Deutschsprachiger Stammtisch in Chennai

Im Dezember

wollen wir das herannahende Weichnachtsfest mit den wenigen in Chennai übrig gebliebenen feiern.

Der naechste STAMMTISCH findet statt am,
14. Dezember 2007
im Hotel Marriott, Restaurant Rhapsody

wie ueblich ab 19:30

Bitte weitersagen, .......

Deutschsprachiger Stammtisch in Chennai

Im November



Sind wir wieder im Restaurant, wo der Stammtisch gegründet wurde.

Der naechste STAMMTISCH findet statt am,

16. November 2007

im Hotel Residency Towers, Restaurant The Crown

wie ueblich ab 19:30

Bitte weitersagen, .......

The Expat's social life in Chennai

The Expat's social life in Chennai is not full with continuous exciting cultural and social events. After a certain while in the city you will know the face of nearly all the expats as they are coming together for most of the events.

Key to get into the expat's social life is the wife and kids, as they have organized get together on where finally now and then are allowed to join as well.

The Overseas Women Club plays here the crucial role in bringing the ladies together. At the end of August they organize a welcome party into the new year, where newcomers to the city and oldies get together and provide a possibility to the greenhorns to orientate themselves and find their first friends in town.
In October they do their annual dine and dance, which is fun, as really every expat, who is in town shows up to this event. It is one of the few events with formal dress code in town throughout the year. The OWC does as well weekly playgroups for small kids and their parents, which is a good ground for social networking.

An important networking instituion is the American International School in Chennai. Moms and dads meet up mornings and afternoons on a daily basis, say hello to each other and especially moms find the time to hang around for more time in the school and exchange themselves. Some of them even do not seem to leave the premises during the four to six hours while their kids are at school.
The American School does as well around once a month programs for the parents, which is an ideal ground for communication and networking.

During weekends you find the expats at the usual places, Brunch at Marriott, swimming on Ideal Beach, drinks at one of the Five Start Hotels, shopping in City or Ispahani Center. It can happen, that you meet the same white face two times within a week without making any appointments, as everyone is going the same routes in this city.

A good description of what is on in the city gives a small but fine booklet called cityinfo. It is free of charge and you can get it in coffee shops or the hotels and gives a good guide of what is going on in the city for a month in the area of Art, Music, Nightlife, Eating out and shopping in Chennai. Watch out the ads.

Chennai is not a real exciting city in terms of social life and events, but it is definitely getting better day by day, but the conservative tradition of the people's mind in Chennai will take it a little longer to come to a level of Bangalore, Mumbai or Delhi.
View some good places on the Chennai map

Deutschsprachiger Stammtisch in Chennai

Im Oktober

Schön, daß wir immer mehr werden und das Interesse am monatlichen Stammtisch steigt. Die ursprüngliche Idee der Zusammenkunft war ja Spaß zu haben und das einmal im Monat auf Deutsch in Chennai.

Der naechste STAMMTISCH findet statt am,

19. Oktober 2007 im
In Seoul, Koreanisches Restaurant
wie ueblich ab 19:30

Bitte weitersagen, .......

The Marriott Sunday Brunch

The Marriott Sunday Brunch is nowadays definitely the best in Chennai for families. There is a variety of food available from Indian to continental, Pizzas, Pastas, Salads, dessert counter, ice cream stall and above all a seperate area for kids.

I am really impressed of what they have introduced since they started around a year ago. Now they combine all ground floor restaurants for a big Sunday brunch come together, as the demand for seats was so high.

In the main hall you find a life band playing decent background music, definitely not too loud to disturb your conversations and in the Rhapsody restaurant the kids have their place with toys, paiting, a clown entertaining them and of course their own food menu.

If you are looking to see all dishes on offer I suggest you make a tour around the ground floor first and check out what all is available in the different place.

Certainly this is the place where you find most of the expats with families in Chennai during Sunday lunch time. Really a great family event with reasonable prices.

