Welcome to Incredible India!

After all those knowing smiles or frowning foreheads when talking about going to India we were quite tense when arriving at Chennai, the former Madras. What they say is ‘either you love it, or you hate it’, and that is basically because of the crowds, the omnipresent dirt, the still striking poverty, the chaotic traffic, the unbearable heat, but also the fantastic colours, the religious myths, the friendliness, the head rolls and funny English, the great food.

Guess what, – so far – we love it. It might be because we were very lucky, not only did all the travel from Bangkok work out all right, no -we also had a couple of great days with Lead, our couchsurfing host, and his friends. What couchsurfing is: An internet-based community in which a local host offers you to stay at his place just for the sake of exchange of stories, knowledge, and for fun.

So we learned a lot about Chennai, but also about the life of the educated young upper middle class in India, and found out that it is pretty much the same as anywhere else. We joined in, going out to party at the latest club, chilling with some drinks, hearing about the latest iPhone or about cricket with its obscure rules and endless games, eating great Indian food, but also fast food, going to a crocodile farm, racing with quad-bikes and playing paintball. To sum it up, fun and consuming is the name of the game. We enjoyed spending time with the guys and hope they will stick to their Indian roots despite the rise of capitalism.

Apart from that, all things in the introduction hold true so far. We saw families of ten camping out in the dirt and crazy racing auto rikshaw drivers in the midst of chaotic and fast traffic which makes Bangkok look like a village on a Sunday night. We had great delicious biriyani, pulau, vegetarian thalis, variations of dosa, idli and phulkas. At the impressive Kapaleeswarar temple we got a first idea of colourful Indian spiritualism and learned about the legend of Ganesha, whose head got chopped off by his father Shiva and was replaced with an elephant’s. We look forward to further living, feeling and tasting India!