Mamallapuram to Pondicherry

January 15, 2010

To start out today, I thought I'd take 5 minutes to talk a little about the names of the various places that we visited or stayed in India. Some, like Delhi, Agra, and Lucknow, were pretty simple. However, a TON of the other places have multiple names. We didn't visit Mumbai, but it used to be called Bombay. Calcutta is now Kolkuta. Of the places WE visited, Chennai used to be called Madras, Mamallapuram is also called Mahabalipuram, and Pondicherry is also known as Puducherry. Just a BIT confusing lol.

So on the 15th we drove down to Pondicherry. On the busride I finished Ender's Shadow and started Shadow of the Hegemon, which (although I didn't know this previously) takes place largely in India and Pakistan. How's that for external alignment? haha

The french quarter of Pondicherry, which used to be a French city before joining India in the 40's, is a MUCH different place than the rest of India. When we got there we took a walking tour around the city, and at least twice I COMPLETELY forgot I was in India. We were walking down a certain street and I looked over at a poster that had some advertisements on it. One of them was for a Bollywood movie and had the word "Bollywood" written on it: I remember thinking to myself, "Why is there an advertisement for a Bolly....OHHHH!" :)

This is a photo of the main street in the French part of the city-on the left is a lighthouse and on the right is a statue of Ghandi.

Le Cafe-if you are ever in Pondicherry, DO NOT go to Le Cafe. More on that tomorrow...

Gandhi is hidden in there-you can see him better in a later picture

They had some cool colors for the buildings in this section of town.

The French value their peace and quiet a bit more than the Indians do-I don't think I've mentioned it before, but the honking in India is CRAZY! Honking is the rule rather than the exception and if someone honks at you it's just to let you know that they're there more than anything else. This results in a cacophonous assault on your ears...the French would prefer to avoid that (as this sign hints at).

We got to go inside a cathedral on part of the tour and it had some really cool lighting resulting from its stained glass windows.

We arrived in Pondicherry during Pungal, or the Harvest/New Year Festival. As part of the festival people decorated their cows/dogs/pets and drew all sorts of designs on the ground in chalk. Some were a bit messed up by the time we saw them...

...others were in better shape...

A very very select few were immaculate and looked like they had JUST been finished!

"Don't jump, Jesus!" was the first thought that went through my head lol

Ghandi again!

Another view of the lighthouse.

For dinner we went to a French restaurant-due to the service, this was one of the worst dining experiences of the trip. First of all, on that particular day because of Pongal no one in the city was selling alcohol-so no beer or wine. Strike 1: no wine with French food. Then our waiter took FOREVER taking our order, bringing the food, and calculating the bill. Because of his delays, it was three hours from the time that we arrived before we were actually leaving the restaurant. Strike 2: SUUUPER slow service. Lastly, for desert they didn't have any crepes AND didn't have any of the flavors of ice cream that were on the menu. Strike 3: NO crepes!!! At a FRENCH restaurant! lol

So that was Day 1 in Pondicherry. Tomorrow: Zack gets sick! An interesting conversation with a local! And the only real thing there is to do in Pondicherry.