The next morning, after a nice coffee, I met friends from Pondicherry who helped me navigate by foot around Chennai. The first job was to draw money. It took literally hours to achieve: every bank turning me down!! I have no idea why this happened, and not does my bank, whom I have contacted. No money for taxi to return to the airport, no money for food, drink in the heat. I tried to find the Canadian embassy for help but found that they had relocated to another city!! I returned to the hotel, checked out, and had a fiasco over my passport as they thought my visa had expired. ( They looked at my old visa!) At every turn, everything went wrong. At last, I found English pounds in my wallet, exchanged them for rupees. Thank goodness as I could not have flown out of the city!! The trip to the Indian embassy was a waste of time. They were no help at all, and quite unpleasant. So, I will probably return to the UK at the beginning of July.
I spent most of the day at the airport, freezing with the air conditioning. One delightful thing happened. I left my glasses case with some documents in it, in the taxi the previous night. As I entered the airport, the taxi driver saw me, and yelled. I knew he had my glasses case. He took me to his taxi, and gave them to me. I thanked him, gave him a nice tip, thought him watermelon juice at the airport cafe, and he insisted on holding my baggage all the way, and refused another tip.
I arrived in COIMBATORE about 6:15 PM and my taxi drive was not there. I had lost his phone number, and was thinking of getting another taxi to Coonoor when he did show up. He is a good driver, and he navigated a scary trip home in the dark up the mountains, with half the vehicles with no lights, hairpin bends, very scary traffic scenarios, but amazingly it all works out here in Indian. Only in India!! On arrival at the retreat centre I found that I had been locked out!! More uncertainty, as that was surely the theme of the day. I found uncertainty a challenge today. Anyway I called the guy who got me to the retreat, and he know the manager, and within 5 minutes the security guy arrived and let me in. They lock the front gate as bison walk in during the night and eat all the flowers.
Well, the learning was that one should just embrace uncertainty, even if it gets scary as it did today. Everything usually works out and it sure did for me today. I don't want to face this all again to fly to Sri Lanka, wait for a visa, and fly back. Enough is enough. Thanks for checking in!!
Above: road side stop for coconut water, fresh, and thirst quenching
Above: goats are part of the traffic too on the road trip. BELOW: Pouring coffee..the metal cup is too hot to hold, the coffee too hot, so you pour it into bowl, and then drink
Above: harbour in Chennai taken from the plane window
Above and below: this is Pandi, who returned my glasses case. My glasses would have been destroyed in travelling without a case, and I can't see without them. He insisted on a pic with my hat, which is always a favourite with locals.This is the English hat, as others got lost on the travels..lol!
I spent most of the day at the airport, freezing with the air conditioning. One delightful thing happened. I left my glasses case with some documents in it, in the taxi the previous night. As I entered the airport, the taxi driver saw me, and yelled. I knew he had my glasses case. He took me to his taxi, and gave them to me. I thanked him, gave him a nice tip, thought him watermelon juice at the airport cafe, and he insisted on holding my baggage all the way, and refused another tip.
I arrived in COIMBATORE about 6:15 PM and my taxi drive was not there. I had lost his phone number, and was thinking of getting another taxi to Coonoor when he did show up. He is a good driver, and he navigated a scary trip home in the dark up the mountains, with half the vehicles with no lights, hairpin bends, very scary traffic scenarios, but amazingly it all works out here in Indian. Only in India!! On arrival at the retreat centre I found that I had been locked out!! More uncertainty, as that was surely the theme of the day. I found uncertainty a challenge today. Anyway I called the guy who got me to the retreat, and he know the manager, and within 5 minutes the security guy arrived and let me in. They lock the front gate as bison walk in during the night and eat all the flowers.
Well, the learning was that one should just embrace uncertainty, even if it gets scary as it did today. Everything usually works out and it sure did for me today. I don't want to face this all again to fly to Sri Lanka, wait for a visa, and fly back. Enough is enough. Thanks for checking in!!
!!
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