Mar 6, 2011 My first day in India was definitely a non-cultural and not very interesting one. Cassie, Marge, Haley, Meredith, Kelly and I were just planning on exploring and shopping all day. When we got off the boat, we were met with about three security checks to get out of the port. The port in Chennai is an industrial one, so we werent allowed to walk to the street. We had to take a shuttle, and as we were getting ready to leave the driver shut the door on some kids finger. He had to pull it out and it was bleeding and turned out to be broken. What a start to India! When we finally made it out of the port, a cab driver came up to us and told us he had a big car that would fit 6 people, so we agreed to a price and was off. We had been warned that the cab drivers would try to take us wherever they wanted us to go, but we had no idea how difficult it would be to avoid it. We had told him that we wanted to go to a market, but he ended up taking us to about 4 different expensive shops that were obviously paying commission to the drivers because there were tons of SAS kids there. We did buy things, of course, and then we went to a little market and stopped for lunch at a hotel. We told the waiter that we just wanted traditional South Indian cuisine that wasnt spicy, so he picked a few things out for us. It was DELICIOUS. I never thought I was much of a spice person, but the curries and naan bread that he brought us because my addiction during my 5 days in India. After we were finished shopping we came back to the ship and ended up eating dinner there and just staying in because a few of us had early mornings the next day.
