We thought we'd be pottering around the city today, but Raoul from the Shorex team came to us yesterday afternoon to let us know we were both on tour, except Peter was to go to the Mahabalipuram temple, and I would be doing the city tour. I was quite happy about that, city tours tend to be quite easy, as most of the time we are sat on the bus whilst the guide tells the passengers loads of stuff about the city, its history and its culture.
The ship was a little late into port, and there there was the immigration procedures to get through. It was easier to visit Russia! There is a different process for the different states of India, and the one for Chennai must be designed as a deterrent to visiting. The amount of hoops to jump through and paperwork required is ridiculous. We'd already completed a Security Clearance questionaire back in the UK in order to get a visa to visit India. Now, to visit Chennai, we had to complete 3 documents each, including a shore pass, and a customs declaration regarding our electrical equipment. Thankfully, the ship admin was excellent, they did most of the filling in for us, and we received printed documents that we only needed to add our electrical items to and sign. Once we docked into port, we had to do a face to face with various Indian immigration officials, whilst they stamped our documentation and passports (3 times at 3 different desks). Again, the ships admin set up was brilliant. They managed to get all the passengers and crew through the process in the quickest of time and with the minimum of fuss. I have to give them 5 stars for that.
Peter's tour set off in the morning, and mine was due to start a little after an early lunch. And we still had one more immigration hoop to jump through once we had got off the ship and onto the bus, as the port officials boarded and took the details of each shore pass. What a palava!
So now our tour began. Remember the bit where I said that city tours were easy? Forget that! My problem was that the guide was absolutely hopeless. We could forgive her the thick Indian accent, the fact that she didn't tell us anything useful or interesting and spoke quietly meaning most of us couldn't hear her. But she didn't take any care or responsibility for the passengers at all, never once checking that everyone was keeping up and relying entirely on me to keep track. Most of the time we coped, but our last stop involved walking through an extremely busy area of the city - and to be honest, the only way we knew where she'd gone was by following the passenger in front and hoping. It got worse when we got inside the Hindu temple, and we found that we'd lost two. Our guide knew that two guys hadn't come in with us, but she didn't tell me, nor had she told them where to meet us later or how long we'd be. I spent a good half hour carrying the dread that we'd lost passengers in this incredible and somewhat intimidating bustle. Fortunately they had the sense to wait at the bus collection point so all was well in the end.
So as you can tell, my escorting duties were quite stressful today, which spoilt my enjoyment of the tour and the visit to the Hindu temple in particular. A bit of a shame, because that was the one place that I really wanted to see. Anyway, here are the pictures:
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| Not surprisingly, our guide didn't point out the slums that we passed. What a terrible place to live. |
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| Reeaaddy........ Steeaaddy.......... The traffic was quite manic, although here you can see all the drivers on their best behaviour. |
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| We visited St Mary's, which is the oldest protestant church in the city and was built within the British colonial fort. |
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| A drive by of the Ghandi sculpture. This is on the front of the Marina Beach - extensive sands which were covered with toursists going for a swim. Indian tourists that is. |
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| We did visit a couple of museums, but the best part of the tour for me was when we got off the bus and started to make our way through the madness of the city towards the temple. |
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| There was so much noise and colour. The locals were either staring at us, (the noveltyof all these white people), trying to sell us something or trying to run us over. |
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| These flower garlands are hand made and probably take a very long time to complete, we were able to watch some of the men in their craft. The garlands are sold to the passers by give them to the Hindu priests as offerings to the Gods |
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| We weren't allowed to take photographs of any of the insides of the temple areas or the altars, but we were allowed to photograph the elaborat roofs. Quite stunningly beautiful. (By now I know we've lost a couple of passengers, so it sort of took the shine off the moment as I was taking these). |
After the temple we visited the Basilica, which is where the body of the disciple Thomas is buried. This was of particular interest to few of our more devoted passengers, who were absolutely delighted to have been able to visit his tomb.
So, an eventful day out. I'm really glad I got to see the Hindu temple. It's just a shame that it was a holy day and absolutely packed, so that we never got a chance to see inside the altars, as well as the missing passengers raising my stress levels.
Next we have a couple of sea days, so I can relax and recover.
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