I love Chennai! It is a larger city than Kochi and the population is much higher. The roads are pothole free with clearly painted lines. There is trash on the ground, like Kochi, but not nearly as much.
It poured two of the days that we were there, but we didn’t let that stop us. We grabbed some umbrellas, hiked up our pant legs, and went to explore.
The first night it was too late to do much so we went to the mall, iStore, and then to Sandy’s Chocolate Laboratory. You must go to Sandy’s if you are ever in Chennai. It is not on a main road and it is fairly new so your driver may not know the place, but we got there with a bit of help from Google maps. Sandy’s is just what it says a chocolate laboratory plus a deli with freshly imported meats and cheeses. We just had dessert. I had the Happy Jack which is chocolate ice cream with peanut butter. It was served in a beaker and it came with another chocolate liquid served in a test tube. The whole place was very unique.
The second day we went to Mahabalipuram located 60km outside of Chennai. Wow! This place was amazing. There are tons of huge hand carved rock sculptures that date back to 1200 years ago. Some of the sculptures had a little bit of damage from the tsunami on December 26, 2004. The tsunami went inland and on it’s way back out to sea the water took a lot of sand with it. Because of this there was another ancient sculpture uncovered. Archeologists are now working on uncovering it.

The next day we went to see the oldest temple in Chennai, Kapaleeshwarar temple. This was the largest Hindu temple I have seen so far. It was so beautiful. The paint and colors were so vibrant. After the temple we went to see the St. Thomas Cathedral.

So I got something. I have a fever, body aches, no appetite, nausea, etc. I have no idea what I have, but I hope my body fights it off on it’s own. I am too scared to get help in the hospitals here. We had to go into a hospital a few weeks ago and it was filthy. I mean it, everything had a layer of dirt on it and there were mosquitoes flying around in the hundreds. So I refuse to go get treated in India. I have no idea how I became sick, but here are a list of things that may have caused my illness:

1. The smell open sewers everyday throughout the entire city.
2. Huge piles of garbage getting a gust of wind and blowing up against my legs.
3. No hot water to wash my hands, body, clothes, or dishes.
4. Taking a bite out of a street samosa before I looked down and saw a huge black ant, fried inside.
5. Jogging outside and inhaling the exhaust from each vehicle that stops to stare at me before moving on.
6. Shaking hands with someone who may or may not have just pulled over on the side of the road to pee in front of thousand of people around him.

Not really sure how I acquired whatever I have, but these things could have easily been the culprits.

This is a bag I bought a couple of months back while in Dubai.  I love this bag it is small and fits everything I need.  It is just right for running around India.  Well, the zipper broke a couple of weeks ago and I have been meaning to make a new bag, but couldn’t decide how to make it.  I was so excited when I saw this woman’s bag today.  It was similar in size to my Fila bag, but so much cuter.  So I came home and drew up this sketch…

got to work, and it turned out like this…

Liji and I have been going out and just driving around to see places we have never seen.  Wow! Once you leave Kochi city this place is so beautiful.  We have had some great times, met some great people, and heard some great stories, but instead of elaborating on all of that I will just show you the pictures.  Kerala is a large state and there is still so much we haven’t seen, but we are making our way through.

I have been watching a lot of tutorials online.  It’s my new fascination.   Some of the great ones are: Angry Chicken, That Darn Kat, How About Orange, and there are so many more.  These have inspired me to create my own tutorial.  This is my first one and isn’t the best, but it’s pretty good. This is a super easy project so if you are a beginner, this is perfect for you.