Wow?. It gives me immense pleasure to provide a review on a place in which I was born & brought up, which?s the Great ?CHENNAI? in Tamil Nadu, India.
The mere feeling of being in Chennaiitself has been really very pleasant and pleasurable to me. Especially I really feel a great sense of satisfaction only when I rest my feet in Chennai after any of my tours!!! Hey? Stop? this assuredly is not an exaggeration, but a feeling of attachment, fondness & affection for my native place. This feeling I am sure is present in everyone?.Isn?t it ?
Well, now it?s time for a little bit of geographical description ? ?Chennai? (previously known as Madras), is the largest city in South India and the fourth largest city in India. Chennai is located on the most popular Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal.
Anyone who thinks of Chennai, I am sure would be mainly reminded of the ?MARINA?, which is claimed to be the world?s second longest beach !! Yes, Marina has its own charm and added to it is the beautiful Aquarium situated on the sands of Marina and there are even lot more marvelous things about this Marina Beach.
Marina is one of the exotic beaches of the world, along the vast peninsular Indian coastline which is absolutely astounding and captivating. The clear blue waters, the palm fringed beaches and the sun-drenched sands are truly bewitching and transport one to the land of surrealistic fantasy. The ethereal beauty of the molten sun turning into a coral red ball, along the horizon is stupefying and attracts tourists from all over the world.
Having been in Chennai over years and my house situated very near to the healthy air of the beach (my sweet home being of just 5 minutes walk from the beach), I think I have breathed the captivating sweet & fresh air of the Marina a million times and the fact remains that it has never ennuyé me until this jiffy!!!
During the former ruling period of our H?nble Chief Minister Ms. J. Jayalalitha (dear MSians pls. correct me if I am wrong), the M.G.R. Square was newly constructed & the existing Anna Square was renovated which started attracting more number of overseas travellers & lot of other indoor tourists.
Along both sides of this Beach, there are 100s of Stalls selling different items ? you name anything from A to Z it is right away available at the Marina at very reasonable price.
The Marina beach is an entertaining spot, right from the richest to the lower-middle class people of the city. Especially, we enjoy the appetizing Bajjis, the most scrumptious Bhel Pooris, Pav Bhajjis, Samosa with Soondals, etc. at very very genuine costs prepared hygienically. Added to the charm of the Bajjis is that, they are being prepared by pure vegetarian elderly ladies (we call them muttaakku paatties), who, just like that prepare even 100s of Bajjis in a matter of absolutely no time.
So, whether we really feel like going in for any other item sold in the Marina, there are undeniably lot of visitors to the Marina to ?EAT? the aforesaid items!!!
CHENNAI not only has the aforesaid reputation of the Marina, Chennai is also considered as one of the four Metro cities of India. For the business travellers, there are copious Star hotels providing excellent facilities, like the ones:
? Park Sheraton
? Taj Group of Hotels like the Taj Connemera & the Taj Coromandel
? Hotel GRT Grand
? Hotel The Park
? Windsor Park
? Hotel Radha Park Inn
? Hotel Chola Sheraton
? Kings Park
? The Trident (Group of The Oberoi)
The various site seeing places include, the famous Bars & Pubs like the Geoffrey's, Marina, Park Town etc. and the Discos at the EC41 at Enjambakkam, Gatsby 2000
Park Sheraton and the pool parlours which are provided to the tourists by the local transportation agencies.
Well, do the attractions of Chennai end here ???? My honest reply would be a strict ?NO?. Chennai is very famous for its highly approbated temples (madhirs) like the popular Kabaaleeswarar Temple (Lord Shiv), Sri Parthasarathy Temple (Lord Maha-Vishnu), Alwarpet Aanchaneyar Temple (Lord Hanuman) etc. and the details of the number of other eminent temples could be obtained by the travellers from the Inter-city Travel agencies.
Also on an hour?s journey from Chennai, there are lot of water-themeparks like the VGP Golden Beach, MGM, Queens? Land, Kishkinta etc. All these themeparks charge around Rs.300/- per head for adults and comparatively a less amount for the children and you could enjoy more than about 75 rides including those of adventurous water-rides. For the Chennai people, these theme-parks are a great entertainment and most families plan for their holiday at either of these theme-parks for a real enjoyment.
Well, moving onto the most substantial subject of the transportation, Chennai is an international arrival point and an important domestic airport. The Anna International Airport is well organised and not too heavily used, making Chennai (Madras) a good entry or exit point. There's rarely more than one plane on the ground at any given time. Right next-door is the relatively new Kamarajar Domestic Airport, which connects flights with all the major cities of India.
The International Airport of Chennai (Madras) has flights to/from Colombo, Dubai, Frankfurt, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, London, Penang, Riyadh, and Singapore.
Also, Chennai (Madras) has a very good railway transportation system having connecting well-organised trains to various cities and states. The Chennai Railway Station is one of the most important railheads in southern India. Regular train services connect Chennai (Madras) directly with all the major cities of the country. Trains link Chennai to Jammu in the North, Guwahati in the East and Ahmedabad in the West. Suburban electric trains run from Beach station to Tambaram and from Central to Gummidipoondi and Arakonam.
As far as the bus transportation is concerned, the state government as well as private operators? buses run on various routes from Chennai. For the intra-transportation, we have a abundant auto-rickshaws, vans, taxis, city buses and the recently introduced call-taxi system, which are available within the next 10 minutes from the time of calling them from any place at Chennai. Every bus stand / railway station provides the phone numbers of the various call-taxis and their tariff details. When compared to the usual engaging of the cab operators? cars for intra-transport, these call-taxis are cheaper, unless you don?t want them to wait in some place because more than their running costs, their waiting charges are on the higher side.
I am sure that this review of mine would have certainly been of some help to my dear MS-ians who plan for a vacation to Chennai. Also, apart from the above places of interest at Chennai, do not forget to visit the backwaters at Muttukaad and the famous Shirdi SaiBaba temple at Injambakkam, which are just about 45 minutes of journey from Chennai.
I would appreciate if all the MS-ians who read this review, do provide me their ratings & their comments on my review, to know about the outcome of my efforts involved in preparing the review. It?s been slightly sickening when many MS-ians who read the reviews do not rate them.
Thank you very much for your valuable time. See you all soon in another interesting topic & do visit CHENNAI, my loving SPOT.
Mrs. Jayalakshmi Shyam
