Welcome to Chennai

And here I am in Chennai, in the Indian Southern state of Tamil Nadu !

I had made the mistake of flying Lufthansa to get here ... big mistake indeed. Who would have thought that they still don't have individual TV screens on a 9 and half hours flight.

This is crazy !! As I sat down in my seat I couldn't figure out where the TV is so I start trying to look around ... until my neighbour somehow guesses what I'm looking for ... and points out to the 1970s TV hanging 4 rows ahead ...

In all honesty the hostesses did try to make up for this by being nice and giving away alcohol freely but this only managed to get a group of German tourists drunk enough so that they start roaming the cabin singing ...

And don't get me started about the Frankfurt airport where I exchanged planes ... I haven't seen a less passenger friendly place ... there's basically no place to sit and wait for your plane ... the whole place is divided in enclosures that open up only one hour before boarding and that require your boarding pass to let you in. If you arrive like me , 4 hours before your connecting flight then you are condemned to wonder around the corridors like a forsaken ghost.


Anyway needless to say I was very happy indeed to get off the plane in Chennai in the middle of the night.

It was really interesting to take in the first breath of Indian air ... feel the overwhelming heat and humidity and the few whiffs of spice in the air ... it somehow reminded me of Morocco.

The best was though to come. I was picked up from the airport by the driver from my hotel, Taj Coromandel. It felt good to have someone extricate me from the sea of human bodies gathered around the exit.

But the best was yet to come - as I arrived in my hotel there was a hostess already waiting for me with all the papers prepared who just took me up to my room where I signed whatever I needed to sign and I found this great chocolate cake waiting for me, reading: 'Welcome Home"

And I said to myself while falling asleep - 'This is the beginning of an interesting adventure' :o)
 

Bucharest by Night

 

Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest

Some of you heard perhaps of the 'People's House', the world second biggest building after the Pentagon in Washington DC.

It was build by Ceausescu in a time of hardship for the rest of Romanians and is a hugely controversial subject for Romanians everywhere since some would say it's a disgrace to the capital while others argue that it's a statement about what Romania can achieve.

Now the pictures are a bit misleading ;) The Unirea place, where I took them is a few kilometers away from the actual palace, so just keep that in mind when you judge the size.

For more info on this go here.