Chennai, India

Just a few shots of things we saw on our ride to the repair shop.

Thursday, February 22^nd.

We never got our 9 o’clock wake up call, but we heard everyone else’s. We staggered out of bed after maybe four or five hours of sleep to go down and have breakfast. We ate in a bit of a fog and then headed back up to our room.

I had a brainwave and asked the hotel if they had a computer maintenance guy on staff and they did. So, he came up to our room and had a look at my computer. He checked most of the software and surmised it was a hardware problem. I asked if he knew of any HP maintenance shops and said he would check into it and get back to me.

Meanwhile I updated some blog stuff and sorted some photos. We also made a request to have our AC turned down, as we are cold. Two guys came up and mucked about in the ceiling and went away. You guessed it, the computer guy never came back, and the AC was not fixed.

I found a computer place on the internet and talked to a guy there who said he would look at it. I had the address and route on Google maps and we headed down to get some money from an ATM and have the hotel call us a tuk tuk. They called an Uber driver instead. It cost 200 rupees (65 to $1US) to go 14 km in 40 minutes through crazy traffic. On the way we listened to the same woman on the GPS as we have in Canada. Eventually we arrived at our ‘destination’, but we had no idea where the actual shop was. I had the address on the webpage of the laptop, but of course it lost it because I didn’t have internet here. I was really mad at myself for not writing it down with old school pen and paper and was really frustrated. We were lost, so I said I give up just take us back to the hotel. Thankfully, the driver used his phone and after a bit of searching around the neighbourhood we found a sign that pointed up a grotty alley and then another sign that pointed into dilapidated building. I was glad John was there with me, and we walked up the flights to a really basic, dirty, decrepit repair shop. There we met Aravinth and he went through all the software and could not find a problem. After about an hour he too concluded it was hardware. He phoned somewhere and found out the part was available in India (remember this is an Australian computer) and that the warranty would be honoured here. Then he went about trying to order it for me. He said it will take between 24 and 48 hours but it might show up tomorrow, but the next day is Sunday when they don’t work, and we are leaving on our tour, so if not tomorrow… who knows. Aravinth said that if we can’t make it work someone would come to my hotel in Delhi when I am there in a couple of weeks and repair it (we’ll see about that). Despite all the hassles and his thick accent, Aravinth was very nice and really tried to sort it out.

We left the shop about three hours later, just when it was getting dark. I was much smarter this time (someone once told me there is no point in getting older if you don’t get smarter) and had copied the address of the Pride Hotel off of Google Maps and pasted it in a Word document. We went outside and flagged down a tuk tuk and I showed him the address. He looked at it closely for a couple of minutes and then turned and asked a woman behind him. It quickly became clear he could not read and had no idea where it was. But after talking to the woman and another man he assured us he did. I told him it cost us 200 rupees (65 to $1 US). He didn’t like that and said 300. I just wanted to get back so I agreed. 

Then we had a very exciting, nerve wracking, drive through the chaotic rush hour traffic all the while choking down the abundant exhaust fumes of all the under regulated vehicles. John commented that he was going to Google the life span of tuk tuk drivers. Although the traffic was not moving very quickly, it is not unlike water flowing, as traffic flows down the streets and small vehicles just squeeze between larger ones with no gaps remaining. Motorbikes weave in and out with seemingly reckless abandon relying only on their reflexes and the hope that the other drives don’t want to hit them. Meanwhile horns are continuously beeping in a non-verbal conversation. The drive took well over an hour and we could see that the driver was getting agitated. When we got to the hotel he wanted more money than we had agreed. However, I stood firm and told him he had suggested 300 and we had agreed, all the while remembering that Uber got us there for 200 in a proper car.

We had the buffet dinner at the hotel and then went to the room and worked for a couple of hours before turning in at 11ish.

All of the adventures from Colombo to here are typical of the Indian continent, where nothing ever really goes smoothly, but it usually does work out somehow in the end. I will be here for over a month, so lots to look forward to, bring it on.