View the map to locate the Mariott

Deutschsprachiger Stammtisch in Chennai

Im August


Ueber die Sommermonate war ja nicht viel los, ausser dass alle weg waren. Jetzt ist der Sommer vorbei, Schule hat gestartet und es ist Zeit fuer den naechsten Umtrunk und einen Stammtisch mit vollzaehliger Besetzung. Besten Dank auch an all die jenigen, die im Juni und Juli fuer ein paar Bierchen Zeit gefunden haben und den Stammtisch weitergefuehrt haben.

Der naechste STAMMTISCH findet statt am,

17. August 2007 im

Raintree Hotel, Restaurant Upper Sea Level (Rooftop)

wie ueblich ab 19:30

Visa procedures

Everybody needs a visa entering India! Some of our smart colleagues have not been able to figures this out before they arrived at Indian airports after 30+ hours of travel from the US. And NO, visas for India are not available on arrival in India. If you don't have a visa you will be sent back usually with the plane you just arrived - NO EXCEPTIONS!

To get a visa for working and staying in India is rather easy in comparison to other countries. The government wants you to have the basic documents right and obviously you should have as well an invitation from your company ready to work in India.

This is some of the relevant information.“EMPLOYMENT VISA: Employment visas are initially issued for one-year stay. A copy of the contract with the employer has to be enclosed.Kindly note that Employment Visa is given only for jobs that require very high level of skills and expertise. This can be extended by Foreigners Regional Registration Office in India, if the job contract continues. Spouses and children are granted co-terminus entry visas on request.”http://www.indiacgny.org/php/showContent.php?linkid=23“General inquiries or supply of application forms: Please write orsend fax to Consulate General of India, 3 East 64th Street, New York,New York 10021. Tel. (212) 774-0600, (212) 774-0610, Fax (212)570-9581, E-mail: visa@indiacgny.org”http://www.indiacgny.org/php/showContent.php?linkid=21The Indian Embassy (details below), states that,“Note: Change of purpose is not permitted once you have reached India. Depending on the nature of your journey, apply for the correct visa category.”

After getting the visa in your home country you have to tell the Indian authorities within two weeks of arrival, that you are here and they issue a residence permit.

The FRRO in Chennai is really a great place. When you enter you first think, that tomorrow you will not be able to get out of there, but with all respect I have to say, that they are really efficient and I have never spent more than one hour in this place. It also seems to be the most unorganized place on earth with no organization around their paper work, but guess what, if they don't find something back in their files, they are really flexible. I have been there over and over again and I did not have a single bad experience. Great stuff.

Important to know is, that after one year the extension of the visa has to be approved by the Delhi office, which took me six months until completion. The Chennai FRRO office can provide twice an intermediary extension for three months, then it is over. I have taken the advise to go to Delhi and see what is going on there and I have never seen so much paper in so many different places. I thought to sort this out in one hour and they told me, that it takes around four hours to find out, if the application has only reached them - WOW. The good thing is, that if you have all paper with you (I did not!) you go there at 8 am in the morning and by 8 pm evening they promise you to walk away with a proper stay visa. I did not take this offer :) but hired a professional agency to whom I had to pay some money for getting the stuff done and it was sorted out pretty quickly.

Rather than applying to Delhi for the extension some expats choose to apply for a new visa back home and the procedure starts as if you would have come to the country the first time - this way is actually easier.

Last interesting story on visas and residence permit is for an expat child born in India.:

• The child only gets a visa/residence permit, if you have a valid one (logical)
• You need to apply for a passport in your home country before you can apply for the visa (logical)
• The child cannot apply for Indian nationality if born in India, as the nationality is given by blood and not place of birth
• The child will receive a visa in India, but only to exit the country (why is that?)
• Within six month of visa application you need to leave the country with the child and apply for a new visa in an Indian embassy where ever. Some people choose Singapore or KL if they are in a hurry or just travel back home (we did that)
• After coming back with the new visa (based on the parents allowance) you need to go to FRRO to apply for the residence permit again.

