21 Days

[EagleFan]

I was unsure of whether I should post this or not prior to leaving for my trip to India for business. It was a 3 week trip to Chennai and I was not sure how much there would be to write about. As it turns out I wouldn't have been able to update daily while I was there anyway due to internet outages at the guest house.

In hindsight, the trip included a lot more than I was expecting and thought it might be of some interest to a few people. If not, no harm and no foul. I will post a day per post and go from there. Feel free to comment or question some of what I post. I know that I am probably wrong with some of the information that I tried to gather while over there but there were so many new experiences and things to see that I know I confused some of them.

I will be adding my first day shortly with the next post in this thread, my marathon journey over, but first a little background.


I am involved in a project for where I work (a software company) in which I am the project manager for the Titanic of projects. The project was already proposed and a rough timeline given before even I was even vrought in to do analysis. My timeline got shot down as being too long by our new regime who seems to have no idea of just how much is being affected by this project and what will need to be done.

They felt that putting a large team from our Chennai office on the project would be the way to go. The problem is a lack of experience with our application and just experience in general. That leads to my time being mostly spent answering the same questions over and over and taking from any actual development specifications getting done (unless I put in ungodly hours).

The next solution they saw was sending myself to Chennai for 3 weeks and a director from my office there for 2 months. I fought it but lost so the trip was planned from the 16th of October to the 6th of November.

The next fun hurdle was that we were informed to not use our normal company travel agent but to search some warehousing sites for cheaper business class tickets. The irony here becomes that the amount we saved for tickets was just about made up for in transportation to get to New York for the director and to Newark for me as we could not get tickets from Philly which would have been closer and easier to get to.

From there it was on to packing and getting ready for the experience. We were told to not get a hotel as they have a guest house. This worried Marty and I at first but we would later find out that this was okay (to an extent).

Marty arrived two weeks before I did and began filtering some pictures over to us in the office here so I had a little idea of what to expect. We have a driver, a chef and a butler and the chef cooks western food. Marty told me not to worry about the guest house but to be prepared for an environment that is nothing like I have ever seen before.

On to the day I leave...

[EagleFan]

The day began early as I woke up around 7 to help get my oldest daughter ready for school and take her to the bus stop. I had a small breakfast, showered and got her ready to go. As we waited for the bus I made the most of it and bacame a kid again and played tag with her and the other kids that are on the bus stop (you need to act young once in a while).

It felt a little odd seeing her off to school and knowing that it sould be three weeks until I see her again. After I saw her off it was back into the house to play with my youngest daughter for a while before getting the rest of my stuff ready (I had everything ready, just had to pretty much make a last minute check to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything). I was able to manage with one large suitcase to be checked (the butler does laundry), a carry on and a laptop.

The car arrived at noon to take me to Newark and I get to say my goodbyes to my wife and youngest daughter. It seems unreal at this point. The conversation with the driver on the way to the airport was a pleasant distraction of the pending trip. The only thing that distracted from that was a phone call from my boss (who is not the director that will be with me in Chennai). I had sent him an email venting my frustration with the current situation with the project and the direction of the company. I basically told him that I had to vent and it was better venting to him than to someone below me for office morale reasons (not that the morale isn't already very bad in the office).

After getting to the airport, checking my bags and getting through security was a breeze. I have a couple of hours left to kill so I look around the terminal to see what is there. Not much to do so I head to the Lufthansa lounge (the company only allows business travel for overseas so this will be my first time in business class).

The lounge was quiet relaxing and I had a small bite to eat as I waited. I took the time to read a little from the book that I brought for the trip, 1776. With the trip still having me a little on edge I wasn't able to comfortably read for long so I got up and walked around a few times. With about a half hour left before boarding I head towards the gate and wait there. I got to watch the other people milling about to and from their planes (which can be interesting at times). Soon it became time to board and I got to board fairly early due to being business class.

Business class was at the front of the plane and first class was upstairs. After seeing how nice business classs is I can;t even begin to imagin e what first class is like for oveseas. After we get seated and before we even pull away from the gate we are given drinks and then prepare for takeoff. The space that you have to stretch out is great, I may never want to fly coach again.

The flight to Frankfurt was uneventful. I sat next to an older German woman who seemed to either not speak English or have a chip on her shoulder so the seating was silent. I slept a bit and watched a little of the movie Speed. We were fed a couple times, but nothing that is really my kind of food (that is something that I was curious about for the trip as I am a picky eater but hoping to be able to put that aside for a bit).

