Traditional City of South India - Chennai

This was my third visit to Chennai so thought of penning down my experience. It is also called Detroit of South Asia as it is the automobile capital of India. Offlate it has become famous for silent swindlers.....yes the auto drivers. Tamil is a must-know language for survival.

How we reached:

We left Bangalore at 1.30 pm in the afternoon and took 2 hrs to reach Hosur. I was wondering how bad Bangalore traffic can get. The highway was simply good without any potholes. We reached Chennai at 6.30pm in the evening. Bumpy ride on Poonamalee high road was little disappointing to me.

Accommodations:

There are plenty of star hotels in Chennai. Will list out few of them....

1. Chola Sheraton - 5 star - Located on Cathedral road

2. Taj Connemara - 5 star - Located on Binny Road

3. Hotel Green Park - 4 star

- Located in Vadapalani, it has conference halls, gym, health spa, coffee shop, multi cuisine restaurant. Recently all rooms are upgraded to provide 24hr internet facility for free. Have no complaints against this hotel. Enjoyed the stay!


Shopping:

Chennai has been one of my favourite cities when it comes to shopping. Pondy Bazar/Spencer Plaza/Chennai Central Mall are ideal place for shopping. Saravanan Stores in T.Nagar reminds me of Mustafa Shopping Center of Singapore. Jhilmil in Pondy Bazar has good lot of fancy jewellery. I almost ended up buying couple of them. I was given a flower and bill almost pained in yellow (I guess it was soaked in turmeric and dried) for my purchases. Guess why? Coz I was the first customer of the day! Indeed Chennai has not lost its traditional touch over the years.

Places to Visit:

Arulmigu Kapaleeshwar Temple - Located in Mylapore, this temple is dedicated to Lord Siva. This temple has beautifully pained gopurams and has a reasonably big and clean tank. Uniqueness of this temple is that you will find the images of 63 Saivaite saints (Nayanmars) in the outer courtyard. Temple celebrates its Brahmotsavam in March-April every year for ten days during which all the 63 bronze idols are taken in a colorful procession through the streets of Mylapore. Like many other temples only Hindus get the darshana.

Government Museum - The museum is located on Pantheon Road between Egmore and Anna Salai. The building originally belonged to Pantheon Committee, who were responsible for improvising the social life of British in Madras. The museum contains exhibits of pre-historic era. Bronze gallery was beautifully lit and was amazed to see huge sculptures of "Nataraja". The Amaravati gallery with its invaluable collection of Buddhist, Jain and other sculptures offers a real treat to your eyes. There is also a section for zoology, geology and anthropology. This place is really worth a visit.

Snake Park - This park located in Guindy, is home to lot of snakes, crocodiles and turtles. The entrance fee is Rs 5 but the car parking is Rs 15 ...sounds funny isn’t it? It was sad to notice that 20 huge crocs were dumped in a 300 sq ft(approx) area. The park hosts a demonstration of venom extraction and provide interesting information on the Snake habitat.

Vivekanandar Illam - This building facing Marina beach was built in 1842 by Mr.Tudor to store Ice bars imported from US. Swami Vivekananda stayed in this building during his visit to Chennai in 1897. Building was taken over by govt in 1930 and in 1963 it was renamed to Vivekanandar Illam.

Marina Beach - This 13 Kms long beach is said to be second longest beach in the world. A stroll along the Marina during sunset is another must-do activity. Anna square and MGR memorial are serene place on the northern end of Marina facing sea.

Madras Lighthouse and Fort St George are drive past places in Chennai as visitors are not allowed.

Entertainment:

Go-Karting - Two places that I know of go-karting are "Kart Beat" on Arcot road and "Kart Attack" on ECR road.

Prarthana Beach Drive-in Theatre - This theatre claims to be World’s first open-air beach drive in theatre. They mainly screen Tamil movie.

Mayajaal - Located on ECR road, this multiplex has six screens. Their web-site claimed having modern seating, sound and projection systems, but I was rather disappointed. It was no where in par with PVR’s or Inox of Bangalore.

VGP Universal Kingdom - Located on ECR road, it provides good entertainment for kids and adults.

Eat-Outs:

Like Bangalore, Chennai is never short of restaurants.

Dhaba Express - This is located on Cenotaph Road and serves authentic Punjabi food. This restaurant has open dining area with "Khattiyas" and the food is served in thali and water is brass tumblers. Sweet Lassi is a must-try. It is reasonably priced.

Karaikudi - Located on Dr.Radhakrishana Salai serves Chettinad food. It has chain of restaurants all over Chennai. They have reasonably priced menu. The male staff is traditionally dressed in dhoti. They have maintained same food consistency across all the other outlets. Overall nice place to have lunch/dinner.

Palki - This is located on Cathedral road and serves North Indian veg and non-veg food. I was lured by the nice name and a beautiful board outside but the food was simply horrible. Expensive place to dine!

Murugan Idli Shop - Located in T.Nagar, this is a small restaurant (serves only south indian veg delicacies) with bare minimum facilities (table and chair to sit). Everything is served on plantain leaf (no spoons or forks). They serve atleast 4-5 different chutneys and they all tasted so different! Sweet pongal was so yummy! Their rates are much cheaper when compared to Sarvana Bhavan. We went in peak hour so had to sit with unknown people facing us. Anyways it doesn’t matter as long you are relishing the food.

Little Italy - Located in Nugambakkam, it serves Italian food but purely veg. Pastas tasted little too salty otherwise the starters were great. Expensive place to dine though.

ECR Dhaba - Located on ECR road, serves Indian, Tandoor and Chinese. The food was okay-dokey. The entire atmosphere did not appeal to me. It was dimly lit (hardly could read the menu) and they took long to serve. Above all, there was no water in the wash room.

Places around Chennai:

Pondicherry - Pondicherry is 162Km from Chennai and takes approx 2-3 hrs to reach. The drive on silky smooth ECR road is breath taking. It is a popular weekend getaway for Chennaites.

Mahabalipuram - Mahabalipuram is 58Km from Chennai and takes an hour to reach. Mahabalipuram or Mamallapuram, famous for its shore temples, rock carvings and monolith sculptures was capital of Pallava kings.

Kancheepuram - Kancheepuram is 75Km from Chennai. This place is globally famous for silk sarees and temples.