Nightlife in Chennai

Nightlife in Chennai is pretty boring, but as all aspects in life it has dramatically improved over the past two years. The opening hours got improved from midnight to 1:30!

Seems, that lot of the guys do not drink here and the other lots get really drunk, there is no in between. Social life for locals is mainly happening among your four walls at the most in a restaurant, means the crowd you find in Chennai's nightlife are rich kids, Indians brought up in the west and expats.

The nightlife is centered among the five star hotels and all of them have a kind of bar and maybe a disco club. Here some of the recommendations I can give

Park Sheraton: Has an old colonial style bar open until around midnight, but the place is really, really cold and you don't find a place where the aircon does not blow into your face. Good for conversations with friends in a traditional atmosphere (I prefer the bar in Taj Coromandel). Dublin: Great club, but as a man you are only allowed in with your couple. The guys at the door are pretty sharp. Closes around 1:30

The Park: Has a stylish bar called Leather Bar. You find more hype people there than in Park Sheraton and if you are lucky they let you into their disco club called Pasha. Same rule applies than in Dublin, but not that strictly executed. This place is good fun, best in Chennai, meets global standards only gets really really busy.

Residency Towers: Is the host of the only pub I know in Chennai, called Bikes and Barrels. Good for an Irish pub style of evening with beer and whiskeys. Gets very busy on weekends, good music. I found strange, that single men have to go to the first floor, where they can look out of a kind of cage environment of what is going on in the main area. Luckily does not apply to expats.

Raintree: Another club called Havanna - this is already number three! - which is open until around 1:30. Good crowd, good music. Less hype than Pasha and more of an Indian feeling.

Taj Coromandel: Has the most classy colonial style bar in Chennai called Fort St. George. I have actually rarely seen women in there and more a hang around place for grey haired business men.

Spot the places on the map

The list is not exhaustive and more can be found on Cityguide, Chennai Hub, Recommendations and Pubs

Deutschsprachiger Stammtisch in Chennai

Maiausgabe

Im April waren wir zu Fuenft und es war definitiv lustig, lange nach der Sperrstunde in Chennai und sehr, sehr flüßig.

Die Maiausgabe des

Stammtisch

findet am

18. Mai 2007, ab 19:30

im Koreanischen Restaurant Inseoul statt. Nach der Sperrstunde gehts dann weiter ins Park Sheraton Hotel, um im Dublin noch die Whiskeys zu verkoestigen. Wer dann um 3 am noch Glueck hat wird zu einer Beachparty bis zum Morgengrauen eingeladen. Prosit

Real estate purchase in Chennai

Purchasing real estate in India is extremely attractive those days. In the last two years smart investors have made around 30% increase in the value of their properties on a year on year basis. The demand is sky rocketing and supply is not able to cope, which is why the prices are over board and in a city like Mumbai higher than in New York.

Chennai really does not have any finished high standard real estate at this time. In light of this the city is currently the most booming town around real estate in India. Prices are shooting up more than even the Indian average 30% per year and I consider myself already the biggest fool on earth, that I have not purchased any apartment or house over the past two years. Anyway, I still want to do this, but there are a lot of questions for which I currently do not have any answers:

• Under which circumstances can I take a legal title on a property as foreigner?
• How do I bring in money?
• How do I convert the money without loosing out on FX?
• In case I want to sell how many years do I need to stick with the real estate for tax reasons?
• In case I want to sell, how do I repatriate the money into the EUR zone?
• and many more questions

All the questions I want to attack in the short future and I will post the outcome here as well. I really do believe, that purchasing real estate in India and especially Chennai is an incredible opportunity at this time with unbeatable returns around the globe.

Foreigners might not really find the new buildings as visually attractive as they very often remind more to Disneyland than any city. If you look around in South East Asia you will actually find many more such buildings, which have all at least in built Swimming Pool, jogging track and in house gym. Still there are two different concepts:

Townships: Includes really all facilities in a huge area of at least 100 acres. Townships are towns within a town and have school, mall, hospital, offices, apartments in the same gated community. If you live and work there, basically you do not have to leave the place if you don't want. I personally would not want to live my life in such a township, but the concept of a small town built up from scratch is definitely fascinating.
The following townships are currently in planning stage: Palace Gardens - very impressive!!, Ozone and World Village.

