in india 2006 – ii
After nearly two months in this country, you think i’d have put up a detailed account of my experiences on this blog by now, right? Accha (OK).
Landing at Chennai airport at 5:30am on April 25, it was a slightly pink sky that greeted me back to India after an 8 year absence. I couldn’t believe the customs people didn’t want to go thru all my stuff, even thinking the guy waving me on must be looking for a bribe, but of course i don’t offer, and he still waves me thru anyway. Whoa! Maybe India HAS really changed in the last 8 years. The airport is dumpier than probably any city’s with over 100,000 people in advanced countries, but we are in the 4th largest city in this country, with over 6,000,000 inhabitants. The Thomas Cook exchange counter has bad rates, so i exchange the smallest thing i can find – a 1,000thb (baht) note. I’ve been carrying 70Rs with me in Japan these last 8 years, and now i can finally put them to use! Interesting how each country has its own dead leaders or poets or buildings that they like to call money….
Stepping out of the airport brought it all back to me – this is India! Honking horns, nasty smells, people calling out to you to take you somewhere etc. etc. I’ve been told that the train station is around 400m away, so head out in a likely direction. After asking directions a few times, i see across the road on the other side of the thatch shanties, a station. The man refuses my 10Rs (45Rupee=$1) note that i’ve been carefully saving for the last 8 years. It is torn and is taped back together. unnnnnn I think i remember that’s why i took it back to Japan, because no one here would take it last time – ha!
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