After arriving at Frankfurt (early Tuesday morning) I hung out in the lounge for most of the 4 hour layover time as there was little else to do in the terminal. It seems much of the terminal is undergoing a reconstructive facelift. It felt a little odd sitting there and hearing every language but English being spoken. At one point I got up and walked around agin but still saw nothing much. When I decided to go to a bathroom I headed towards one I passed after getting off the plane but was not allowed back there as it was in the area where US flights were departing and I didn't have a ticket for those flights. I was going to use another bathroom in the terminal but they were practically closets that had barely any space for pelple to enter and get past anyone who was at the one sink. Instead I went back to the lounge and waited there.

As I head for the gate for the flight to Chennai I have no idea what I am in store for. The scene at the gate is amazing. There is a massive wave of humanity waiting on the flight. I have to go through the turnstile to get to where the seats are for the gate and it became shoulder to shoulder in that area. Mary had several pictures of what he called the mob scene at the Frankfurt airport but I had no idea just how bad it was as teh pictures did not do the scene justice. We were like cattle inside that gated area.

Once they announced time to board all bets were off. They tried to board passengers with children and those with a handicap first but everyone just began surging toward the gate. At one point they announced that they were going to board by rows but the person at the gate gave up that idea when it seemed very obvious that wasn't going to happen.

After finding my way through the gate and getting settled in the rest of the flight was fine. I slept a little, watched a little of Inside Job and they fed us a couple times. Again, the food wasn't really something that I would normally have. I did get to sit next to a gentlman who is fom Chennai and coming back from a business trip. When I told him that this was my first time in Chennai he told me that I had no idea what I was in storte for. He told me that I should be prepared for feeling like I have just gone to another planet after I get off the plane when we arrive, I later found out what he meant.

We arrived at Chennai after midnight early in the morning of Wenesday, October 18th. I lost a day in the travel (both travel time plus the fact that Chennai is 9:30 hours ahead, prior to us losing daylight savings time which mkes it 10:30 hours). After leaving the plane I headed towards immigration. I was lucky enough to be early in line but found out that I didn't have a form filled out; apparently they handed them out on the plane while I was sleeping. I had to go to a booth to get a form for entry. After filling the form out I ended up being near last in line.

I was a little worried at that point because there was an address requested for where you are staying and I had no idea as work is providing the place and a driver to get me there. After being in line for what seemed like forever I was able to get through imigration and the person did not question the address, thankfully.

From there it was on through another security check and to pick up my suitcase. After waiting a while they made an announcement that some bags were off loaded near the wall and not placed on the carosel. Just my luck, my suitcase was one of those wo I was waiting for all that time for nothing. Afterr getting my suitcase I headed outside.

My first step outside of the airport let me see that I am in a completely new environment just as I was told to expect. There was a massive wave of people standing outside of the airport waiting for family who were arriving along with many driviners with signs. The gentleman that I sat next to on that last leg told me that this would happen but I had no idea to what extent. After walking towards the group and not seeing my name on a sign I began to get a little worried as I was in a foreign country and had no idea where I was going. Just at that point I turned a corner and saw the driver, Sibi, holding a card with my name (I recognized him from Marty's picture of the driver).

I think the driver thought I was going to try to drive at first. When he started to motion to one side of teh car I though he was going have me sit in the back but I wanted to sit up front so I headed towards the front car door, not thinking about the fact that they drive on the left side of the road. I started to open the door and he said "no, I'll drive". To which I realized that was the drivers side, oops. He laughed as he said it as he knew I was not used to the drivers side being on that side.

The drive to the guest house from the airport gave me a little taste of what traffic would be like (but as I found it was no where near the actual scale that I would see during the day). There was a car riding the wrong way in the street (which would normally be the right way for me except they ride on the left over there), many auto-rickshaws scurrying about, MANY stray dogs laying about and a couple of goats wandering around.

The guest house is on the south side of Chennai, near what is becoming known as the IT corridor. When I arrived, the butler Ramesh, the chef Viswana and Marty (the other person from my office who has been here for two weeks and will be here for 2 months) were there to meet me.

Marty took a few pictures of my arrival and I got to talk to Ramesh and Viswana a little to introduce myself. It will be odd getting used to having a chef and a butler.

