Nov 4: Ruh roh - RAIN

So spoiler alert on how this day goes is in the title, but makes for a snappy name right? Anyways - I was tired of hanging out in the apartment and decided to go on a long form adventure to a local mall. This spot came recommended from a few folks, and I had even been told that I could find whole coffee beans there! Which was very exciting news indeed. I emptied out my backpack and prepped for the journey. One of the things I removed from my backpack was my umbrella. The forecast had mentioned rain in the next few days, but things looked pretty clear when I headed out. You might be picking up why I mentioned spoilers earlier...

It was a long walk to get there. Maybe 45 minutes give or take, and along the way I passed many interesting things. Lots of small shops and side streets bustling with businesses. Even saw a few craftspeople making wooden chairs and doors and things. I also passed a few high schools and some of the kids wanted handshakes and stuff. Was interesting, but I was glad to reach the mall when I did. It was certainly impressive! I had to wander around for a while before I could find the grocery store I had been told about. Turns out it is in the basement, should have figured I suppose.

When I was exploring the mall I stumbled across one of those fancy self care product stores. I've been in the market to try out hair masks for a while since I feel that the ends of my hair havent been doing well. I had tried some local oils but they were less than ideal. Found some fancy shmancy stuff in this spot that has been doing wonders for me!

Anyways, the grocery store was kinda disappointing tbh. It had some international options that were nice to see, but no bean coffee. It was really nice to be back in a store where it has a lot of variety though. Made it easy to sample lots of different items. One weird thing about the place that I didnt like was that I had to leave my bag at the front of the store. Maybe I didnt have to? It was honestly a little hard to tell, I just saw other people doing it and assumed it was mandatory and followed suit.

After filling my pack with various goods that I needed, it was time to go. I thought about nabbing an auto back home... But the weather outside was really nice. The kind of cloudy weather with a good breeze that I really enjoy, there was one problem though. As I left the mall it was clear that recently it had drizzled. There were puddles of water and little bits of drippings around that hadnt been present when I went into the store. I figured I would just start hoofing it and then I would just call an auto if it looked like rain was about to pick up again.

Well it turns out the weather around here can shift VERY quickly. I was in a very open spot of the street making my way through a construction zone when the rain started picking up a little bit, and within like two minutes it was absolutely pouring. I was soaked through very quickly. At that point I changed my mind about the auto. I figured, well if I am already soaked to the bone it isnt like hiring a driver will get me home any less wet. And also I didnt want to have to hang out in one place for who knows how long waiting for them to come get me. AND I didnt really have the cash on hand to pay them. At this time I still hadnt mastered the art of paying them with UPI apps like Gpay. So with all of those factors I just decided to continue making my way on foot.

The journey was very interesting. Not many people or cars in the street when the rain starts coming down like this, and I am sure that I got a few weird looks from people trying to figure out what an American was doing slogging through this kind of weather. Once I accepted my fate though the whole walk was actually sort of nice. A little colder than I would have liked but relaxing in a way. There was one issue though. You see in the past I had been given some very crucial advice that puddles here in Chennai are not to be trusted. If you cannot see the bottom of a body of water you should not step into it under any circumstances, because one of the things that happens here is that manhole covers will sometimes rise up with heavy rain. When this happens these puddles will hide an empty space that you could just step into and have a very bad time. So with all this rain going on I had to back track several times to avoid these big puddles.

Despite my best efforts some of the puddles were unavoidable, and to make matters worse I underestimated their depth. Meaning that they were deeper than the laces of my nice water resistant boots. They do a really good job of keeping my feet dry, up until water rolls over the top. At that point they get soaked straight through - and I dont trust all the nonsense that is in surface water run off here. So after that happened the rest of my walk was made much much more annoying.

Eventually I did get home, unloaded my goods and then took a long hot shower. And separately sat down to thoroughly clean the inside/outside of my boots.