Gated communities: Have as well at least 100 apartments or villas in one area, but are only providing facilities such as pool, gym, children playground, play room and maybe a restaurant. Currently under construction are the following: Green Meadows, Upscale, Lumbini, Blessings, Fomra.

I had already indicated, that the price is quite expensive. Most of the townships are from 30 km onwards outside of the village. Depending on the luxury you pay from 3000 INR/sft onwards. Also for the gated communities the location and distance to the city center is the decisive factor. The per sft price can go up to 6000, which is already comparable to some Western European cities - In my opinion: IT IS STILL WORTH BUYING!! The only question currently is HOW?

Who is in town

Chennai becomes white. Two years ago, when we landed in the city, there was hardly any white face around. In the five star hotel, which was our first destination, we were even the only ones.
Today you are seeing them in the shopping centers, cycling with their bikes in the streets, on the backseats of Rikshas, they are everywhere and Chennai is getting really "cosmopolitan".

You find them:

a) In the restaurants of five star hotels
b) At Ideal beach resort on Sundays
c) In their offices during the week
d) In the clubs, such as Madras club
e) In the American school dropping their kids - Number 1 best seller
f) In shops, where you buy western life style
g) Birthday parties of kids - Number 2 bestseller


Most of the expats are here with their families and I did not get to know any singles here, as I imagine, life must be incredible boring for a single person. Lets see then, which nationalities are around (whom I know off):

There are two Austrians in town, but lots of Germans. Germans have a big consulate in town and quite a few of the companies (Durr, BMW, BBraun, etc...) have come in with production entities to Chennai. The highlight of the year is the consulate organized German Night, which used to happen around beginning of February and is definitely a social highlight in town and really fun! Watch out for the next one in 2008!

There are bunch of Koreans here as well, as Hyundai and their suppliers have occupied large production facilities outside the town. The issue with those guys is, there are many, hardly speak English, have all Korean facilities (restaurant, etc...) here, therefore they are not mixing with other nationalities

Finns or Finishmen, or how do you actually say this? A hardly populated country in the north of Europe is sending its entire population to Chennai to produce mobile phones for their biggest best selling brand, Nokia. They dont talk much, but are warm hearted and after twenty beers definitely a laugh.

Obviously there is a huge American population as anywhere in the world, but in addtion you find as well few people from most probably all the countries in the world around. I have met, English, Irish, Danish, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Norvegian, Mexican, Honduras, etc. etc. etc. etc....

It is getting more colourful in town and after a few months you would know most of them as well, as you meet the expats usually at the same places.

Deutschsprachiger Stammtisch Chennai - April

Der naechste und dritte deutschprachige Stammtisch findet am 13. April ab 19:30 im Rooftop Restaurant des Raintree Hotels statt. Bis jetzt wars immer lustig und feucht, darum Zeit nehmen an diesem Abend.



Fuer jene, die noch keine Einladungs SMS erhalten haben, bitte e-mail and christoph.prieler@gmail.com. Sonst haben wir nicht genung Plaetze.

Rent a place

Hunting for a place to live has turned out to be a difficult event. There is not too many properties available in Chennai, which meet Western standards and can be described in three categories:

1. Upmarket houses in the city center around the boat club area
2. Apartments in the city
3. Houses, villas along the East Coast Road

The scarcity of offer in the real estate market together with lots of foreigners coming in has lead to a price increase of around 50% in rental prices for expat housing. I have seen fabulous houses for 50,000 INR per month rented three years ago and really bad stuff for 120000 INR per onth rented out this year. With companies normally willing to pay whatever the expat in India demands, the local landlords are just hiking the prices on a monthly basis and have to open their wallets to fill it with money. I came accross stories, in which the landlord wanted to kick out the expat, if he would not be willing to pay 50% more rent.

