HC meeting
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2006
1
41
42
Trip End
Aug 29, 2006
Chennai, India
Monday, August 28, 2006
We said goodbye to Betty and Joe and went straight to Spencer Plaza for some serious shopping. Claudia had to pick up some blouses, I had to get my coat. We put our backpacks with Amin's brother who got us breakfast and drinks.
We bought scarfs, some saris, postcards, little wooden Ganesh figures and dolls. The art of negotiating was practiced to the fullest, and I even made one vendor really angry because I drove a hard bargain....but in the end he did sell me the wooden figures at a very reasonable prize.
We ate at Sangeetha's, drank some juice, went to the internet and even had time to meet a friend of a friend who bought a German pair of trousers from us. Yes, we are that inventive :)
Then it was off to Café Coffee Day where we had a meeting with other HC members. We reserved a big private room, drank some mango juices and were pleasantly surprised when 8 other members showed up. It was great talking to them, and you could feel they were happy to be around. We really hope there will be more meetings like this.
I gave Rajan his camera back, he drove us to the airport and before we knew it we were waiting to board our plane. Because of the recent security scares in Heathrow we moved slowly, but in the end we managed to get on the plane without my boots being checked, with lots of mosquito gel in my handluggage and with 2 pieces of handluggage (instead of the one allowed per person). Our last money was spent on drinks, magazines and a t-shirt, and unfortunately we had to fly economy. A big difference, I can assure you.
