Payanam Chennai!!!

I am not an avid traveler, but I have always liked the concept of travelling! Not much experiences also. Strange it may seem, but the last time I went beyond West Bengal was in class 2. And the place was Puri - a not very unfamiliar place for all. But last week I've had the chance to visit Chennai. Primarily it wasn't a tour. My family had doctor’s appointment at the Apollo Hospital. But somewhere in my mind, I had plans to explore places, as many as possible within the scheduled time.  

We boarded Coromandal Express and started off on 7^th at 2.45pm. The train had to traverse a total distance of 1662 km in 27 hours. Sadly my smartphone was jinxed, so I had carried my roommate’s laptop to amuse me. I booked an upper berth for myself, went up and was all set to enjoy the journey.

Reached the Chennai Central Station the next day at around 6 pm. Finding a hotel was quite tiresome as it had to be near the hospital. First we found, Hotel Ammu Palace. It looked decent from outside but was just the opposite from inside. Finally we came across Royal Home. It was just 10 minutes walking distance from the Apollo. The place was known as Thousand Lights.  The rooms were pretty decent, but unfortunately they had only one room left, that too at the ground floor. But after a long journey, no one was enthusiastic to find out better options and finally locked it. The next day, I had to be with everyone at the hospital. But from the second day, I started off as a lone traveler for the rest of the days.

It was Thursday and I began with MGR Memorial.  It is built on Marina Beach in memory of former chief minister of Chennai, M.G.Ramachandran. It was kind of the Victoria Memorial of Kolkata. There were couples here and there. The place had many beautiful columns and structures built all around.  The entrance had a structure of two leaves and a horse, commonly called the Pegasus. The University of Madras was just nearby. It was a nice view overall with pleasant breeze from across the sea. Alongside was the Marina Beach. The beach experience wasn't much exciting as I was alone and the stench of dead fishes all around added to it. Took a few photographs. Don’t expect wonders as they were by a point and shoot camera.

The next venture was the National Park at Guindy. The only thing that pissed me was the auto fare. Very less number of share-auto were available. And the reserved ones charged as much as Rs 40 just for only a km. So decided to board the bus from Thousand Lights to Guindy. The distance was about 15 km. On the way, saw Vivekananda Home and the CSI Church. Reached Guindy National Park after around half an hour.  It had two parks inside it. One Zoological Park and a Snake Park.  I availed the entry tickets and went in to the zoological park.  The park is basically a children’s park. It had quite a lot of varieties in the animals it kept. Those included wild dogs, antelopes, owls, peacock, pelicans etc. Spent almost an hour and a half over there, came out and went on for the Snake Park. Although haven’t visited much of a kind, but it was a thrill to see the snakes and crocodiles.  

The place for the penultimate day was the Fort Museum at Egmore. It remains closed on Friday, so had to go on Saturday. The entry ticket for a person was Rs.15 and person with a camera was 200 more. -_- But still the urge took me in.  Just near the entrance was the Victoria Memorial Hall. It had in it the National Art Gallery. The gallery consisted of beautiful and original paintings and sculptures from the early 1900’s. They were mainly Tanjore Paintings and Ravi Verma Paintings. It also had the models and few original pieces of the first telephone, typewriter, printing machine, etc. The adjacent building was the Government Museum. It had South and North Indian sculptures, Indus Valley civilization gallery, Amravati sculptures and many more.  The bronze gallery was bliss to watch. As the name suggests, it had idols, ornaments, musical instruments etc. made of bronze from the prehistoric times. For the first time, learning history was so much fun and engaging. :P Anyway I had almost finished exploring the place. Wanted to see a performance at the museum theater, but it was closed for renovation.  On the way back home went to the Express Avenue Mall and did some petty shopping for myself.  

Finally the trip was about to end. Though for a small duration, but I still enjoyed my lone traveler mode for the first time. And it definitely has instilled in me, an urge to travel more of such places. Wish, the next time I go out, I have a travel partner alongside me.