Blog - Trip to India part 2 - Pondicherry
Trip to India part 2 - Pondicherry
After having spent one day in Chennai, it was already time to head for our next destination, Pondicherry (actually known as Puducherry since 2006). We left our hotel around 9 AM on March 1st, and took an auto rickshaw for CMBT (Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminal).
We were a bit confused as to which bus to take for Pondy, but we were determined to take an air conditioned bus. Walking by the buses several drivers would ask us "Pondy? I go to Pondy!" even though their bus' destination showed something else, probably not a direct trip. I wouldn't trust those buses that say "Super Luxury". :) Most also looked old with the windows open meaning no A/C. A random guy passed by and told us to go to gate #1 for Pondy with A/C, and a nearby driver got in a long argument with him! Anyway so we got to gate #1 and there were the nice-looking busses that clearly said "Pondicherry". The driver took our money, Rs.170 each though we paid with a Rs.500 bill, and we were given a receipt to get change much later on the way. We were set for the 3½ hour trip.
The road that leads to Pondy is called East Coast Road (or ECR). We had a nice time watching the scenery.
We arrived at the bus terminal past noon, and our first priority was to get food! We got to eat vegetarian "meals" at a nearby restaurant, on their air conditioned floor, for only Rs.32 each (about ¥70). What they call "meals" stands for a variety of curry, pickles, yogurt, etc. served with rice and/or chapati (a kind of bread), served on a banana leaf. It was pretty much our first experience eating rice with our bare hands. The waiter there was happy that we liked the food and kept giving us more (meals are "all you can eat").
These photos are from lunch the next day at Surguru Restaurant
(Chronogically, we then went to our main destination, Auroville, but I keep this for the next part. First let's continue with Pondy.)
Pondicherry is a former French colony, and therefore there are many bits of French throughout town. Actually half of the town is considered as the French part, on the ocean side, and the rest is the Indian part. The French part has French-style street names, places like a French Lycée, and many French tourists. Aside from the tourists I didn't really find an opportunity to speak French though. Streets are often decorated with Kolam, drawn flower designs. These reminded us greatly of Japanese artist SASU. I wonder if she took inspiration from India..!
On the next day we spent the afternoon in Pondy again, renting bicycles for Rs.40 each (about ¥85) for the day. The bicycles are old, heavy and quite high, probably dating from the 80's or older. Still they're very practical to get around town quickly.
At the end of the afternoon when handing back our bicycles, the man at the shop recommended us to visit the Ganesha (the elephant god) temple nearby, saying that Ganesha is his brother. We went there and finally found a lot of Ganesha stickers, more beautiful Koram designs, and the real Ganesha!
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr: March 1, March 2, March 3
Posted on May 4, 2010 at 00:38 | Tweet
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