Ramesh took my bags and showed me to my room. Viswana asked if I wanted him to make anything, I declined as I was exhausted from the trip. The house looks nice, about 5-6 bedrooms, an upstairs living room area, a downstairs living room and dining room and a balcony out front on the second floor. Each bedroom is air conditioned as the main part of the house is not, but has plenty of ceiling fans. Each bedroom also has it's own bathroom, which is nice as it makes it just like having your own living space like in a hotel.

From that point we planned to have breakfast around 9 and Ramesh would bring up tea at around 8 (it felt so odd saying okay to that). I thanked them and gave Sibi, Ramesh and Viswana boxes of salt water taffy from Atlantic City (I figured it would be nice to bring them something from the area where I am from). From there it was off to try to get some sleep.

[EagleFan]

I slept very little after arriving at the guest house around 1:30 AM local time. Between sleeping on the planes a little, the trip and the time zone difference of 9:30 hours I just couldn't get comfortable.

The guest house is much better than I expected and the cook and butler are excellent. The individual bedrooms are air conditioned but the rest of the house is not so it was a little warm in the other areas of the house.

My room has a television with the Dish network (more about that later in the trip), the wireless router is in my room from a DSL line (also more about that later in the trip), a bed that is firm but not uncomfortable (but that is okay for my back) and it's own bathroom (also not air conditioned and it gets hot as hell in there when the temperature outside goes up).

We are being supplied with bottled water that we must use to not only drink but brush our teeth as well. We cannot drink the local water as our bodies are not accustomed to the bacteria and we would spend many days regretting the decision to try it. Because of this we are also provided with a bucket (and a smaller hand held one) in the shower to help bathe as we have to be sure not to get the water from the shower in our mouths.

Marty already had a problem in his first weekend here after eating something at a company picnic and ended up being sick for 4 days. I learned from his experience.

As it turns out, the hot water is not greatly regulated and goes back and forth from cold to scalding hot without hesitation. This makes me not mind using the bucket.

After a late and very plentiful breakfast of sausage, eggs and toast we head to work. Viswana, the chef, has experience cooking for westerners and does a great job of it.

The ride in is crazy, though I am told it is nothing compared to the normal morning rush. It seems obvious that road rules mean nothing. There are people darting in and out of traffic on motorcycles and auto-rickshaws are darting from side to side in the road. Add the pedestrians as there are few sidewalks along that road, the people on bicycles, the people pushing carts and the ox carts and it is sheer chaos.

Along the road that the house is on there is a wide range of everything from a decent looking complex right next door to us to a thatched hut on the other side of us. As we near the main road (East Coast Road) we pass a few "businesses" which are nothing more than shacks. One of the businesses is a butcher shop with various animals hanging from hooks, some of which we have no idea what they could be.

Few people stop at a red light that we approach and the beeping seems insane. This was the craziest ride that I have ever had (that will change).

At work I eventually get to meet the team. The team seems nice but there only a little experience and basically no casino experience so there will be a very steep hill to climb.

It seems evident at the first meeting that the team is not comfortable with me and I noticed that all of the men sat on one side of the table and the three women sat on the other. I wondered if this is part of a cultural thing, maybe a divide between the sexes.

Our meeting consisted of only 3 of the 8 men saying anything and the rest of the team sitting there quietly. I could tell there wasn't a comfort level at that point. By the end of the meeting I was really starting to drag as the jet lag was hitting me big time. Funny how I felt no lag in the morning despite the lack of sleep.

The ride home was again a lesson of true chaos, but would yet to compare to what I would later see.

Viswana made some soup, some kind of fried fish, a cheese toast and some vegetables. I was more tired than hungry at this point. My food fears have started as I am usually a meat and potatoes kind of person. The soup he started us with was good and I found myself eating things in the soup that I usually don't eat, like carrots. I never eat fish but had some and it was pretty good (for fish at least). I had some of the vegetables and the cheese toast was good. I passed on desert as I just wanted to get some sleep.

After dinner I went upstairs, answered a couple emails and went to bed in an attempt to get a little sleep. Even though I was tired, I found it hard getting to sleep so I ended up reading a little and then trying again to finally get some sleep.

[EagleFan]

I still did not sleep well the previous night. I kept waking up every hour or two. It will take a little while to get comfortable. I did catch a little bit of a replay of the Monday night football game where the Cardinals handed the game to the Bears in the wee hours of the morning during one of the times I was awake and had trouble getting back to sleep.

After Ramesh brought tea and the newspaper (more on that later) it was down to breakfast. I asked for a simple breakfast of corn flakes and toast and still got extra (fruit and several helpings of toast kept coming). From there is was off to work.