As I have experience in a house along the ECR as well in a city center appartement, let me explore the advantages, disadvantages of both.

Beach houses:

• Am I willing to travel around one hour to the city one way, as the ECR can get pretty crammed?
• It is phantastic to live two minutes walking distance from the sea side
• What about cobras (snakes) in the garden? Do I have a provision for an antitoxin in my fridge as my neighbours do?
• How much piece and dark do I stand?
• The more you go south the worse the infrastructure will be. We had times of two days without electricity, therefore a back up generator is a must have! Forget about DSL Internet connections down south and seek as well, where the water comes from in your shower.
• Am I ok, that there is no garbage removal, but everybody burns their waste in the garden, which can stink heavily
• Does your family like insects, who share the space with you, such as cockroaches, ants, etc..?
• Any allergy against lizards?

Dont forget you choose the jungle to live in - it is great to live in midst of wild exotic nature at the beach, but be also prepared for exotic adventures!!

Ideal beach resort

The best expat hangout place on the weekend is Ideal beach resort. Around three kilometers before the cultural heritage of Mahabalipuram is this hotel resort, which has a great beach, a nice swimming pool and an ok restaurant, but you will definitely find most of the Chennai expat families spending their Saturdays or Sundays there.

What makes this place unique is, that for 150 Rupies you can use the well maintained beach area as well as the swimming pool, which no other resort in the area would allow you. And the hygenic standards are acceptable so that it makes the only place on the coast strech between Chennai and Pondy, where you can hang out on the beach, enjoy a fresh coconut water under palm trees and have a nap in one of the hammocks.

The food at the beach itself is not really great, but in the restaurant in the resort it is definitely acceptable and they have a wide variety of Indian, continental and sea food.

At the pool you will soon make your friends in French, German, Danish, Italian or English language. Lots of mainly European expat families enjoy this place on the weekend, despite the fact, that it is a good hour drive on the East Coast Road (ECR) from Chennai.

On Sunday afternoons Brynjulf from Norway is organizing beach volleyball games and everybody fit enough to play for some hours in 45 degrees is welcome to join.

This place has the best recreational factor on the whole coast and worthwhile a visit!

Fishermen's cove

The best place in Chennai for food and a weekend chill out off the hectic city. Fishermen's cove is part of the Taj hotel group, which is recognized for their excellent service.

I have personally experienced their outstanding service in several occasion, where they organized entry tickets to events, which were sold out for a long time. THANK YOU.

Fishco (abbreviation for insiders), which offers a variety of facilities and restaurants, is a hang out place for expats on the weekends. Especially their brunch on Sundays in their main restaurant is full of foreigner, who enjoy the great mix of Indian and continental food and friendly atmosphere with their families. As this place is getting crowded it is advisable to make a reservation 24 hours before.

A unique scenery served with continental food provides the "Upper Deck" restaurant. They do Sunday brunch as well, which is more expensive, but you have fresh sea food in the open air close to the sea.

On Friday evenings the Fishco does barbeques at the beach mainly with seafood and steaks and while enjoying the dinner you can have your feet relaxed in the sand.

My kids love their air conditioned tent, where they can play with toys and games. Unfortunately the selection is rather old, used and poor for my taste, but still it is a weekend highlight for them.

In addition they offer a spa, fitness club, beach and a swimming pool, but they are very particular about non hotel guests NOT using their facilities. To overcome this burden they offer a membership for which all the facilities can be used even for non hotel guests.

In the near past they started to overprice their services and a regular brunch comes for around 20 USD and with seafood around 35 USD, which is unbeaten in Chennai.

But still... a phantastic place to hang out on a Sunday evening with your families.

Introduction

This blog is about living in Chennai. I hope, that the entire expat and non-expat community will contribute in getting all important information together of how to survive in this city.

Topics I have in my mind are numerous: housing, shopping, doctors, social activities, sports, tourist places, restaurants, and anything else of what we have experienced.

Everbody, who wants to be invited to post in this blog should put a request into one of the comments.