Day 5 in Chennai – ah I will forever hold you in the center of my fondest memories. This is what a day out visiting a city you have never been to should be like. I slept well, from 11 pm on Thursday night till 5:20 am on Friday morning when my alarm went off and I woke up. I lazed around a bit and had coffee and a leisurely breakfast after which I took a shave and a shower and got dressed. For the last time I went to the Chennai office in Shriram Gateway, via auto, and logged in to my system to book my return flick back to Cochin. I spent about 2 hours or so there, said goodbye to the people I interacted with and called Fast Track taxi services to get me to Vellacheri, which is part of the city area of Chennai.

The taxi came by in 10 minutes and a long ride later I was in Phoenix Market City or Phoenix Mall in Vellacheri. This is one of, if not the biggest, malls in Chennai and it came highly recommended. I had some coffee and then I roamed around the mall for a couple of hours before having lunch. Then I wandered around a bit more before stopping at a Cookie outlet (can’t remember the name but they say its an Australian cookie franchise) and bought some cookies to give to my colleagues at the office. After that I asked one of the guys at the stall where he got his tattoos done, if there was a tattoo parlour nearby and if so did he have a recommendation. He gave me the card of a tattoo artist who has a shop near my next destination which was the rather awesome Hablis hotel that has an Irish pub in their basement. So I got the directions and took an auto to that place. After getting the tattoo done I went to the Irish Pub which is called, The Moon & Sixpence, and had a couple of beers with some fries. I then called a cab and came back to my room, delayed due to heavy traffic.

So all in all it was a great day as I was not only able to see some of the city of Chennai but I also had some few firsts – my first visit to Starbucks and drinking my first coffee there, my first visit and meal in a Hard Rock Cafe outlet, my first visit to an Irish pub, my first pint of Guinness and my first stout, my first Hoegaarden & first Whit beer and —— my very first tattoo! What an awesome day it was! Pics to come in future posts.