Suzie arrived and the group was complete. We had an amazing lunch at a place called Saravanah Bhavan where the waiters were all too happy to guide us through the correct order of eating the dishes, and they would stand there looking amused as us Aussies tried to look like locals shovelling rice and curry into our mouths using nothing but our right hands (the left is for wiping your bum, not eating). We spent the afternoon walking in the rain to Marina Beach, then spent the evening getting lost in the crazy streets of a nearby suburb. This really gave us a sense of Indian big city life. Streets were full of people, dogs, motorbikes, cabs, moto-rickshaws (there are apparently no road rules...although driving on the left is encouraged), cows, goats, rubbish, mud, sewage.....you get the picture. Had a few drinks at one of the few bars listed in lonely planet and got in some engaging but fairly one-way conversations with some drunken Indian dudes.
Yesterday we headed to Chennai's equivalent of Mumbai's Bollywood and were allowed to wander aroudn the studio grounds unimpeded. We were let in to one of the stages where they had obviously filmed a gameshow or something, then went next door where they were filming a music video with about 50 dancers! No-one seemed to care that we were there, this Indian moviestar (we could tell by his gorgeous hair) even offered the girls seats behind the director. Crazy!
Last night we got on the overnight train at 8pm and slept in airconditioned "comfort" until 3 when we arrived in Dindigul, then caught a cab about 60km to Oddanchatram (for only Rs.450). We met our preceptor Dr Meena Abraham at about 7am and were shown our accomodation. Kev and I are staying with a 4th year guy who's here from Flinder's Uni in Adelaide in an appartment and we've got our own rooms which is nice. The beds are rock hard and obvioulsy made for midgets, but I'm sure we'll get used to it. We're just out getting supplies before having a tour of the hospital this afternoon.
It's all very surreal to be here - but very exciting to say the least!
