The flight from London to India via Dubai was fine (I totally recommend Emirates) and on landing in the first city, Chennai, I was quickly introduced to the overly bureaucratic India that friends had warned me about.
Getting the visa in the UK prior to the trip was extremely easy with the turnaround from submitting the paper work at the processing centre close to work to getting the visa being only two working days. Despite having been cleared to travel I then had to fill in a bunch of other paperwork on landing, I can't remember what they were for exactly but they each asked for the same information such as name and flight number and a contact address. At the immigration desk I was told I hadn't completed an Ebola form despite having not visited a country listed as needing one filled in, so I was sent back to collect one of those and fill that in. At the second attempt I was then told I hadn't filled in another form, a fourth one I think, which only seemed to be available at the immigration desk that was preventing me accessing. Rather than rejoin the queue I just walked through immigration and filled it in behind the counters (something that we'd be arrested for anywhere else). Then only when filling that in did my visa get the necessary stamps which allowed me to go through immigration for a second time where a soldier then checked I had enough stamps and pieces of paper to allow me to collect my luggage.
Going off on a quick tangent. Indian people are terrible queuers and this was something that I would come to get used to as the trip went on. Now I'm used to bad etiquette elsewhere, in China for example it's a free-for-all and they have no etiquette. India however seems to be happy to have queues but if there's a gap, someone will move into it and there is no challenge to those who blatantly queue jump. I'll make reference to more of this throughout the report as it became a common observation.
Back to immigration and before getting to the carousel I had to complete a customs declaration form which I'm used to seeing in most countries. This is the sort of thing where you state if you're bringing in banned goods or food or an excessive amount of money. The latter is usually ridiculously high such as $10,000 for the U.S. In India the threshold is very low, only a couple of hundred pounds and below the amount I'd brought into the country. India is clearly paranoid about money going in and out of the country and it also served as a quick introduction into how far foreigners money can go in India. I gambled on not declaring that I was bringing in too much, and fortunately wasn't checked on going through customs.
The next scare came at the carousel where it looked like my suitcase hadn't made it onto the belt. Only after 10 minutes of nothing coming out did I realise that some member of staff had thought it a great idea to take luggage off the belt to prevent it going around for a second lap, and my case which had he'd laid flat was in a corner of the airport.
Having got everything and beaten the bureaucracy it was then time to get a taxi to my hotel. Just before leaving the airport you need to look for the pre-pay taxi desks. Tell them your location and you'll be given a slip which you then take to the taxi rank outside. At Chennai airport I had an elderly man offer to take my case and take me to that outdoor office. I had been warned that everyone would be willing to do stuff for you for cash and to hold off on tipping so I declined the case carrying and just followed him to the outside office which to be honest was in plain sight on leaving and I could have figured out on my own - I didn't tip him.
For security reasons only those travelling are allowed in the airport buildings and all the drivers etc. have to be outside. Armed police check for proof of flights before letting people and the pre-pay desks are all in the airport so be careful you don't miss them. The pre-pay model has you paying slightly more than you would do had you grabbed a driver outside the airport but removes any risk around being exploited and overcharged. When you do the conversions you quickly realise that even with the premium local taxi travel is very cheap with a lengthy drive only costing a few pounds.
At Chennai I was staying at the Holiday Inn in Mahindra World City around 40 minutes south of the city in an area full of western businesses. Like an industrial estate but on a much larger scale. Security gates ensured only the right vehicles entered the "city" and hotels in particular are extremely security conscious with mandatory checks on every car entering including a mirror check under the vehicle and manual inspections of the glove boxes and car boots...something to consider if you have a case that looks like a big bomb or something.
The hotel is a business hotel and fairly new so isn't used to tourists using it. The idea of someone rocking up and wanting to hire cars to drive all around the area rather than to and from offices or airports was quite a rare event for the hotel and they did an absolutely sterling job helping me with my rather silly daily itineraries. It also meant I got quite a bit of attention from the staff who were genuinely interested in my reasons for visiting the country.
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