Rambling through Chennai

We spent several days exploring Chennai, a large, congested city on the Bay of Bengal. Many travelers and even the traveler's bible (aka Lonely Planet) told us that there was little to see here and wasn't worth a stop. We would have had to go out of our way to avoid the city, so we figured we might as well judge Chennai ourselves. On our first afternoon, Tim and I set out on one of our typical walking tours in whihc we return absolutely exhausted...but it is how we really enjoy taking in the sites and sounds of the city. We were staying in an area of the city with narrow rambling lanes lined with buildings towering high over the streets, trapping on the exhaust and choking the street. On the first level of these buildings are many specialty shops composed of a single room stacked high with motors to be rewound, identical mechanical parts in heaping piles, or piles of lumber being cut. Bright blue or green interiors witha layer of black masking the paint job. Shops without a single shelf, sometimes not even a chair. The work spills out into the street...or perhaps is only found on the street in front of the shop. Rickshaws completely dismantled by a small set of tools and a pair of black, greasy hands. I loved getting lost ambling through the shops getting a snapshot of what the people did. It is an interesting dance between the motorcycles and rickshaws squeezing their way past pedestrians on the bustling lanes that seem to never sleep.