Southern Sojourn 1 - Chennai Express - The Remnants (Photolog)

Now these are some more pics from the Chennai (The final set), before we head out to Mahabalipuram.

Chennai Lighthouse, situated at one end of Marina beach.

Chennai Citi Centre Mall during evening time.

Aeriel shot of M A Chidambaram Stadium. Many international cricket matches have been held here, and also its the home ground of Chennai Super Kings (CSK). It has been renovated and given a complete new look for the ICC WC 2011. Looks sassy with those canopy roofs.

Marina Beach with the promenade, Kamarajar Salai and Chennai Police HQ.

Kathipara Jn. Claims to be the first full cloverleaf interchange in India. The elevated line that criss crosses is the Chennai Metro track.

Napier Bridge. One of the city's oldest bridges, it was built in 1869 by Francis Napier who was the Governor of Madras from 1866 to 1872.

Fort St George. The fort currently houses the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly and other official buildings.

The compound walls are of TNLA, and the gate. 

The fishermen area of Marina Beach near Foreshore Estate.

The Tamil Nadu Police HQ.

The HQ of India Cement Limited. This is the owner of CSK, where M S Dhoni also works.

A daily street scene from Adyar, Chennai. 

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Banjara_the nomadic

Southern Sojourn 1 - Chennai Express - Beaches and More

Chennai is a coastal city and is located on the shores of Bay of Bengal. And hence, there are few famous beaches in the city, which also acts as weekend getaway for Chennaites. There are two main beaches in the city, apart from few more beaches. The main, and the famous one is Marina Beach. The other one being Elliot's Beach at Besant Nagar.

Now some gyan about Marina Beach. It covers a distance of 13 km (8.1 mi), making it the longest natural urban beach in India and the world's eleventh longest beach. The average width of the beach is 300 m (980 ft). Also there has been a promenade being made in recent times, which stretches for 6 km (3.7 mi).

Here are few snaps from Marina -

One of the galleries in the promenade, during evening time:

The Rock Fountain - One of the many installations on the Marina Promenade.

MGR Memorial - It is located at the beginning of the Marina Promenade.

The Promenade road.

The Triumph of Labour statue on Marina Promenade.

Landscapes and beautification along Marina Promenade.

Now some gyan regarding Elliot's Beach. It is named after Edward Elliot, Governor of Madras. It is popularly known as Besant Nagar Beach as it is located at Besant Nagar.

Now some pics of Elliot's Beach -

 

On the Elliot's Beach as  the evening sets in the backdrop.

The beach road in front of Elliot's Beach, with beautiful hues of the sunset.

The road in front of the beach during evening time.

The rough and the choppy waves of the sea. The reason behind this rough sea was that a cyclonic storm named, was approaching the very next day. Luckily though TN was braced, but there was widespread destruction in rest of the eastern coastline. The roar of the waves, made me hum an old song "Sagar kinare, dil yeh pukare". No wonder that these waves can make your mood merrier.

"Gum mein tere sahil pe baithe ashkein bahaya,

Khusi mein tere sahil pe baithe muskurahaton ki jhari failaya."

By the time i left Marina Beach, it was dinner time. So had my dinner and then returned to my hotel room to call it a day.

Now there was change in itenary which took place from the next day!

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Banjara_the nomadic

Southern Sojourn 1 - Chennai Express - The Photolog

Chennai Airport terminal

Some streetscapes of Chennai

Chennai Central Railway Station. Chennai has two major railway stations. One is this one, and the other one is Chennai Egmore Jn. It's about 2-3kms from this place.

The old TNLA (Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly) building. Presently its being transformed to a hospital!! Tamil Nadu Government Multi-Super-Speciality Hospital.
Opened in February 2014 as a referral hospital, similar to the AIIMS (New Delhi)

.
Hyatt Regency, Chennai

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Banjara_the nomadic

Southern Sojourn 1 - Chennai Express - Vanakkam Chennai (வணக்கம் சென்னை)

So here it all begin. It is the the day. Woke up too early to call it morning. Checked the cell phone it was just 2.30  am. The other days I go off to sleep then. Now because of the excitement I was not able to sleep properly. Woke up finally at 3 am and did all the chores and took my bath. Did the final packing, as few items were still left to be packed in. Finally my pre-booked cab arrived at my place at  4 am and i set sail for the Southern Sojourn to unfurl. Looking around were the shimmering colorful lights decorating almost every lanes and by lanes of the city, making me realize that its the festival of the year, for which every citizen of Kolkata looks forward to. The roads which should have been deserted on a normal day at this time, were fluttering with revelers. There was a celebration in the air. But deep in my heart, though sad, was feeling the joy of exploring a new place.

