Sorry - yet another where to live in Chennai...

santos_g15

i didnt read your mail fully mate .there are no pubs/decent restuarants in ramapuram where DLF is located.IF you want semi posh area you can stay at vadapalani.adayar is far off from dlf.Defence colony iss good locality but again its not where you can go to pubs on saturday nights. public transport is share auto mate.nearest railhead is guindy.dont think about travelling in buses.you should share an auto with 7-10 other guys on peak time they charge you 10 from guindy train station to DLF .Most companies run shuttle at prescribed time here .ONE LINE YOU GOT TO CHOOSE BETWEEEN HOW EASY YOU COMMUTE AND DISTANCE TO PUBS,DECENT RESTUARANT,MOVIE HALLS etc.

AREAS I WOULD RECOMMEND:VADAPALANI,SALIGRAMA M,ASHOK NAGAR.
GUINDY-HAS COUPLE OF HIGH END RESTURANTS AND RAILHEAD,SHARE AUTOS OPERATE FROM HERE TO DLF.MAMBALAM
IF YOU OWN A CAR:MAYBE ADYAR(very long travel,PUBS,PIZZA HUTS,SUBWAY),BESANT NAGAR(FARTHER THAN ADYAR,BUT YOU HAVE A BEACH HERE,PUBS,PIZZA HUTS,SUBWAY).

one more bit of info most of bars here are government owned.we call it TASMAC (everyone comes here).if you want privacy ,you should visit a licensed bar in restuarant.so have to look for that too i guess.they are pretty scattered these restuarants with bars.
finally ,ask your million questions i am ready to answer .lol

Nick-H

For posh area, with some classier shops and restaurants and stuff, I'd head over towards Anna Nagar. Poonamallee High Road can be a nightmare too, but you'd get to know the side streets. But I'd be exploring the areas Santos just mentioned too.

Although there are certain journeys that I would hate to have to do daily, Chennai isn't so big. You can choose your place, and still make it work even if it isn't the nearest. So if you fell for a beach-side ECR house, or a place in Adyar, yes, you could do it, but journeys that take thirty minutes mid-afternoon take an hour at 6.00pm, and anything causing a jam can make that two hours.

TASMAC places are pretty rough --- you're drinking on the street with a bunch of blokes. But it's a 'dry' state, apart from the govt-owned TASMAC and the expensive hotel bars, and one or two 'pubs' that might as well be in expensive hotels. Not that I drink, so I'm not the expert here, but hey! I'm talk to people that do!

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Greasy Chip Butty

Wow, thanks for all the advice everyone.


To give me an idea of distances, are you saying that the commute from Gandhi Nagar would take around an hour? Would West Mambalam be about the same? And T Nagar?


I guess we'll just need to take some time getting to know the options before settling in one place.


Don't suppose anyone has any suggestions for short term apartment rentals? Hotels drive me mad after a week or so.


Santos - my wife will be working at IBM. The deal isn't finalised yet, but she's a contractor, which means that we may get little (or nothing) in the way of allowances. It’s likely that rent, cars, travel etc will all come out of her pay. Meaning that cheaper is better!


Out of interest, how much would a beer cost in a place like the Leather Bar?


Have to say I’m incredibly excited about moving to Chennai, but I’m kind of cacking my pants as well. We’ve lived in a few different countries but never one where you have to boil pasteurised milk before you drink it!


Thanks
GCB

luckyshibu

IN my opinion it would take time. NOt only distance for T.Nagar and and west mambalam is more, they are way too crowded compared to adyar (on scale of 10 adyar would be 7-8, T.nagar is 9.5 in terms of traffic)but thats my opinion again.

would cost you around 200-250 for Draught, corona and heineken would be much costlier.

would cost you 160 for Draught again in HIghtime in GRT Grand in T.nagar. Corona and heineken would cost you 350 over there...

Zaras again around 200 for a bottle for kingfisher (Indian "goodtimes")

In general price for adraught varies from 160-300 at very high end place.

i Have not seen fosters here in chennai


its bad..but come on not that bad!!

Greasy Chip Butty

Steady with the Fosters reference Luckyshibu! I may be in Sydney but I'm a Pom.

luckyshibu

well in that case you'll get only GINGER ALE at least if not newcastle Brown Ale!!!!

Gametotravel

Within short commute of Ramavaram the following 5stars:-


Cilantro (Le Royal Meridien) - www.leroyalmeridien-chennai.com
St Thomas Mt,1, G S T Road, Chennai - +91 44 22314343

Trident Hilton Hotel - www.trident-hilton.com
1/24,Near To Airport, Gst Road, Chennai - +91 44 22344747

www.radisson.com
531,355-C,G S T Road, St Thomas Mount, Chennai, 600016, India
+91 44 22310101

All got bars and Le Meridien got a pub cum disco too!

You could stay here at Business Class hotel rates(lot economical than 5stars)

Hotel Zen Garden
86, Nr. King Institute
Guindy,
chennai, Tamil Nadu 600032
Phone: (44) - 42225400 , 42225411 , 42225422.

Nick-H

What about that big hotel on 100-ft Road? Ambika Empire (BEWARE: Flash intro with music )

It seems they have a bar too.

Any experience of it, guys? Convenient location?

mirjamd

Le Meridien might have a pub and a disco, but they are not popular places.
The more popular places are Park Sheraton (Dublin), the Park (Leather Bar, where a lot of expats hang out) (Pasha, a club), Residency Towers (Bike and Barrel) and 10 Downing Street in North Boag Road, amongst others.. All these places are more in the centre of town.

Greasy Chip Butty

Good info, thanks. Though the room rates for the top hotels are a bit steep - around 15,000 a night would blow a huge hole in our budget, assuming that the company don't pay.

Also, given that it would be good to spend a couple of weeks checking out where we'd like to live, I'd much prefer to be in a short term apartment to start off with, if possible.

Thanks

GCB

Nick-H

Came home from Chennai Trade Centre yesterday evening, and actually the Butt Road section was not really any worse than the bottom of Mounts Road to Little Mount. It took me 40 minutes from Chennai Trade Centre to Madhia Kailash, top of IT ExpressWay, edge of Adyar, and only one hour to get home.

Still... I wouldn't want to drive that route every day. But then, I wouldn't want to be commuting anyway!

Greasy Chip Butty

So, sounds like if you don't live on the doorstep of work you've got quite a decent commute. Oh well.

Congratulations on passing the 25,000 mark, Nick-H,that's quite an innings!

GCB

Nick-H

The big trouble in Chennai is not so much the daily traffic, as the crazy things. Like clearing whole sections of road for VIPs to pass through . Or politicians setting up their public meetings in the middle of the road .

The traffic coming opposite-way to me yesterday evening was backed up for miles due to the road being closed for some VIP. The State Governor's place is there, and this is not uncommon. The fact that it is a vital central route is not given priority.

(Thanks but the post-count is embarrassing!)

bcpai77

You can say that again...Looking at the traffic density and consequently, the narrow roads in areas like Kodambakkam, West Mambalam, T.Nagar, etc, one would've thought that the politicians would have enough sense to have their meetings elsewhere...maybe in wide open spaces on the outskirts of the city....but no the more critical the road for traffic movement, the more preferred it is for political meetings...

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Nick-H

Not only the narrow roads! We have family in Shennoy Nagar: one day the Poonamallee High Road was solid, due to a politician, apparently in the middle of one of Chennai's major trunk roads!

Another time they set up in the wide road from PHR to ThiRuViKu park, requiring ridiculous diversions around narrow lanes.