Traffic was amazing. This was the worst that I have seen (up until that point). You could barely find a couple square feet of road that was not taken up by some sort of vehicle, or person. Our driver Sibi navigates his way through it like a pro, Jeff Gordon has nothing on this guy. The interesting sight of the day was seeing an outside urinal on the side of one of the roads along our "short cut" to work.

In the afternoon I decided that it might be best to meet the team members one on one to see if I could start to get a little better idea for how they felt and to help create a little bit of a comfort level with them. I asked the team leader from this office if that could be arranged and he said it could be.

Throughout the afternoon I met with about 7 people. It was very interesting getting to know them a little better and seeing how they felt about the project and about the outlook of the job in general. I feel that I am more comfortable with them after the meetings. I still appologize to them as I know that it will take a while until I can learn their names (I am bad with names as it is, let alone names that I cannot pronounce).

The three women on the team, who were extremely quiet in the meeting ended up being the last three of the day to meet with me and they seemed to meet me by order of shyness with the shyest seeming to go last. I was able to get them talking and feeling a lot more comfortable dealing with me which I take as a victory since I want the entire team to feel the same way and not become a subdivision between the men and women.

I learned a new meaning for a word. It seems that "freshers" means someone who is new to the field. The three women all described themselves as that and I had to ask Shriram (the local team leader) what that meant. I also found it interesting that only the women described themselves as that and were the only people on the team that the men called freshers. This is even though there were some men on the team who had as little or less experience than the women did. There seems to be a subliminal divide between male and female even though it is denied when mentioned.

I heard some good news today. It looks like I'll be getting a three day weekend as they will be celebrating Divali. I heard several different stories about the legends of the holiday, almost too many to list, so it seems to depend upon your religion, and region, on what you feel the holiday means.

Marty and I were hoping to see some of the celebration but is sounds like it is mostly a family celebration. The holiday is celebrated by shooting off fireworks (or bursting crackers as the local phrase goes). But these fireworks are not like a 4th of July celebration, they are shot off all over the city by each family in a personal celebration.

I left the office before Marty as he had a conference call that would see him not get back to the house until after midnight. After I arrived back as the house I was hearing firecrackers and other fireworks being shot off all around the neighborhood. It sounded like a nice celebration was starting (as I would later find out, that was nothing yet).

At work that day we were given a "soft phone" that plugs into our computer and when we connect to the internet the software connects with our phone system. This give me access to my extension back at my home office in EHT and lets me make calls for free once connected to the internet.

I called my wife, who was not liking my being so far away. Unfortunately part of the way through the call we lost the internet. It would end up being out for quite some time at that point.

Dinner was great. Viswana started me off with a soup that was sort of a combination egg drop soup and Italian wedding soup. It was very good. From there it was chicken that was marinated in something (not sure what it was but it was good), rice and vegetables. Throw in some cheese toast and desert was some kind of blended fruit.

Ramesh had gone home for the holiday until Saturday morning so it was just Viswana there. He stood near the table as I ate and no matter how hard I tried to get him to sit down, he just wouldn't do it. This became my personal crusade throughout the trip to try to get him or Ramesh to have a seat as we were around but it was a losing cause.

I complimented his cooking and them headed up to my room. I was getting tired though it was fairly early (since we had no work the next day). From there I listened to the fireworks and read a little, with the television on in the background (a cricket match, seems that you can find one on television at any time of the day).

Eventually I went to sleep to get ready for the three day weekend.

[EagleFan]

We have the day off today for Divali so we got to sleep in a little. I was waken up a little earlier than I planned with early morning fireworks beginning to celebrate the holiday. Shortly after which the morning tea and newspaper arrived and then it was downstairs for a late breakfast.

Breakfast was good, as usual. After which we prepared for a day sight seeing around the city of Chennai. This was a good chance to see some sighte other than just the trip to the office.

Sibi picked us up around 11 and we headed out towards Chennai. Traffic was bad as normal, but not quite as bad as morning rush hour going to work. We saw some amazing sights just driving around, as people were shopping for the holiday, which is actually Saturday. At one point we saw a family of three on a motorcycle with the husband driving, the wife riding side saddle behind him, a young shild on the husbands lap and boxes on the childs lap.