"Life is a journey and one has to just keep on exploring it!"

 

Thinking about all these, I arrived at CCU airport, and did the check-in. Well I did an too early check in. So started roaming around the terminal. Now that time it was being recently completed, so thought of giving it a complete look. It was large and spacious, and also after the complete look it made me feel hungry, so found a subway outlet, and had a sub sandwich. Later after a while I realized it was time for me get my security checks done. So went to the security check area where after the check was waiting at the boarding gates to open, so that I could get to my seat asap. After a while they did annouce for boarding. So we made a queue and went into the flight, to my designated seat. And after a while the plane took off high into the sky, bidding goodbye to CCU. However, I started having mixed feelings inside me. I would be going back to the same place where I had some bitter experiences of my life in past, and did pledge to myself, of not coming back to the city. But as the word says, “Past is past, present is a present, so open it and enjoy it!”

  
Two and a half hours later, and with lots of turbulence in mid air, reached Chennai. Now, this is a contrasting thing which caught my eyes. It was 5yrs ago then, that I had last been in Chennai, and there had been a lots of development, which made me realize that there has been lots of changes happened on this front!

Anyways, after claiming my luggage, went out to get the pick up car, which was waiting at the parking. And this is where I faced my first, and the then endless experience of language barrier. And I realized, its back to square one! After a while spotted my car, which took me to my hotel. Thanks to peak hour traffic and some VIP movements, 35mins trip, took more than an hour!!

After checking in, took some rest at my room. Now the hotel had a concierge desk, where they did provide me with a car, which remained my roadtrip partner, till Pondicherry.

So after the deal, went back to my room and had a sumptuous meal. After which went out to visit Chennai, for a city tour.

Though there is nothing much to be seen in the city, still there were few places, which was worth visiting. 

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Banjara_the nomadic

Southern Sojourn 1 - The Itenary and Teasers

So this is how the itenary was, before the beginning of the trip.

Day 1: Chennai city tour (post lunch).
Day 2: Chennai city tour (morning), Post lunch Mahabalipuram on the way to Pondicherry.
Day 3: Pondicherry.
Day 4: Off to Madurai.
Day 5: Madurai city tour.
Day 6: Rameshwaram, Dhanushkodi and onwards to Kanyakumari.
Day 7: Kanyakumari tour, (post lunch) onwards to Chennai.
Day 8: Chennai (shopping), back to CCU (evening).

But itenaries are always scheduled to last minute change, and it did happen! More of it, later part of the blog.

Chennai during evening time

Sculpture at one of the excavated sites in Mabalipuram

The Aurobindo Ashram at Pondicherry.

The infamous Minakshi Temple of Madurai.

Pamban rail bridge (The only working rail bridge over the sea). Made me remember of a scene from "Chennai Express".

The beautiful Indian highways. Truly an engineering feet.

Last, but not the least, Vivekananda Memorial Rock at Kanyakumari!

Abhi toh bas shuruwat hai! Keep watching this blog for more!
Cheers!

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Banjara_the nomadic

Southern Sojourn 1 - Plannings and Preperations

So here begins my plan to do a roadtrip. A roadtrip covering distances and miles together. this plan was going around in my head, but i was looking for a chance to do this trip. And finally it happened. Did my bookings through TripAdvisor, and friends it was the best in offer, in true terms value for money.

the roadtrip was planned during the navratri holidays, as it the longest holiday we get. So i planned to visit extreme south of India, i.e. Tamil Nadu, and the plan was to visit as much places possible as this was the ultimate chance to explore the state. I was to board from Kolkata (CCU). Now the time i was leaving the city it was a festival time, Durga Puja, the biggest festival of the city. So it was the best time to get out of the hustle bustle, as at that time the city would be max populated. Did book my flight tickets, yes as i wanted to spend the maximum time on this roadtrip. And finally the D-day arrived. It was a total of 8 days trip.

Now this was it all set and done.

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Banjara_the nomadic

Southern Sojourn 1 - Prelude

Hello friends!

How all of you are doing?

It's me, Banjara, and I am back after a long time with my booty of travelogues. Hope u all will be enjoying them.

Well this time I hope that I will keep this blog alive.

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Banjara_the nomadic