Because if you can I am. Doesn't matter that I slept 10 hours last night: I pass out for the flight to Chennai (used to be called Madras, long religious/colonial story) as easily as if I'd slept none. And now I'm up after 3 planning New Zealand travel. Like deciding whether to buy each incremental exotic souvenir, my itinerary just keeps expanding: isn't it worth a few hundred bucks to see the southern end of New Zealand's South Island? Pretty soon, the bank account will force this question into invalidity:)
So yeah: got to Chennai tonight and have seen nothing to distinguish it from any random American city. The bit of the drive to the hotel I was awake for featured glimpses of billboards and other signs of commerce but not much else; our Ramada Hotel (with outsourcing comes Americanization?) is cookie-cutter but for more marble. Luckily, can flip on the TV and see Indians dancing through an indecipherable Bollywood film or check the hotel’s motto to orient myself. “Ramada Raj Park – Chennai: A Business Hotel With a Class.”