Destinylaw:

Chennai’s great :)Don’t be bogged down by the weather. Yes, it’s hot and will be sweltering heat in Summer, but it’s nothing that can’t be handled. All you will need is sunscreen, a hat/umbrella and lots of cool drinks/water. You’ll find it way too hot and humid the first couple of days, but after that you’ll get used to it.

For shopping, try Globus, Lifestyle, Shopper’s Stop, Spencer Plaza, Fountain Plaza, Alsa Mall and Cisons Complex, Central Cottage Industries Emporium and T. Nagar (plenty of small and big stores to browse through, thought the traffic may be chaotic).

Places of interest would be Mammallapuram (a.k.a. Mahabalipuram or Mahabs) that has sculptures from the Pallava period, beaches (Marina and Elliot), Dakshinachitra (a heritage village) at Muthukadu en route to Mahabs, temples (Parthasarathi temple, Peter’s Road, Triplicane, Sri Kapaleswarar Temple, near Kutchery Road, Mylapore and Shirdi Sai temple, Mylapore), Pondicherry (about 3 hours from Chennai), amusement parks (Kishkintha and Dizzy World), Muthukadu Boat House, Valluvar Kottam, etc.

Food’s aplenty – If you like kababs, try Kabul along TTK road….they have yummy dhal makhani, sheesh kababs and khurmi naan among other things. Eden at Besant Nagar has pretty good bakes and less spicy Indian food, Saravana Bhavan has amazing idlis, dosas and the like…plenty of other places are there…Saanjha Choola, Dakshin, Dhabba Express, Vasantha Bhavan, Annalakshmi, Southern Spice, Mathura Restaurant etc. If you don’t mind sacrificing ambience for taste, then the Mylai Karpagambal Mess in Mylapore serves really yummy food.

Traffic is pretty chaotic…no one really follows any traffic rules, but do as everyone else does and you’ll be fine :) You need to be careful with auto drivers. They’re a strange breed….awfully sweet with known customers and very helpful to strangers and people that chat up with them, but they can and most probably will fleece you if you seem like you’re out of town and don’t know the city. Always discuss the fare BEFORE you get into the auto as they have a tendency to ask you to give them what you think is fair and will then start a big argument at the end of the journey saying it is too less. Also, if you can speak Tamil, do! The more you seem knowledgeable of the place and where you are going, the lesser chance you have of being fleeced.

The links that Santosh Narayanan has provided will offer you much more information. Enjoy Chennai…it’s lovely :)Good luck with your internship.

Aparna