What cultural shock really means....

The flight and everything was great. Even the food on the airplane was really nice, giving me a taste of what to expect within the next few weeks. The plane and the airport were (of course) airconditioned, however the city of Chennai is not. So, after finding my way out of the airport (they check for weapons when you LEAVE the plane...), I had a big shock. Damn it, it was 12:30 and hotter than in Berlin during the daytime (or hotter than Amsterdam could ever be). There was then a huge crowd of Rikscha/Taxi Guys around me trying to convice me to take theirs. With a little bit of bargaining I made a (what I thought) good price and sat down in this machine of doom. Even though it was night, I had a good impression of how driving goes and I saw a first glimpse of the Indian streets. It is amazing how real poverty, so people sleeping on what might be called pavement, goes together with huge buildings where the richer people live. And the smell of Chennai (which is terribly polluted) was amazing. I never smelled so many different and distinct versions of stink. However, I got to my hostel in a very stinky (maybe a mixture of dead dog and general pollution) area and survived a trip of doom. There was a boy (11-13yrs) sleeping in the reception area under the fan. The hostel had an elevator, but Indian style toilets (a little bit like the French toilets were 10 yrs ago, just that you have to use a bucket to flush). A gecko on the wall greeted me, a big fat mosquito was eagerly awaiting my blood and the bed sheets were, mmh, blood stained. After a little hassle with the mosquito net (Jessie, you said there will always be a way to fix it!) I went to bed in my own bedsheets. The next morning I got up at seven, I couldn't sleep anyway because it was too hot and I was scared of whatever caused the bloodstains in the bed.
I then tried to find a nice place to have breakfast, but it was terrible. Garbage everywhere, poor people, dogs and cats with undefinable diseases. So I just had a chai at some chai place and bought water --- I was scared to develop a brain area just dedicated to stink. Also, I couldn't stand Chennai this extreme poverty anymore and I was just overwhelmed. I then took a bus to Mamallapuram (be it MP), a very touristy but nice place. In the bus (believe it or not) I could finally sleep (crawled around my luggage), unfortunately I therefore couldn't see much of the landscape. Ahh, before I had some steamed rice paddies with different sauces at the railway station. I went for an Indian fast-food chain --- I thought this would be the savest way.
In MP I met two French women with quite a big deal of travel experience. We went to a French restaurant to have lunch, moderately spiced prawn curry, and they asked for some assistance finding a place to sleep. We went around and found a very nice place directly at the beach (for people in future: Hotel Daphne). I can jump out of the room directly into the water and see the shore temple. On the beach you can see the fisherboats, this town has masses of weird for me unknown fishes. I am still kind of scared to eat them though, I don't want to upset my stomach. Some local boys helped us to get the luggage on a motorbike, yes it was an Ensfield.
After a long, long shower we strolled through the town. It is unbelievable how people live. You walk along there, you see garbage beeing thrown on the "pavement", millions of flies around it and next it someone cooks some food. The huge amount of people trying to sell something to you is amazing as well, but you kind of get used to it.
On our hunt for a cold beer, we ended up in a cozy roof top restaurant. One woman, she helped Sandra to clean her scarf before, had a very proud manner. She told us that the guy serving us was actually her only son and he goes to the university, he was presented to us like a piece of jewllery :).
Afterwards we found a place where they sell brandy, rum and related things. This stuff is dead cheap... We then went to another French/Indian restaurant and had amazing food, again. I can drink masses of juice: fresh papaya, pineapple... Mmmh, or papaya lassi. Afterwards we had some of the brandy with the local boys. Mixed with pineapple juice it gives a very good digestive.
I then went to ebd and slept 11 hours. This morning, I woke up, put on my swimsuit and jumped into the waves! Wow, what a way to wake up! Strolled around, had lunch with another backpacker (half Indian, though), met Sedil, who tried to make me drink Brandy/Sprite at 1pm. Apart from the fact that what they call brandy is some kind of weird cheap stuff that gives instant headache, HOW can you drink at 1pm, when you have 40$\circ$ outside.
Anyway, I talked to the boys in their cafe, had one bite of their fastfood (callecd drumstick but is veg.) burned my mouth, drank water, died, drank water, died a little less, but still, drank water.
Later I'll do some sight-seeing.
I am still uncapable to write about all these impressions, give me some time to acclimatize and you will get more impressions instead of pure facts.