Negombo to Chennai

Breakfast was almost perfect today, just the issue of substandard bacon to address and the hotel will have achieved a breakthrough.

The tuk-tuk driver turned up, but unfortunately without his tuk-tuk which had broken down. However, he had organised a fellow driver to bring his somewhat more dilapidated but working transport, for which we were grateful and gave him a couple of hundred rupees for his trouble. He seemed very grateful, and we set off for the airport.

Tuk-tuks are forbidden to use the official drop off point, but have a semi-official place to stop just out of sight of it. It is less than 50 yards walk down the road, which considering the difference in cost between a tuk-tuk and a taxi is a very minor inconvenience.

We had allowed a couple of hours spare in case of any disruptions, but despite coming across a minor traffic accident ( The fifth in three weeks), the journey went smoothly. Possibly the longest delay we encountered was the exhaustive checking of our Indian e-Visas before we were allowed to check in our hold baggage.

An uneventful flight was followed by photographs and electronic fingerprinting by a charming immigration official who made us feel welcome, so different from the USA where one is treated as a criminal.

Getting Indian money was problematic. There is no ATM in the arrivals hall, the one we were directed to wouldn't take Visa cards, and eventually we were taken to one in the domestic terminal some way away. This although accepting Visa, would only issue a maximum of IR10000 ( approx GBP100).

That was enough for a start, and we hired the helpful taxi driver to take us to the Accord Metropolitan hotel for IR800.

What followed was a wild ride, the nearest equivalent that I can remember was the virtual theme park ride in Futuroscope near Poitiers, France. We sped across Chennai, horn blaring, sometimes on the right side of the road, sometimes on the wrong side. Weaving around the supports to the newly constructed Metro, like the Bangkok Skytrain on steroids, the driver was coughing as if his last days were coming, but I don't think his demise will be health related. There is an impressive new Metro station at the airport, but it looks like there is still a lot of work to do before it becomes operational.

We alighted with relief at the hotel, the taxi only allowed in after the underneath had been inspected by a wheeled mirror. They must still be jumpy here.

The Accord Metropolitan is very grand, lots of doormen and acres of marble, and comfortable too. After settling in, we walked to the nearby very lively Pondy Bazaar, then found a wonderful vegetarian restaurant for supper. I have no idea what Christine ordered and neither has she, but it turned out to be a very tasty curry and rice.

I was also brave and ordered a dosai. It turned out to be a huge thin folded pancake filled with spicy vegetables and with three different accompaniments and a bowl of curry sauce. It was very tasty and cost IR100, of course inflated another 25% or so by various taxes.