Incredible India

Docked in Chennai (Madras) yesterday,late morning.Had to meet with Immigration officials in the theatre and have our passports stamped.Then we could go ashore.I went on the shortest excursion,a shopping tour.Our bus was stopped outside the port by more officials who checked our passports,comparing either our names or passport numbers to a list.This took some time,beaurocracy being one of the incredible things about India.
We were taken to a shop that sold jewels and pashminas.Most of us wanted to see tops so our guide brought us to a "mall".It had many little shops,not air conditioned.I bought some tops and pants and tops that come with a scarf,good for lounging.We met at the designated place and had to cross a huge intersection to where the bus was parked.I would have hesitated to do this on my own,without the guide.I saw the shuttle parked in front of our bus,so those who took the shuttle in would have to fight the traffic on their own.Our guide never explained any landmarks to us.I took a few pictures,a statue of a man,Indian?English? a large building and the only one with a name,the Acad.of Music.
So many people signed up for the spice dinner that it was held at two hotels,both 5 star,
the Sheraton and the Taj and will be held tonight also.Those who went last night loved it.I am going tonight.
Tomorrow we leave for Sri Lanka where we will have 3 stops.I am not going on a tour tomorrow but doing highlights of Galle(prounced Gaul) the next day and then we dock in Columbo before going back to India,Cochin and then Bombay (Mumbai)
I'll be so glad when we get away from this crushing heat and humidity.
Our bus let us off close to the gangplank but we had to go into the terminal and be screened.This may be the result of the bombing of the hotel in Mumbai.

Chennai, India