Oct 6th: The zoo, snake farm, and a monk.

Trevin Grams
Oct 29, 2025
7 min read

Updated: Nov 9, 2025

Today would have been my true first day on the job. A lot of people had recommended that I show up for "first day" on a Friday, so that things are very relaxed. Then your true first day on Monday you already have had a weekend to try and overcome jet lag and have already met some of your new coworkers. Instead of doing that, I slept in!

While tending to my morning habits I got a text from Willy. Him and his friend Miles were going to check out the snake farm and they were inviting me along. Seeing as I had nothing to do with the day I opted to join them. Without a local phone number or bank my options for getting there were pretty limited, so I just walked. It was a pretty long one though, I think that it took me about an hour and fifteen minutes to get there? Its been a bit. I just remember that I was very hot, very sweaty, and very much regretting my lack of sunscreen. Eventually the walk took me down a long stretch of highway, luckily here there was a very wide and well maintained sidewalk. The area was actually pretty interesting, the sidewalk was against this huge cement fence structure on both sides. Best I could figure there were universities on either side of me. It would have been very cool to wander around their campuses because the tree cover inside looked really neat. But the guards out front led me to believe that they werent interested in random walk ins. Along the way I also saw something that I think must have been a water tower, or maybe a satellite dish? It absorbed a lot of my attention while I was walking down the road.

Got to the snake farm a little bit past our scheduled meetup time, but only by a hair. A quick tidbit about Miles. Very friendly fellow! This was my first time meeting him, apparently he is studying to be a monk. So right now he is traveling through various counties trying to decide which monastery and monastic tradition he wants to study. Seems like he is on a very interesting path in life! From what he was mentioning it sounds like he will probably study in a western country. He is a bit worried about learning/meditating while also having the additional mental load of managing a different language.

Anyways, getting into the snake farm was something like 60 rupees. Plus a little extra if you wanted permission to take photos, which was a bit odd to have as an extra charge. The snakes were neat, but like you would expect, mostly lethargic. I think only a few of them were moving around. There were also various lizards and gators; which were pretty neat to see. I think the most interesting part of the experience was more how the people at the zoo reacted to us. I think that at least ten different people asked if they could take photos with us, I guess we were more interesting than the actual attractions. In particular as we were wrapping up a few families ran into us and had a whole photoshoot by the exit of the park. I should have seen if they would use my phone to take some of the pictures. I think it is a good sign of how friendly folks are here, helps cement the general safety of the city.

Once the snake portion was wrapped up we headed over to the zoo proper. Though they dont call it a zoo, apparently it is called "Children's Park" here. Really weird, because there were no children in the cages at all! I should have demanded a refund. There were some animals that I usually dont see at zoos there though. Like a huge cage filled with axis deer, which are native to India! There was also a huge birdcage that was overflowing with all different types of birds. A few more people asked us for photos and chatted with us a little bit here, seems that Americans/westerners are very uncommon in this area.

We had a lot of fun at the zoo, just wandering around and chatting while admiring the animals. It was a lovely time. By the time we wrapped up it was a bit past lunch time and I was very hungry. Unfortunately the nearest food options were pretty far out, like about a 20 minute walk. So we started hiking over. Similar to before we were walking next to what seemed to be a highway, though here the sidewalk was a little bit less consistent. On the way there was a street vendor selling fruit/vegetable slices. I saw something that I thought was cucumber and decided that I had to have some. Got two cups of sliced "cucumber" with masala seasoning on top. The seasoning was kinda like tajin, but distinct. I dont know what I bought... But it wasnt cucumber. The texture was very firm, like a potato. The flavor was bitter/bland. Spent money on it so I ate it and shared with my pals, but I dont think I will be trying that dish again.

There was a temple of some sorts on the way that we stopped in on. Lots of bright yellow, or maybe gold paint, and a few statues. I am not certain what the point of it was - but it made for a neat visit. Willy and Miles went to check out some of the inner areas, but I didnt feel like taking my shoes off so I stayed outside. After a bit of walking and crossing various roads we made it to our lunch destination!

A fun note that I should mention here. We were about to eat lunch at a "hotel" and there is a reason for that. Drinking laws in Chennai (and maybe India as a whole, I'm not sure) are a bit strict. Not in regards to the drinking itself, though that is a bit taboo. More on the licenses and legal requirements to sell booze. One common way that places can get a liquor license is if they are a hotel, because there is an assumption that they will be servicing foreigners. This has caused a trend where a lot of restaurant/bars will advertise themselves as "hotels" because they have one room available for rent; allowing them to legally sell alcohol on the premise. I dont know if this restaurant was one of those "hotels" or a proper one, but whatever it was the food they had available was very good!

We all ordered our various dishes and ate well while enjoying each others company. I remember this is when I learned more about Miles plans with Buddhism and his upcoming monk lifestyle, and I think we also chatted about some of the developments/dangers of the current AI situation.

After eating there was shopping on the list. Willy had found a number of good grocery stores nearby and wanted to check them out, including a Korean market. I wanted to tag along to see what I might find, in particular I was hoping that the Korean shop would have some sunscreen available. The store was compact and had most of what I would have expected to find. I nabbed some ramen, spam, and my sunscreen. Also got some sort of ice creme snack that was both refreshing and new. It was like a fudge texture and it had strawberry filling like the kind you would find in little debbies on the inside. Next door I bought other various groceries, and learned that Greek yogurt is very expensive here. At least compared to other products. I bought a dozen eggs, almond milk, several sticks of incense, something else that I am forgetting, and Greek yogurt. The yogurt came out to half my bill! It was only about 11 USD total, but still.

Shopping done meant that the trip was done. We went to a nearby train station to start working our way back home. Another blessing since it was a chance for me to learn how the metro works here with someone who has been through it before. Buying the tickets is simple, though you do have to do it through a person instead of a machine. I think the most stand out part was that when we came into the station there was a security checkpoint. Kinda like the ones that you would see at an airport. The odd thing was that there was nothing directing you to go through it. The checkpoint was off to the side away from where you would buy tickets or go past the turnstiles, and there was nothing stopping you from just ignoring it. So we did. Well then about 2 minutes later while waiting in line to buy tickets the security guy came up and was like "nonono, you need to go through the station". So we did, for every one of us the metal detector went off; they waved a wand over us to find where the metal was... then just sent us on our way. In addition our bags had to be scanned. Most everyone's got through without issue, but my grocery bags were flagged for something? I have no idea what the issue was, but the woman manning the both seemed to mime something about eating or food? I couldnt tell what she was trying to tell me the issue was, and at the end of the day she just waved me through anyways. Not sure what the point of this station is if you're just allowed to do whatever... But works out for us!

The train was well maintained and ran very well. I think that the cars were newer than the ones in D.C.! Willy and Miles got off one stop ahead of me, then I made my way home alone. And had some of my new ramen for dinner.