hour long stop on the side of the road to change a tire, largely
uneventful. None of us really slept though, so we found a hotel that
fit our budget and looked much better inside than it did on the
outside (cost about $10/night per person for two non-A/C rooms) and
promptly upon arriving took a nice nap. At 9 am we were more or less
ready to explore Chennai, the capital of the Indian state Tamilnadu.
In the morning, we wandered through the overcast, rainy day to find a
restaurant that was open but finally found one where we had dosa for
breakfast. Then, after two rickshaw rides and some walking, we found
the beach of the Bay of Bengal! Don't quote me on this as a fact, but
I believe that the beach we were on is one of the longest an largest
in area in the world. The sand starts close to the main road but it is
a good 10+ minute walk toward the water before you actually get to it.
The beach was not too crowded with people, and for a good portion of
it, actually free of trash. Closer to the inlet where it flows through
the city though, it looks and smells like a landfill in the water.
After walking and seeing all that we could handle on foot and all that
we could afford by rickshaw, we decided to go to a mall to get lunch.
Although we were eating in a food court that could very well resemble
one in the US, the food and service were far better than at a standard
McDonalds or Subway. I ordered Indian food (aloo gobi masala combo,
which was way more than I could eat for only 100 rupees, or $3) which
was brought to me and bussed away by food court attendants who stood
by waiting to get you a drink or clear your table.
We then walked back to the hotel for nap #2 of the day. Afterward,
since it was still fairly wet outside, we decided to check out a
cinema showing movies in English. We saw "The Prince of Persia", and
the experience was somewhat different than seeing a movie in the US.
People in the audience cheered and booed according to whether or not
the good guys were winning. They whistled at the attractive princess,
and hooted when the prince and princess kissed. It was a really fun
experience and actually probably made the movie seem better (although
I actually liked the movie anyways). Also, our seats were really nice,
leather armchair quality, and the cinema served this really good
gelato-like ice cream in the lobby. The best part about it all was
that the tickets were only about $4 each, making it a really
worthwhile endeavor. After some garlic naan and tea, we paid an
overpriced rickshaw to go back to the hotel for the night.
Eager to get to Pondicherry (or Puducherry, or Pondy as Allison liked
to call it), we woke up the next morning and headed to the public bus
station in Chennai. The public buses are not nearly as nice as the one
that we had taken the day before from Madurai. However, for traveling
on a budget, they can't be beat. Our 4 hour bus from Chennai to
Pondicherry was 95 rupees each, or about $3. You do pay for what you
get though, and it was only by keeping all the windows open and
drinking a lot of water that we all made it to Pondicherry without
getting heat stroke. Since there are no bathrooms on Indian buses,
there is usually at least one stop every couple hours. Our stop on the
bus was the worst part of the trip, because the heat becomes
unbearable and it lasted half an hour. Upon arriving in Pondicherry
though, we quickly forgot our long travel.
Pondicherry is known as the French quarter of India. It is a coastal
town south of Chennai and truly feels like a cross between India and
southern France. The beautiful, rocky shore closest to the center of
town looks out on the endless, blue Bay of Bengal. There is relatively
little trash in this area, and a clear effort to keep it beautiful for
the tourists and French nationals who will find that the locals speak
Tamil, English, and some French, at the very least.
We went to the beach area and then began to walk back toward town to
find a hotel that was more in our price range, as the beach side
palaces surely were not. We had gone no further than maybe three
blocks when we were approached by a young Indian girl, maybe 10 or 11
years old, who asked us if we were looking for a room. Unsure of what
we would find, we followed her back to a house with a small sign that
read "chambres disponibles pour les etrangeres". She showed us two
clean rooms, each with a full bed. Although it would be night #2
without A/C, at only 150 rupees per person ($5) there was no way we
were going to find a better place for nearly the same price anywhere
close to that location.
Our next stop in Pondicherry was at a French/Italian/Indian restaurant
(although it could be argued that Greek and Chinese were mixed into
that menu as well). This multiethnic theme was one that we would later
find at many other restaurants in the area, though this one in
particular had the Lonely Planet seal of approval. Whatever type of
food it actually was, it was a welcome break from the west from the
fiery Indian food that I've become so used to.
