Walking on the streets of Chennai, I felt a familiarity to that of walking on the streets of Vietnam. The familiarity began with the street vendors to the mode of transportation as well as to the trash collecting vehicle pulled by a bicycle.

A ‘modern-day’ trash collecting vehicle

Like Vietnam, Chennai has textile shops and tailor shops. The difference was that Chennai has mobile tailors.

Mobile tailors

Turning at the next corner, I came to a busier street to find a lady dressed in colorful Indian sari (Indian cultural dress) walking pass.

Walking the street

I would find most women wearing traditional Indian clothing, but sometimes, I would find younger women wearing western clothing.

Western, non-traditional, clothing for a young India woman

The most popular mode of transportation here are auto-scooters/motorcycles, cars, and sometimes bicycles. For those who find the street too dangerous to drive around, the auto-ricksaw is a popular mode of transportation. There is a meter of each auto-ricksaw, but I found that the driver prefer to negotiate for the price.

Auto ricksaw is a conventional mode of taxiing people around the streets of Chennai

India has a large number of Muslims as well. Many young Muslim women and girls are dress in black burkas, even in the hot sun.

Bicyclist in burka