Day 19
Today we had to get up at ungodly hour of 4:30am, to be at Cantonment Railway Station for our 6:08am train to Chennai. It was not pretty. The taxi was early, then left without us, then came back for us, so we made it. "Thanks god."
We arrived in hot, sticky, hard-to-breathe Chennai around 11:00am. Desperate to find a way to the bus station, we made a rash decision and hopped in an auto without setting a price - big mistake! Forty-five minutes later, and through thicker traffic than we have seen thus far, (if that is even possible), we arrive at the bus terminal, and Mr. Auto demands Rs.300. No threats of getting the police involved even phased this guy. So we parted ways; him Rs.250 richer.
The kids were losing mobility fast, the heat was so intense, so we searched for bus info. Much to our chagrin, all the signage was in Tamil! No English. Not even any Hindi! I was astonished. And annoyed. Anyways, we found an info desk, and a nice man told us there were AC buses to Pondicherry via Mahaballipuram hourly. Gagan freaked for a moment, as it was 12:01pm. I reminded him we were in India. We got on the bus and were on our way.
The bus dropped us off just at the outskirts of Maha, and an auto quickly grabbed us up, and took us 5 min to our hotel.
We were tired from all that travelling.
We spent the rest of the day at the beautiful hotel, having lunch, swimming, talking to the pigeons, and sweating in the coastal heat.
