Originally Posted by hserus

There are volvo aircon buses that do the central - airport run - go out through the main entrance and avoid the touts, or there are prepaid taxis if you exit from the side entrance of chennai station (again dodge the touts and wait for fairly long in a line).

You'll get your pick of fairly cheap hotels around - but I'd suggest dont stay in one of the ratholes you read about in lonely planet or wherever, you can get a perfectly decent hotel for less than a hundred pounds, easy. Search www.cleartrip.com for hotels in downtown madras and there are plenty. I'd suggest the GRT Grand in T Nagar.