Out and About in Chennai

Things are much better now. I’m healthy again (I think, the Imodium hasn’t stopped working yet, so I’m not completely sure) and except for the fact that the bus broke down on the way back to Chennai, everything has been going pretty smoothly.

Yesterday I went out. We went to some westernish style bar, drank a couple of beers, then moved on to gin and then got hit on by an old faggot who had flown in from Australia, probably with the intention of finding himself a toy boy. That wasn’t quite so amusing, especially considering that initially we had a pretty good discussion about politics. I knew he was gay right from the start, but I thought I was giving the right signals to make him aware that I wasn’t interested. Apparently he didn’t see it that way after pouring two bottles of champagne down his throat.

After that we met the New South Wales Cricket team and went up to one of their rooms (don’t worry, there were some women). They had absolutely smashed the place. Clothes were strewn about, people were passed out from alcohol abuse and the toilet lid had been smashed by some drunken, oversized lout.

It was mystifying, watching them in action. They just assumed that everything would work the same way as back home. One of the people I was with (not a member of the cricket team) probably explained it best when he said ‘they are just country lads with no real world experience, who found out one day that they could throw a ball’.

They drank and they drank and they kept ordering more booze, even after the 11:30 booze curfew had passed. The hotel kept given them drink, as these guys were like gods to them. One of the Indian people I was with excitedly told us that he had seen a cricket legend in the pub he’d been in before. That turned out to be their coach. The Indian man could initially barely contain his excitement. That changed a bit when he was sitting with them and watched how they were behaving, at which point his excitement mixed with confusion and unease.

It’s interesting to see when West and East clash and can’t get to grips with each other. It also happened over in SEA, but it is much more apparent here. Probably because the Indians are far more direct in giving their opinions. When the South East Asians don’t like something you do, they gossip about it afterwards. When the Indians don’t like what you do, they yell at you.

I’m learning how to yell back.