Chennai Diner

Spent the day at Chennai’s prime shopping mall, Spencer Plaza where we bought some clothes and a bigger suitcase. Tsering had an exam in the morning but joined us later. Alice was feeling a bit sick after the long trainride from Mysore the day before. She had motion sickness and didn’t really eat anything. After Tsering turned up she seemed to feel a lot better. Our hotel, New Woodlands, is an old-time Indian style hotel feeling somewhat like an institution. The breakfast hall is pretty chaotic but works. The room is big and comparatively cheap for Chernnai. The only drawback is that the staff wants a tip for even the smallest effort. Many western tour groups are staying here. Yesterday there were busloads of them who had come with ”Oneness University” which is a pretty clear statement about the sales pitch. Our room is an ”Executive double” with a businessman’s kit including some paper clips and rubber bands. Perhaps Basil Fawlty has been the consultant? In the evening we went to Sparky’s Diner, an American restaurant serving only American food. The food was good but Esbjorn got an allergic reaction from it. It was the first time since we came to India. The staff had assured us that they were not using egg products but it turned out that Sparky’s use the same oil for all the deep fried food including egg battered items. That’s enough to release Esbjorns allergy. He started coughing and sneezing and we gave him betapreds and some other prescription drugs. After a while he recovered a bit and we took a taxi back home. I suppose Tsering was a bit taken by the events and she had to go back to get some sleep before another exam the next day. Even though everything went well this time Esbjorns allergic reactions are nerve wrecking. Normally, we can avoid egg products by eating in so-called ”pure vegetarian” restaurants. New Woodlands is even a pure vegetarian hotel so no meat or animal products are allowed to enter.
In an hour we are off to the beach near Mahallapuram where we will be staying the next five days.