bottle of water (1 L) is 13 rupees (26 cents).

One of my coworkers here has had quite the experience with his luggage. It weighed 70 pounds when it left San Antonio and when it arrived here in Chennai days late, it weighed 35 pounds. He said that the inside had obviously been rummaged through, as things were a mess. Things like Polo shirts were gone and a pair of Cole Hahn shoes. I won't mention the name of the airline that he was flying, but it starts with "Co" and ends with "ntinental."

Whenever we go to the office and come into the hotel, the driver stops at the gates while security guards check everyone in the car, open up the back hatch to check for surprises, and most of all, roll a mirror under the front of the car. They're checking for bombs... It's strange though that they just roll it under the front of the car. Best I can tell, there's a standard here where if you're going to put a bomb on a car, you have to put it under the radiator.

We going to a place called Fisherman's Cove tonight for what is supposed to be a BBQ. And we're going sight seeing this weekend, so I ought to have some more pictures come Sunday night. Below are the ones that I've taken so far.

That $3,300 chess set I mentioned.

Scene on the street.

Side-saddle, Indian style.

Quite the common site...

This view is outside my hotel window. This is a lady washing clothes.

Also outside my hotel window. Lots of people live in these type of huts.

Self-entertainment!!!

My room

This was in the Tokyo airport. Apparently in the wee hours of the morning, I thought it would be worthwhile to take a picture showing that Swarovski doesn't make just sporting optics.