This is actually Dubai! We flew from Shanghai to Dubai, then on to Chennai. We had a very early morning rise in Shanghai, and a pretty uneventful exit from China.
A relaxing flight.
A brief stop in Dubai, where we were glad to remain in the airport. Then on to Chennai, collection of our many many bags and transfer to our new temporary hotel home. Everybody pretty much collapsed and slept after that.
The kids were at school two days later. They are troopers and did very well with the transition.
Whenever our hotel room was cleaned, 12 bottles of water were left in the refrigerator. The current quantity of water in the refrigerator didn't seem to have any bearing on the new quantity left. This is how much we had accumulated after a few days. After a two week stay we had a serious number of water bottles.
I did some exploring of our new area. This is at a fruit and vegetable market.
In a store that sells cookware and containers.
The girls dressed in their nighties for pj day at school. The picture was taken in the hotel we stayed at.
When our shipment arrived David spent hours at this place trying to assist with clearance of our shipment. We've both had some interesting experiences with bureaucracy here.
After finally being able to move into our new apartment, we had to leave again two days later. Somebody had connected the gas supply to the cooktop incorrectly. The first time I tried to use the cooktop there was a gas explosion, resulting in burns across my legs, wrist, face and singing off parts of my hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. The leg burns were the worst.
At this point I still can't remember the actual explosion. I remember standing near the cooktop. Then the next thing I can remember is being on the other side of the kitchen in shock, then realising I was burnt and the kitchen was on fire. The doors on the cabinets had been blown off.
Realising that there was now a fire and likely a gas leak, I yelled at the kids to get out. Ethan ran downstairs and fetched building management who put out the fire. Then people appeared from everywhere because apparently the explosion made a loud bang (but I don't remember this). The kids went with another family in the building, while I was taken to hospital.
Meanwhile David was on a plane to Mumbai. He landed to find messages from me telling him what had happened. He collected his luggage and flew straight back to Chennai. Fortunately he was able to get back fairly quickly.
We moved back out of the apartment and back into hotels.
I have since discovered that Tamil Nadu has the highest rate of injury and death related to gas accidents in the world (and this is only those that are reported - many would not be). You would hope this would spur some sort of change, but the reactions after the accident lead me to believe that this is not likely in the foreseeable future.
Both the building management/builder and our agent could immediately tell what the problem with the gas connection had been. They both were supposed to have supervised and signed off on that work. They both had signed off, but both admitted that neither had actually checked it. Clearly the person who did the installation did not know what they were doing (yet was left responsible for installing gas fittings).
We insisted that there would be no more gas in any form in our apartment. When the gas supplier came to collect their gas canisters they initially refused to provide a full refund because all of the gas had been used (they had done the installation).
David and I were concerned about where else that particular worker may have done gas installations and the danger that might be waiting for others. We spent a lot of time trying to get the right people to listen to us, to track down the specific worker, to check their work. There was very little accountability.
One of our neighbours in the building told us that there was an explosion with her cooktop the previous year while her maid was using it, so clearly no lessons had been learnt in the interim. I have also met a German lady who had the exact same accident as myself.
For our part we now have only electrical appliances in our kitchen - otherwise I would never have returned to that apartment. The builders wanted to paint over the burnt cabinets and install a very cheap unknown Indian brand cooktop (which was very poorly reviewed online). David took a knife and showed them how he could poke it straight through the cabinets, insisting that everything burnt be replaced.
David also researched what was available in India and insisted on Bosch appliances, with a Bosch technical representative present at the installation. David had to return every single day and keep on top of the workers to make sure the work was done properly. They repeatedly overpromised and underdelivered, but we got there in the end. David also insisted that all work (across the entire apartment) be independently checked and certified before we would return to the apartment. We also purchased smoke alarms from Australia that have now been installed in our apartment.
I will never complain about the high fees of a properly trained tradesperson in Australia!
This all sounds very depressing, so let's turn back to some of the more fun parts of being an expat. Oh, and don't let this turn you off visiting India. There are lots of great things in this country. We're still here, so evidently there are things we also like.
Family time hanging out at the pool and by the beach. More of these moments please and less of the challenges would be nice.
Driving past a fishing village.
A traffic stop for a Hindu funeral procession. We see these regularly.
Some of Chennai from the car window. I need to do one of these as we travel down the main road leading to our apartment at night. There is always so much going on.
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