Restaurant and cafe hopping became a theme for the weekend, as our
next stop was at a cafe overlooking the Bay. We would visit this 24
hour cafe twice during our visit to Pondy, as it provided a central
place to cool down with a view that couldn't be beat. Our evening was
a bit less relaxed once we decided to try and change our bus tickets
for the Sunday return to Madurai. Our original plan had been to 4
hours back north to Chennai, then another bus 9 hours south to
Madurai. This clearly didn't make any sense to us either, but we had
decided to go to Pondicherry after booking our tickets to Chennai, so
the logical plan became a bit complicated. At first, the bus company
that we had tickets with refused to give us our money back, so we
would be losing almost $40 each by not going back north first.
However, as seems to be the case in India, we just had to find
somebody who had something to benefit by helping us. Our solution was
to find another bus company that would take is straight back to
Madurai, and then have them call the first bus company and convince
them to cancel and refund our tickets so that we could then use that
money to buy tickets with the new bus company. It more or less worked,
with the original tickets being refunded with only a 30% cancellation
fee, still making it cheaper just to go straight back. After an hour
and a half or haggling I think Emanuel put it best in his thick German
accent: "I think we must have drink now". We found a sports bar with
beer, dosa, and World Cup soccer, and unwound after our day.
Day 2 in Pondicherry got a late start and found us restaurant hopping
once again. I can honestly say that I had the best egg scramble (egg,
potato, cheese, tomato) that I have ever had for breakfast, and
probably the best pizza that I have ever had for dinner. It's possible
that this was just my craving for western food being satisfied, but
for some reason the Indian-French culture fusion provided for amazing
cooks and restaurants. We made a midday excursion to a nearby beach
(that we soon found to be much too crowded and after a quick swim, we
left), and before our bus back home, we found ourselves back at the
sports bar once more to watch more soccer.
The only low that I can really give about Pondicherry was one that we
couldn't do anything about: the heat. Just the two hour morning
sightseeing walk that we did to see some old churches this morning
left us all soaked in sweat and feeling completely drained as we
stumbled into the oceanside cafe for a lemonade. If I was going to do
anything different in coming to India, I would come in the winter. I'm
told that the climate isn't significantly different, but just in case
it was slightly cooler, a few degrees would have made it so much more
bearable.
Overall I'm really glad I spent the weekend traveling. It was a
totally new experience to show up in a place, not knowing even which
stop to get off the bus at, find a hotel, get food, and navigate
cities that dwarf even a large US city - all of this while
communicating in a country where English is not the first language,
and in many cases where it is spoken, not entirely coherent. To do
this all in a group where the desires of three people who I had just
met and myself didn't always align was an even bigger accomplishment.
I had a great time with this small group, and am really looking
forward to traveling with them and other volunteers in upcoming
weekends. Next weekend is a Projects Abroad sponsored trip to Kollam,
meaning that all the arrangements will be done for us, making things
far easier for us to just relax and enjoy the trip. The following
weekend we are talking about another small group trip to Kovalam
(excuse the spelling) and possibly also another city which is at the
southernmost point in India. The fact that this leaves me with
potentially only one weekend in India left to plan is kind of
incredible. The first 10 days or so of my trip have gone by so fast,
and I realized today that outside of family trips to the east coast, I
think that 10 days is about the longest that I've ever been away from
home doing traveling of some sort (France, Finland, and China were all
10 days). Adjusting to and traveling in a place that I came to knowing
nobody is also a milestone for me, and it's been a lot of fun so far.
This week should be interesting, and I will hit the ground running
Monday morning at 7 when I head off to the leprosy mission hospital
about an hour and a half outside of Madurai. This is, of course,
assuming an on-time arrival in Madurai on our bus from Pondicherry at
5:30 am.
Off to try and sleep on our non-A/C bus with the man in the seat in
front of me practically in my lap with his seat so far back. Can't
wait to sleep in a bed of my own someday soon...
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