As our time in India is coming to a close, we are scrambling to get all of the "sights/sites" in before we leave on Feb. 11.
Today, we opted to go to Saint Thomas Cathedral which is the one on the eastern coast, as opposed to the one on the Mount.
We wanted to take a suburban train again. We trek to Egmont Station, buy our tickets and head over to platform 10. To get to where we want to go, we need to take the train north 2 stops to change to the appropriate south bound train. All goes well. I'm in the ladies only car, and Bill is hanging out the door again.
We spoke to the train station master before getting on the north bound train, and he said to cross over to the farthest platform to get the south bound train. Which is exactly what we do.
After about 5 minutes, an announcement comes on that the south bound trains are being canceled until 4 pm. Perfect. We now need a plan B. We exit the station and find a tuk tuk to take us to the Cathedral.
We are a bit confused because by now, we understand Chennai geography, and we seem to be heading in the wrong direction. Perfect. But, it does turn out that using maps.me we can see what the driver is doing and relax into the ride. We go through neighborhoods that we have never been in or driven through. I am enthralled by the street life.
We get to the Cathedral. It was founded by the Portuguese when they ruled south asia. There is a large girl's school trip there at that moment. We troop into the sanctuary after them.
A couple of young men took our photos in the choir chairs. These were the MOST uncomfortable chairs I have ever sat on. The arm rest, which our photographer insisted we put our arms on, were so high it was obviously not meant as an arm rest! In India, you need to take off your footwear when entering holy places. That's why we are without shoes or socks for that matter.
After visiting the sanctuary, and headed into the gift shop, because, what do kitsch hunters do? Nada, there were no glow in the dark Jesus' or other such items. Bill is regretting not buying the glow in the dark Mother Theresa at the other St. Thomas on the Mount.
We were told that there are only 3 churches on the spots where an apostle died, St. Peters at the Vatican, Campostelo in Spain, and this one. There was a crypt/chapel across from the rear of the church that was more of a meditative place. It was a long narrow space with pews on each side and a central aisle to the altar. It was cool and quiet. Much needed at this point in the day.
After we left the church, I was getting hangry, so what else is new??? Bill spied this Kati roll place. In we went. The rolls were quite tasty. A kind of Indian burrito of sorts. Stuffed with the veggie item of your choice. I think it was opened recently and catered mostly to school kids and young people looking for a quick bite. He offered us some homemade ice cream, it was paan flavored! A strange taste sensation. Sweet, savory, fennely/anise-y, and creamy.
We wandered around a little bit longer and took a tuk tuk back to the Pandian Hotel. We retired into the bar and had a couple of Kingfishers and, I believe, went up to bed as we had to catch a 7 am flight to London the next morning.
In other posts I referred to the light switches in Indian hotel rooms. Here is a picture of one. Now, imagine another 3 or 4 of these multi-panels and you can see our problems. No idea which switch turns on which light in the room. The one you rock may not turn on any light in your room.
This panel was next to Bill's side of the bed. The rheostat knobs controlled the speed of the two ceiling fans
This panel was near the door to the room. These rockers may turn on the bathroom, over bed lights, over head lights, lights over the mirror in the bathroom, etc. No idea!
Another interesting quirk of Indian hotels was the toilet rolls. They were miniscule. Good for one go maybe 2.
We didn't quite get it when we checked into hotels that the bellhop would ask how long we were staying, then return with 2, 3, or 4 rolls depending on the length of your stay. Invariably, this would be insufficient and we would need to get more at some point. Even rolls sold in stores were on the tiny side. Must be an Indian thing.
We awoke at 3 am in order to be ready to get our 4:30am cab to the airport. Cab ride was uneventful and we arrived at the airport just as the sun was starting to make its appearance. At that hour, the airport was surprisingly busy. I guess there were lots of international flights going out.
We checked in, found the gate, boarded, and landed at Heathrow around 2 pm GMT. What a shock in terms of the weather: rainy, cold, chilling. No longer 80 F sunny and humid. Could already feel my shoulders starting to lock up!
We holed up at a Costa coffee in the airport drinking coffee trying to figure out how to get cash and which tube line/s we would take to get to Greenwich where our niece lived.
We arrived at Anna and Andy's beautiful apartment around 5:30 pm. Let we go in reverse here. We exited the tube station at North Greenwich and because we didn't have wifi, we needed a cab. We find the black cab queue and got into the first one. We take off, and are cruising around for what seemed to be too long a time. The cabbie turns down Bannister (?) street and is driving back and forth looking for the address. We finally ask him if he wouldn't mind calling Anna or Andy to find out where we should get out. Back and forth we go again, and finally Bill says, we'll just get out and figure it out on foot. We knew we were close. We find the building, the entrance is off the street and just steps from the Thames Walk. We ring the flat.....ring, ring, buzz, in we go into the lobby. We walk over to the elevator lobby which is divided from the entrance by a door that needs to be buzzed in or you use a key fob. Elevator door entrance locked. Back to entrance buzzer, buzz, buzz, buzz, no response. Another couple exits the building, and we dash into the lobby again. Eventually, there is another couple going to the elevator. We follow like sneak thieves. We let them go up, and then realize that we need the key fob to use the elevator. We didn't even know what floor their flat was on!
Bill exits and heads to the nearest pub to try to call Anna again. He returns, no better luck. So we head to that pub, the Pelton Arms, and sit down for a glass of wine and beer. For us, it is about midnight and we still have these gigantic packs on our backs... Andy arrives and is quite sheepish, as he said he never heard the door bell and had been waiting at home for our arrival. We are so grateful, he came to the pub to rescue us!
Andy had thoughtfully prepared a beef stew for dinner and all was right with the world by the time Anna arrived home.
And thus ends our Indian adventures.
I was truly sorry to see it end.
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