Chennai, India

Chennai was a total, complete change of scenery. It's so cosmopolitan! We loved the city, the people and all the food. It's in Southern India so we had hot, humid days.

My favorite part of the city? The walkability of it! We were able to go on several walks, which is usually our preferred way to check out a new place. Chennai had great sidewalks and relatively few people, compared to previous cities visited. We wandered around our neighborhood quite a bit, and eventually made our way to a bazaar. At first I was disappointed. It's all stores! But the further we walked, the further old-school, traditional it became. It was awesome! Tons of handicrafts, cheap jewelry and crowds of people. It was a blast.
We celebrated Christmas while in Chennai! Yes, it was a different experience but I have to say I think it was a success! Our hotel was surprisingly decked out with a Christmas tree and constant rotation of Christmas music playing in the hallways. We loved it. Christmas morning a staff member gifted us a little plum cake! That night we enjoyed it with some of our leftover whiskey from Scotland. A new Christmas tradition for us; plum cake and whiskey.
And...we went to church on Christmas! Ok, not really but kind of! There is a famous Catholic church in Melbourne (St. Thomas) that we visited. It was all decked out for the holiday and people were all around it selling santa hats and fun little toys. From St. Thomas' we went on a religion crawl....Within about a 15 minute walk we saw the church, a mosque and a famous Chennai temple. I loved that. The temple was most impressive: crazy colorful and huge. Pictures don't do it justice but here we go:

There are tons of awesome temples all over Chennai. Some are huge and easy to spot, others are tucked away. I love them. So fascinating and unique. Sometimes playing really funky music. It was great.
I highly recommend anyone visit Chennai. There is so much to do here and I feel like we barely put a dent in it. 

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