monsoons and hangovers

Today I had my first Indian hangover. We went to a dance club last night, which was an interesting experience. The place was called Vertigo and was on the ninth floor of one of the nicest hotels in Chennai. (According to Indian law, any place that serves alcohol must have a overnight rooms attached, so all clubs/bars/legit restaurants are in a hotel).
As usual, we all get stared at...A LOT. And the law also mandates that clubs close at 11 pm each night, but as we are preparing to leave at the unusually early hour, it begins to pour. And this is rain unlike any I have ever seen, not in Arizona, Mississippi, Costa Rica, NO WHERE have I ever seen such a downpour. The monsoon falls in sheets and instantly floods the roads and stops everything and everyone in their tracks. It's a little scary how it creeps up and the thunder and lightning is fierce.
Several of my friends and I hadn't left the club yet and despite the rain, were being told by the owners to leave. So we had to venture out into the apocalyptic storm to hail down a rickshaw to take us home. Ordinarily we fit three or maybe four people in an auto, but since it was a small miracle that we found the one, all six of us crammed into the back. (This gives you a little idea about Indians regard for safety, since the rickshaw driver allowed and even encouraged this...the more passengers, the more money). Anyway, we all managed to fit and even in the rickshaw we still got soaked. We also had trouble trying to explain to the driver how to find our little hostel that was on the other side of the city because his English and our Tamil were equally bad. All in all, we made it back in one piece but it was really the most hysterical and bizarre experiences I have ever had. I have pictures showing we survived our first monsoon and it is something I wont soon forget.

On that note, it appears as though most Internet cafes have a strong aversion to people using USB drives in their computers so I wont be able to upload pictures today.

From what I was told, the official "monsoon season" doesn't start until early August but we may be seeing more of these torrential rains in the next few weeks. I will need to invest in an umbrella...