More India Pictures

Why? Why now? Why not.
I uploaded more pictures from my trip in India on flickr.

The Gates

We went to see the gates in Central Park. It is an exhibition by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. They are the ones responsible for "wrapping" the Pont Neuf in Paris too.

Here are Aurélie, Florian, Valérie and me. PAK was on the first picture.

So the gates are orange.

Man this picture looks like something taken from a Depeche Mode video or something...

Yeah, the park was crowded by the way.

Then we went to a shopping center where we saw this hell of a bike.

Finished the day at OddFellows in Hoboken. Nice food from the Southern states. And nice little signs on the wall too.

Catherine and Halanie

This picture may be 7 months old but I believe it is worth showing: Here is my sister jumping with Halanie

Back to Hoboken

We faced a snowstorm last week end... But it didn't keep us (Jordane, niko and me) from going to the good ol' greasy Johnny Rocket-la-quequette:

Leaving India - Not closing (yet)

I will be away from a (decent) computer for the next two weeks and a half or so. Do not expect major updates: I am going back to France to see my family and friends. I will be back online in January but I do not know where from yet.

I have not posted half of the pictures I have taken in India. I wish to post them later. I have to talk to you about Bangalore, Mysore, Pondicherry and even Kerala. This delay in publishing should not arm the blog too much since I am already 3 months late...

Stay tuned...

Saint Thomas Mount

So we went where Saint Thomas is supposed to have lived for some time: Saint Thomas Mount in Chennai.

From the wikipedia article:

St. Thomas, one of the twelve apostles of Christ and believed to be the first ever Christian missionary to set foot on Indian soil, is associated with Chennai. He is supposed to have visited India in the first century A.D and died in Chennai. He supposedly set up a church near the southern shoreline and made a small hillock his home. Legend has it that he used to walk to the church - a distance of over 15 kilometers - and back everyday through what was then, a menacing jungle. The names of the two suburbs in Chennai, Santhome and St. Thomas Mount, have cemented this link.

It was not particularly exciting...



... But we took some pictures anyway:

What you can see from the terasse of our appartment

Some random guy going to work on his three wheel bike:

The swamps, home of a zillion mosquitos and too often mistaken for a garbage disposal by locals (actually this one looks clean enough):



Living areas:


I do not know how I managed to get such a wonderful view at Velachery. Honestly this part of Chennai does not always look this good.

A close-up on the houses nearby:



A close-up on some traffic jam (generating dirt storms) outside our appartment complex gate:


For the record, we got stuck once in the alleyway that goes from the appartments to the road for 45 minutes straight. It must have rained the day before.

The skies above my workplace

Getting hair-styled

People (I won't tell you how many) say they do not see me enough on the pictures. Well here is me getting a haircut, followed by the little shop where I got it done. If you look closely you'll see me again in the mirror. And again. Facing mirrors are a wonder. That should be enough me's for a month now ;)

Hangin' around at Elliot's

Elliot's beach is one of the two beaches of Chennai. The other is Marina beach.

There is a food court in Elliot's beach and it helps drawing us there. So you must think "Oh that's nice, have a little lunch and then step outside for a nice digesting promenade". Well... Not exactly. Between the food court and the walkable beach is an old fenced area which contains nothing more than ruins and junk. Mostly junk. So we usually do not waste time contemplating the sea and rush into our car.

But that day we decided we had to brave the stench and take at least a picture to prove it...

Fascinating discovery of my bathroom

Before entering my bathroom, you will face your first challenge: What switch is the one to activate?

The answer is not "all of them". See those two bigger switches. One is for water pressure (so you feel less like someone is peeing on you, more like you are having a shower) and the other one is to warm up the water - or is it? Never really understood which one was which.

Now the second challenge is to find a use for this little "showerette" on the side of my toilet seat. After wondering for a while and then asking around I got my answer. I'll let you think about it.



And without bigger misteries, the shower:



Nothing too fancy about it except that the drain hole is higher than the actual shower floor. So I get to step in a day old smelly water puddle every morning. While I was in HK for 4 days, some three or four fungus spots managed to develop a nice glowy fluorescent green color. Very interesting. Not too appetizing though.

On my way to work

Seems like I am not the only one going to work :)