Chennai is arguably the capital of India's south and India's fourth largest city with a population of over 8 million. If the name Chennai isn't familiar it may be because it was known as Madras until India recently changed the official names of many of its cities.

Although Chennai is a very large city and was a major administrative center during the British colonial era, it didn't seem to have too many major sights and most of those were quite spread out across the city . I decided to hire a tuk-tuk to take me around for the day to see as much as possible. The British-era High Court buildings turned out to not be open to tourists while Fort Saint George was closed because of some VIP visit. My stops included a visit to the Armenian Church, a walk on Marina Beach along the Indian Ocean, the Kapaleeshwarar Hindu Temple, and Saint Thomas Cathedral.

Madras claims to be one of the three cities in the world where one of Jesus's apostles was entombed, the others being Rome and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Saint Thomas (doubting Thomas) is believed to have brought Christianity to the Indian subcontinent and was killed by a lance at Saint Thomas Mount south of Chennai in 72 A.D. Thomas's remains were apparently later taken to Italy, but Chennai maintains a supposed relic, a small bone fragment, in his tomb.

Of course, you can't take a tuk-tuk anywhere in India without being taken shopping at a nice trinket emporium where the driver will get a fat commission on anything you buy. I've become wiser than to purchase anything anywhere I've been taken by a guide or driver. I finished my Chennai touring at the Government Museum, a group of British-era buildings housing a pretty good collection of Tamil Nadu art and sculpture and a natural history museum with the best animated Tyrannasaurus Rex statue I've see anywhere.

 Chennai was the end of the third of five legs of my tour around India. We celebrated and said our farewells at a budget-busting Asian fusion restaurant at the Taj Hotel. On the second night it was time to meet the new group for the fourth leg of the tour to Kolkata.