Refreshed from my swim (and a little snooze for Mike), we pondered what to do for dinner. It’s not impossible to be vegan in India, but it isn’t quite as well understood here as we’d hoped so it does take a bit of planning and usually a conversation to check that whatever it is that sounds like it might be vegan hasn’t been cooked using ghee (a clarified butter). We ate in the hotel restaurant last night and the chef prepared us a lovely selection of vegan dishes: a dhal, alloo (potato) curry), a vegetable curry and some flat breads. We could have eaten in again, but we thought we ought to try somewhere different. Plus Mike wanted to find a supermarket where we could get some supplies for our long road trip tomorrow. 

I did a bit of research online and found that the Express Avenue shopping mall was just one stop away from our hotel in the metro. It said there were grocery stores and restaurants, so we headed off. Upon arrival, the first store we came to was a small food shop that seemed to specialise in organic and international foods. Although it wasn’t vegan we found some familiar vegan treats. Lotus caramel and Oreo (yes ‘accidentally vegan’) biscuits, both went in the basket along with some vegan chocolate, peanuts, salted crisps and a big bag of fried salted broad beans. This should keep us going on our long road trip to Bengalore tomorrow.

Further into the mall there were lots of familiar brands Sephora (the beauty shop), Body Shop, Benetton, and H&M – which was handy. You know how the song goes ‘mad dogs and English men go out in the midday sun’, well guess who did that? A certain somebody packed a bit too much ‘air’ and despite coming to India for four weeks, didn’t pack a hat. As a result he’s a little blushed today after our visit to the beach (he didn’t even put any sun cream on). A trip to H&M sorted him out with a nice cap, and a couple of long sleeve t-shirts to protect his fair skin.

While Mike popped into H&M I nipped into a Simon Carter shirt shop. I do like his shirts but back in the UK they retail for about £175 and I can never quite bring myself to spend that on a shirt. I wondered how much they were here, plus there was a sale on! For the whole of 2024 I didn’t buy any new clothes – it was a new year resolution to be a bit more eco-friendly, but as it’s 2025 I think that I can now buy new clothes again, but I’m trying not to buy to many (this was about to go out the [shop] window).

My eye was instantly drawn to a colourful woven shirt and I thought this would be very appropriate purchase for this location. These colourful checked cotton shirts are traditionally known as Madras shirts, and the original name for Chennai was Madras (until it changed in 1996). I thought this would be a perfect souvenir from Chennai. I tried it on to make sure it fitted (it did, like a glove), then went to the cash desk to pay. That’s where it started to go wrong! The boy behind the desk said ‘choose another’, I replied I was fine with this one, he said ‘it’s two for the price of one’. It was already reduced to 2999 rupees (about £29.50 – a LOT cheaper than the UK). I returned to the shelf and tried to pick out a second shirt. It was hard – there were too many lovely ones to choose from. I shortlisted two – a white one with a delicate green and blue dotted geometric pattern and a modern floral one that reminded me of the Swedish prints of Marremeko. I tried them both on and was struggling to choose when he started to barter (as they do in India). ‘Second one half price, best and final offer Sir’. How could I refuse! So I walked out with three shirts for a total cost of around £40! I went to Michael in H&M, looking a bit sheepish I explained my ‘too good to refuse’ dilemma. He looked at me and said ‘you should have packed more air’, that was me told! 

We wandered up to the food court where we found a noodle place that did a nice vegetable noodle stir fry, washed down with some refreshing peach tea. We were both craving something sweet but all the desert places were only offering milk based creations (we’ve not seen any sorbet yet). There was a juice bar though, so we went to check out the menu. Mike wanted some sweet mango juice, but no can do. It’s not the season for fresh mangos apparently, so they’re only available between March and May. He settled for pineapple instead. I was drawn to a section of the menus that proclaimed juice concoctions that offer a wide range of health benefits. Ladies if you want to be ‘well women’ then it’s pineapple, passion fruit, beetroot and carrot juice for you. If you want ‘beauty slimmer’ then may I suggest ‘melon, apple, kiwi and orange’. For me and my dodgy sight it had to be ‘eye power juice’ using carrot, orange, passion fruit and mango (not fresh obviously!). I expect to wake up tomorrow with my eyes returned to their former glory!

It was getting close to ten when the mall shut (it felt most strange shopping late in a Sunday – not something we can do at home). We wandered to towards the end of the mall and lo and behold – there she blew! That little outpost of blighty – good old M&S. No food hall, sadly, but it did have men’s, women’s, kids and beauty. A little bit of home right here. I had read there were 101 M&S stores across India so I had expected we’d bump into one sooner or later – just not this soon. We’ve got about 29 days to go on this holiday so only 100 M&S stores to go!