Chennai (Madras) Favorites

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Favorite thing: The worst Auto rickshaw service i the country. the drivers cheats & cheats only by 200% plus every time. BE CAREFUL !

Fondest memory: Good development in outer part of the city. Mount Road - one of the main street in the city is very gloomy in the night (bad street lights) and huge traffic.

Favorite thing: even though places in chennai are well connected by buses, for short distances autorickshaws are the basic mode of transport .The minimum fare charged is Rs 30/-that is for locals .If they smell that you are a tourist the charge is usually plus 20.so enquire.
But unlike in other places they take you straight to your destination and can be good company.

Favorite thing: A brief annotated bibliography of the basic guides...

Culture Shock! India - I think the author is a northerner, but the content is dead on. "Someone once said that whatever you say about India, the opposite is also true." So true. Highly recommended.

Rough Guide Chronicle: India - brief history and timeline, 30,000 BC - 2002 AD; very interesting, if you don't have time to read more in depth. Recommended.

Madras (Re-)Discovered - a historical guide to the city of Chennai/Madras, beginning about when the British arrived. (I've heard that many well-educated natives of Madras learned Indian history starting at the time of British occupation.) Good pre-British info, great old photos.

Lonely Plant: South India
Rough Guide: South India
Footprint: South India
These are all on the budget-travel end, and all are reasonably good at picking out interesting things. None of the phone numbers seem to be up-to-date, though. I doubt that's the publishers' fault.

Ponniyan Selvan (by Kalki) - fictional retelling of the flowering of Chozha history. Very telling, probably hard to find outside of India.

At Home in Madras: A Guide to Chennai - From the Overseas Women's Club, this is a practical guide to settling a family in Madras. Most of the details change fast. (The club is open to foreign women living here [foreign = not from Madras].)

If you want to learn Tamil script to read signs, try by learning to write it. Damned if I can tell you what it's called, but there's a workbook ISBN 81-277-0002-9 that shows how to write all 246 characters? figures? letter combinations?. You'll need to find someone to tell you what the corresponding sounds are. But it's good.

Fondest memory: Dravidian history and culture is at least 5500 years old, one of the oldest recorded on the planet. It's well worth learning something about it before you come. Note that the south is radically different from the north in tradition, language, and culture, so if you've studied Hindi and related history/culture/philosophy/religion/social studies it will mean nothing in the south.

Favorite thing: I really enjoyed walking the evening markets in Parry's. Tell your driver to stop you opposite the Central Bus Station.
Here you'll find almost every ware you could possible imagine, it will be a culture shock to see how these people live and sell their produce.
You'll walk through intoxicating strectches of alleyways filled with flowers, stacked pyramids of juicy local fruit, glittering gemstones and polished gold, freshly cooked local food, streets filled with aluminium pots of all shapes and sizes, fluttering silk sarees at unimaginably cheap prices..etc

Always,always, keep your money close to your body, and bargain!

Don't be afraid of the stares, or shouts, or beggars, once you get over it, you ll start to really experience the place.Dont give the beggars money, I bought them food, for which they are appreciative.Try and spread your purchases, they are all so poor, it doesnt seem fair to buy from only one family..

Fondest memory: How everything is so cheap

Favorite thing: I really enjoyed walking the evening markets in Parry's. Tell your driver to stop you opposite the Central Bus Station.
Here you'll find almost every ware you could possible imagine, it will be a culture shock to see how these people live and sell their produce.
You'll walk through intoxicating strectches of alleyways filled with flowers, stacked pyramids of juicy local fruit, glittering gemstones and polished gold, freshly cooked local food, streets filled with aluminium pots of all shapes and sizes, fluttering silk sarees at unimaginably cheap prices..etc

Fondest memory: How everything is so cheap

Favorite thing:
Cannimara Public Library, is one of the oldest&biggest library in Chennai,
it was build by then Governer of Madras state,Lord Coniemara 1890,it was opend for public on 1896.Its main landmark at Egmore. Its next to Government Egmore museum.
This Libarary is big resourse for students ,subject varying tecnical to arts,can get rarest books here for reference.
My college says my most visted place in the city :),I can still feel the smell the old books.

Favorite thing:
This is old Lord Krishna temple,the orignally build by Pallavas ie the 8 the century.It was
occupied at various times in16th,17 centuries by Golconda,Dutch,and French.
One of the big&old temple in Chennai.
This is one of the most visited Divya Desam,the temple is big as 1.5 acres,and had 2 prakarams.
Infont of the temple there is big temple tank ,once there were lot of lilly flowers used to be there.Even though the temple tank is near seashore,you can't find any fish in this water .Old times this tank water was used for "pooja".Now :( its not very clean watter.

Its famous temple in city,evening will be crowded.I love to visit this temple.:). Inside photography is not allowed.

Favorite thing: South of Fort St. George, along Chennai Beach, you'll encounter Anna Park. The small, green park contains a memorial to a former chief minister of Tamilnadu.

In comparison to the rest of the beach, this is a startlingly clean little patch of land, obviously well supervised and maintained. It's worth popping in for a stroll. . .