January 16, 2010
So the thing about Pondicherry is that it was not a very fun place. Interesting? Yes. Fun? No.
This was a completely free day in Pondicherry. We didn't have anything on the agenda to see or to do as a class. Now of all the places in India to have a free day...well let's just say that I would have rather had a free day in ANY other city.
We started out to day following our professors for a bit-they wanted to see the bazaar so we tagged along.
Jesus! Definitely a bit weird to see Jesus almost literally around every corner when we hadn't for the past two weeks.
The bazaar was a maze of alleys and vendors that seemed like it stretched forever! The lighting was really cool too because they used the blue tarps as shade which case a bluish tinge on most everything.
These guys just walked up to me and asked me to take a picture of them. When I turned it around and showed it to them the grinned to each other and thanked me-apparently it was enough to take the picture because they didn't ask me to send them a copy or anything haha
A large portion of this particular bazaar was made up of fish sellers (makes sense for a beach town, right?).
I was really surprised because these chickens/ducks are all alive (yes, even the duck with the twisty neck at the bottom of the photo) and they just stayed there-no escape attempts or anything!
After leaving the bazaar our professors continued on but Zack went back to the hotel because he wasn't feeling so good-he already was feeling a bit queasy but all that raw meat in the fish section must've gotten to him. So that left Andy and me. Our hotel stay didn't include breakfast for this particular day so we hadn't eaten and were really hungry so we walked over to Le Cafe for some food.
Big mistake. Basically my most frustrating experience in India.
First of all there was nowhere to sit. Second of all, once we actually FOUND a table we ordered one at a time. Andy got some sort of sandwich and I thought that sounded good so I asked for the same thing. His came out in like ten minutes along with his soda and my milkshake. So we waited. And waited. And WAITED. Finally, after about 20 minutes I told him to just go ahead and went up to see what was taking so long. I asked the guy at the counter and he said my food would be ready soon.
I should mention that even the Indian citizens in Pondicherry speak at least some French. So as I'm talking with this guy he's talking to his buddies in French. I go back to sit down because I assume that "ready soon" means "ready soon."
Silly me. We must have waited at least another 15 minutes before I got fed up. I went up to the counter to ask for my sandwich one last time. The guy looks at me as if he's annoyed and says "ok" then turns to the guy next to him and says "sandwich." This second guy walks back into the kitchen. I turned to the first guy and asked "Did that guy just go back there to start making my sandwich?" The response was one of those blank stares that's a "yes-but-i-don't-want-you-to-know-that" sort of thing. At this point I was just ready to leave.
I asked for my money back. The guy pretended that he didn't know what that meant. I asked for my money back probably three more times before asking for the equivalent amount of food from the baked goods on the counter. I got a chocolate scone and a brownie for the same price as my sandwich would have cost and walked out of there.
Wait, no-I had to pay 20 EXTRA rupees to get those. Now that's only $0.50, but still...
Andy and I spent the next hour or so walking around the city looking for something to do.
Basically, we just wanted some way to make the time pass (I took the photo because it matched so perfectly with the situation haha).
We ended up just hanging out at a bakery for a while. We struck up a conversation with a local and asked him "What is there to do in Pondicherry?" His answer: "Not much...drink, I guess."
Way to go, Boozeicherry. Way to go.
Andy and I decided to just go back to the hotel. On the way we passed a cool temple.
With traffic.
When we got back to the hotel I showered and then took a nap. A group of us went out to dinner at a pretty nice restaurant and as we were leaving one of the girls who had gotten up to use the restroom came back to the table and said "I need 500 rupees (a little more than $10)." Someone gave it to her and she disappeared, only to reappear with a bag full of beers and whiskey.
It seems our friend from the bakery was right. Way to go, Boozicherry. Way to go.
