Wednesday 27th February 2008 - Chennai

The Sunny South tour starts!

The bus arrived and is an Eicher...18 seater, but by the time all the luggage is on the back seats etc we all just fit in nicely. The bus has really high suspension and all terrain types so I am wandering what I have booked. All I know about the tour is that its 14 days and goes around the 3 southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerela and another one I cant recall without my Lonely Planet book, which is pretty vague on India.

All the other travellers are of Indian background, with 2 coming from Mauritius and one from Malaysia. Mainly 40 ish (my age I know) and a nice sort of middle class indian style bunch...this may be good fun. I am the only Westerner, but they all seem friendly enough. The guide speaks OK english as so do all the other people on the bus, in fact they mainly speak in it as there are so many different versions of the Indian language between the various states, Engligh is their common language.

As well as the driver and the guide there is a "young man" who jobs appears to be to sit next to the driver and wave madly at all vehicles no matter what side of the road they are on or coming from!!! great job if you can get it... I tried this skillset in my management career and look where it got me!

We set off and I find out that some of the tour is about visiting temples in the South as this is what it is famous for within India. Everyone on board bar me is Hindu and so looking forward to the temple visits.

The Raods just outside of Chennai turn pretty bad and are bumpy, also they seem to have had an absolute frenzy with sleeping policemen type bumps and these are like every mile or so, even ont he majopr roads. Oh also the local town police put barriers across the roads to stop vehicles so they can have a look inside...god knows why but it all translates into an average speed of about 40 kmh!!!

We stop for breakfast and into a local eatery. Well I thought I knew a bit about minamalist furniture, but these places take the biscuit! Litterally seats and tables..thats it!. One place we stayed at had a seating capacity for about 150 but only one menu card!! You have to wait your turn. Then when it comes, the card that is, they dont have anything which is on it!!! So you get to a simple..."well what do you have?" approach and they tell you and it comes..... they are really big into vegarianism here and so for a few days I have been eating chapattis and veg curry sometimes with a little rice, alls erved on a banana leaf and you eat it with your hands (right one). Thank god for my fellow travellers who seem to have taken me under their wing, to the men I am "Steve" and to the ladies "Mr Steve"...

I am typing this on the 2nd March, 6 days into the Tour and its fun! I cant type too much here about where we went on day 1 as I cant recall without the Lonely Planet book, but the name was massive. I will fill it in later. Anyhow the people I am travelleing with and seeing the country, really how it is in the South is far more fun. Being with Indian tourists in India I am seeing a real side to the way in which they live,......it really is cool!

I will put more down over the coming days, thats if I can find an internet cafe again!

Steve