Catch Up

Ok, here goes, so this is going to be an attempt to cast a slightly summarized version of the last three weeks as I think if I were to try day-by-day I’d be playing catch-up for the rest of my stay. Oh and it may come in two or three installments depending on work commitments today and tomorrow.

So I think I finished last time (rather disgracefully sluggish) having just arrived at the guesthouse. The following two days were spent exploring to Chennai and adjusting to the madness that is India. That first day after arriving was spent having lunch with the representatives who were looking after our accommodation and just there in the case of emergencies or if we were in need of any help. I also met my roommate, Adam De Jong a 23-year-old Californian, and Alice Hancock an 18-year-old girl from Bath; both are also going to be working at the paper. After that it was just a case of catching up on sleep.

The next day was spent sightseeing along with the other girls out in India with the Changing Worlds company (www.changingworlds.co.uk) who were organizing our placements. We were picked up early that morning by a minibus and guide and whisked off for a brief visit of Mahabalipuram, a small(ish) town famous for its stone carvings and temples and then on to a heritage center about a half hour from Mahabalipuram where we were shown the Traditional lifestyles, homes, clothes etc. of each of the different Indian states. I found it really interesting and the traditional meal for lunch was delicious. It was a pity though that we spent such little time in Mahabalipuram and myself, Adam and Alice are currently planning a trip to go back.

The day after that I finally moved in to my long-term accommodation, an apartment in the slightly more quite area of Chennai known as Thirumangalam, at the top of Anna Nagar and five minutes from work by bus which is handy. I also met our two flat mates, Sunny and Kunal, neither is from Tamil Nadu and neither speaks a word of Tamil which means that they are in the same boat as us, to a certain extent, which is nice and indeed so are they. In fact Sunny in particular has made life so much easier for us out here, he really is a godsend, he instructs us on prices, which has seriously advanced our bartering capabilities, what’s the best way to travel everywhere and indeed whether a place is worth traveling to and which places not to miss. I’m not sure how exactly we would have survived without him to be perfectly honest.

Our first week’s work was engrossed by two festivals going on in Chennai at the time, Chennai Sangamam, an arts festival celebrating traditional endangered artforms from Tamil Nadu, and the religious festival celebrating the harvest known as Pongal. I had two articles and several photos published in the paper which was really cool because I hadn’t expected to be published that fast. I am currently trying to work out how to post digitalized versions of my articles on the blog but am encountering problems will work it out asap. Anyway I have to run, work calls but I promise to have this up to date by the end of the weekend at the latest. Thanks for following and I’ll try to be a bit more punctual with posts.

Hey guys, really sorry about the delay in posting but the last while’s been a bit hectic, have had assignments etc. keeping me busy have had three articles and numerous photos published which is great and I’ll touch on them again later!!!


So I finished last time having just boarded the flight. The flight itself was as uneventful as flights tend to be; certainly nothing happened that would amount to interesting reading anyway. Of course on arrival I was treated to the customary nail biting 45 minute wait for my luggage associated with any journey from Heathrow airport, but luckily on this occasion my bag arrived safely.

Having been warned that I’d be overwhelmed by the intensity of the people, the heat and the smell, I was almost disappointed when stepping out of the airport main doors at four in the morning that I was not badgered by five hundred people but twenty, that I wasn’t drenched in sweat but instead stepped out to an extremely enjoyable 20°C and instead of a pungent aroma stinging my nostrils a pleasant salty breeze conjured images of clean white sandy beaches.


Then it was just a case of loading my bag, and eleven English girls’ bags, on to the roof of the small mini-bus that was taking us to the YWCA international guesthouse, where I’d be staying for a few days before moving to my long-term accommodation. The bus journey was interesting, it gave me my first real taste of India and it was interesting to see that the city was still a bustle of activity at that late hour in the night. We passed several fruit stalls on the side of the streets and numerous chai and food stops that were still vending at that late hour.

We arrived at the guesthouse, a quaint little building in a large leafy compound, in fact if it weren’t for the sound of traffic you’d have no idea it was in the thick of things; within walking distance of the Chennai train station and central business district. Although slightly jazzed up at the prospect of being in a new country I did eventually make it to my room and get to sleep with thoughts of exploring the city the next day running through my head.

The Journey

Having packed frantically the day before and on the actual morning of departure, the journey passed, surprisingly, without any major hiccups. Having flown into Heathrow on the night of the 5th of January, excited by the prospect of the adventure that lay ahead of me, I spent a restless night in the Ibis Hotel. I eventually passed out only to be woken, what felt like mere moments later, at 05:30 by the wake-up call I had requested from the hotels reception.
Waiting for the hotel’s shuttle bus to the still relatively new Terminal 5, I inhaled my last few breaths of clean cold area, unsure of when exactly I would next encounter either cold or clean air, positive that it certainly wouldn’t be anytime during the next three months amongst the hustle and bustle of one of India’s largest and most densely populated cities, Chennai (formerly Madras).
Checking in was remarkably easy and I boarded the flight in high spirits despite the lack of sleep and the fact that I stupidly forgot that I had a bottle of water in my hand luggage which resulted in a ridiculously thorough search of my bag and a full-body search, in fact I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had asked me to strip to my underwear or performed a cavity search. In hindsight the fact that once the bottle of water was discovered I opened it, took a large gulp and said “See it’s water!” in an attempt to show that it wasn’t a component of some sort of explosive, probably didn’t help.

Hello Everyone!!!!!

So I'm setting up a blog to keep everyone updated on my travels in India. Having just arrived things are very hectic at the moment as I am just getting settled in to my job at the newspaper and life in general over here, so a little bit of patience for the moment would be much appreciated. That said I do fully intend to keep the blog as updated as possible with written, photographic and video entries and hopefully it will run pretty smoothly. At the moment I am working on office computers here and am incurring problems with moving my photographs onto them, so at the moment I will have to concentrate on written content. I will continue to update you.

Thanks in advance for any comments or contributions,
Lewis