Riding through the main part of the city we passed the well guarded area where the local mayor stays, another very well guarded building which is the US embassy and a very busy city scene. There was one bus that went acorss an intersection in front of us with about 10 people hanging on the side and one person had lost his footing and was holding on to the side of the door and running until he jumped to get an ever so slight foothold to cling to.

First up was St. Thomas chapel. This is an area where St. Thomas was said to have been lanced and killed. The chapel is at the top of a hill that overlooks Chennai (an amazing sight seeing no tall buildings at all and knowing that somehow millions of people are carmmed into the area). On the way to the top we passed an Indian military complex which is an officer training ground.

We found it amusing that we saw a sign that said we have to ask permission to take pictures. When we went to ask permission we found that "ask permission" means "pay a fee". We would later discover this to be another common occurence during the trip.

After St. Thomas we headed back into the city to see some of the local shopping areas. First we were dropped off at what I would call a tourist trap souvineer shop. The salesman inside was like robo-salesman. Luckily Marty was looking to buy a few things and he latched onto Marty and left me alone.

Marty picked up some souvineers to send back to his kids and we finally got out of there. They kept trying to sell even as he was paying for what he bought. The salesman kept bringing more items over to show us almost right up until we exited the store.

From there we sent to s second such location. It was smaller and filled with many salesmen. This meant that I was also a target. I had no initial plan on getting anything yet and that seemed to work to my advantage as I was finally quoted a price for a gift that I picked up for my wife that was too good to pass up (50 dollars for a nice necklace and charm).

From there we headed to a mall that I did not pick up the exact name for but would later hear it referred to as the City Center. It was a mall with many flloors but very small in space. It also seemed like mostly the same stores on each floor. Marty was looking for a shirt that he saw someone in the office wearing (a long shirt with a button at the neck near the front and with pockets). We were unable to find it in the mall and were not too impressed with that location.

From there we headed to Spencer Plaza. We were told that was an upscale mall but I wouldn't really call it that by our standards (I hope that doesn't sound snobbish). There were several floors and mostly leather shops and silks shops. We found a few very pushy salesmen within, one that even followed us around the entire floor.

Marty found a sheepskin leather jacket with full lining for 38 dollars and picked it up since he didn't have a coat with him and it will probably be cold when he finally gets home at the end of November. The prices are amazing. I will come back pick some things up from here before I leave in a couple weeks.

At one point Sibi had left us as we walked around. The place was packed with people buying stuff for Divali and a few tourists. At one point I turned to MArty and asked how we were going to find Sibi in all of this, his reply was simple as "don't worry, in his time over here Sibi always shows up". No more than a minute after he said that we turned a corner and there was Sibi. I am now a believer.

After a long day of walking we headed back to the guest house. We are both exhausted, not only from the walking but from getting hounded by salesman most of the afternoon. I think they truly would sell you the shirt off their back just for a sale at some of the places we were in.

Dinner was good. I got to try fried rice and some other Chinese foods that the chef made. I hope to sleep well tonight after a day of walking and being full from another good dinner.

After dinner we went outside for a while and watched the family next door shooting off fireworks as part of their Divali celebration. We thought for sure that they were going to end up taking out the car that was about 5 feet away from where they were setting them off. It was quite a celebration and quite fun to watch. The mosquitos started getting a little too annoying so we headed back inside.

From there I settled in, watched TV and read a little. With the internet still being out I could not communicate with anyone home so I headed to bed.

[EagleFan]

I was awaken at around 5:30 with the sound of what were fireworks as the celebration continued. Today is the actual holiday of Deivali. It was a good thing that we knew about the celebration and not only heard but saw some of it leading up to this morning as it sounded like we were in the middle of a war zone with all the explosions from the fireworks. IT definitely sounds like they are having a good time all over the area.

As I was getting ready for breakfast before what was going to be a quiet day at the house we ended up losing power. It was an odd situation as there seems to be multiple lines that come into the house and we lost at least one of them. The air and many of the lights in the bedrooms and bathrooms went out. The televisions stayed on as did a couple lights that were hooked to the same line. I happened to be in the bathroom busrhing my teeth and the lights went out but I heard the TV still on in the room so I thought maybe it was just a circuit.

Our office decided to put us in a hotel until Monday as they were not sure how quickly it would get fixed on the holiday so we ate and then packed for a couple day trip to the city. Unfortunately I had to pack my larg suitcase as my carryon wasn't big enough for a couple days worth of clothes.

We were put in The Park hotel in the middle of Chennai. The hotel was nice (we were told it was a 5 star hotel but in all honesty it wouldn't be by most standards but it was nice enough so I had no complaints about the hotel). The rooms seemed okay and more imnportantly there was internet available so I could be connected with the world again.

After getting settled in we decided to take a walk around the area. We headed up one of the streets and met a barrage of auto-rickshaw drivers wanting to give us a ride. They were a very persistent group as one even followed beside us for 3 blocks as we walked. We had to continue to tell them that we did not want a ride but they did not seem to listen to us at all and kept asking.

A couple blocks away we found a photo shop and Marty dropped off a photo disk to get prints made for Ramesh, Viswana and Sibi as they all expressed interest in the pictures that he had taken of them. When we came back later we were both amazed at how inexpensve it was to get the prints done.

After a while we got a little too far into town and started getting really mobbed by beggars, some began grabbing and pulling at us so we decided to turn and head back to the hotel. Along the way we stopped in a couple of shops but didn't pick anything up. We found some of the names a little amusing as they were based on some American stores (such as Babies R Here and Toys R Here).

After the walk we headed up and decided to meet later for dinner. I headed back to my room and did a little work, and surfed the internet a little. Shortly there was a knock on the door and it was housekeeping.

This is where things turned odd. The "night maid" was a young male who was quite obviously gay. Actually, I must say that it wasn't immediately obvious since many of the men in this culture seem that way but are not, it's just a cultural difference (or so it seems to me). I am usually live and let live but he was a bit much, as I would soon find out.

He said he was there for turn down service. He placed a bath mat in the bathroom and then turned down the bed. In that time he also placed flowerrs by the bed and had a brief comnversation with me (which I didn't think anything of at the moment) in which I revealed that the next day was going to be my birthday.

At that point he was going to leave some sort of body oils on the night stand and asked me if I had ever used them (one was marked peace and one was marked dreams). I said no and he asked if he could apply them to me. This made me feel quite uncomfortable.

I declined and he continued to ask. He then asked if he could just apply them to my legs so I could see how they were and asked me to take my pants off. I again declined and told him that I had a lot of work to do and dinner to get ready for. He asked when I would be back in the room and I said that I had no idea.

I told him that we were probably going to be having a couple drinks after dinner so I had no idea when I would be back. He followed that up with an inquisitive "you getting drunk?" to which I replied "not that drunk" (emphasized for the situation) but he did not seem to understand my meaning.

He finally left with a frightening "Sweet dreams my darling" comment.

Soon it was dinner time and I met Marty near the restaraunt downstairs. I had some soups, which was okay except for the mushrooms that I had to avoid (can't stand them) and then some chili spiced pork chops and mashed potatoes for the main course. Dinner was quite good and also surprisingly inexpensive for eating in a fairly expensive hotel.

From there we went to the hotel bar and had a drink. The most fun we had was just watching the people. There were quite a few locals as the only type of night life is the hotel bars in the city. We later found this to be more of a Chennai thing than an India thing as Chennai is part of the "conservative south".

We had fun watching some of the locals attempt to pick up thrtee very attactive local women sitting at a table. Each one got shot down rather quickly, that was rather amusing entertainment. The local girls who were in the bar were all westernized, as we expected to see.

Midway through the night a woman sat next to me at the bar and I heard her speaking English. I found out that she was from Alabama but originally from New Jersey, in the town where my brother's ex-wife is from. She has been to Chennai several times and we all had a good conversation about what things are like in Chennai and what to expect with different customs and how some of the locals react to various situations.

One insight that she offered was that most of the locals have decisions made for them their entire life and do not yet have the skills, or confidence, to jump into business decisions. The would sexplain a lot of the questions that I receive about the project and does make sense based on the culture. That will change through time, as the country evolves into an IT hub.

Things got a little strange at one point as she received a call for work and excused herself to take it. At that point another woman came over and began to talk to me. She was from France and was asking if I spoke French or Dutch. When I told here I was from America she was able to speak a little broken English to communicate and began asking me more questions about what I was hear for and what plans I had.

The odd part is that she was with a person who I thought may have been her boyfriend. I felt rather odd talking to her (for one thing I am married, and for another it seems odd talking to a woman at a bar while her boyfriend sits and watches) and soon that conversation ended.

Soon it was getting late and I decided to call it a night. I headed up to my room and went to sleep as it would be an early day on Sunday as we will be heading to Mahabalipuram to see some temples and I hear that will be a lot of walking.