Pondicherry: A little taste of France

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After a complicated but hassle-free journey involving a taxi, three rickshaws, two buses and a train, we arrived safely to the small, south-eastern ex French colony of Pondicherry (aka Puducherry). We checked into our cute, brightly decorated guesthouse, Le Reve Blue, run by a high-energy and eccentric French woman, and immediately went out to find some dinner. Due to some poor planning, neither of us had eaten anything substantial all day. We settled on a French/Indian restaurant with good food but, to our hungry stomachs' dismay, very slow service. Afterward, we made a water and snack run and stopped at a few pharmacies in search of some medicine to cure Scott's chronic sinus problems before returning to our guesthouse and going to bed. Though I have very few complaints about our room, I will say that our bed was hard as a rock - which is pretty standard in Asia - and did little to aid the back pain I've developed over the past few weeks due to a combination of toting my heavy backpack around, sleeping on trains and buses, and, well, staying in guesthouses with boards for beds. Despite this, our exhaustion allowed us to sleep well and late, just in time for lunch.

We ate at a Vietnamese place, and, even though I was afraid I'd had enough Vietnamese food to last me a year, I thoroughly enjoyed my bun bo. We then stumbled upon a French bakery, where I had a delicious chocolate croissant. After that, most of our day was spent relaxing, exploring our neighborhood, continuing our quest for Scott's medicine, and sitting in an internet cafe attempting to plan the next few legs of our trip. For dinner, we checked out a little rooftop restaurant called New Banana Cafe, which was a bit pricey but didn't disappoint.

Our next day began with us engaging in a wild goose chase in search of a highly recommended breakfast spot. After asking several people with no luck, we were about to give up when it turned up right in front of us. I don't know if wandering around in the heat first thing in the morning was totally worth it...but the coffee was excellent. We continued by walking along the seaside promenade, followed by some exploring and shopping around town. We stopped at a few stores and picked up some souvenirs, including a ceramic incense holder and two batiked wall hangings. After that, we went to the post office to buy some stamps, took a stroll through a little park and got some ice-cream before heading back to the guesthouse for a nap. The remainder of our day consisted of laziness, another dinner at New Banana Cafe and a visit to a trendy shop called Pondy Wallah where I purchased an awesome bright yellow Royal Enfield motorcycle t-shirt (since I love motorcycles so much...).

The following day, we switched guesthouses because we wanted to stay one more night, but our guesthouse was booked. Our host referred us to a place down the street that was the same price and very nice. We spent much of the day relaxing - since leaving the mountains, this has become a trend again as a way to avoid the hottest part of the day - before walking over to the Botanical Gardens (arguably the fictional setting of Pi Patel's family's zoo in the novel/film Life of Pi). If Pi's family had really owned a zoo in these botanical gardens, I'm sad that they left. Maybe they wouldn't have let the place fall into such disrepair. I'm not sure that broken fountains, half-finished landscaping projects and sporadically placed piles of dirt really qualify as a botanical garden...needless to say, our walk through this disaster zone was somewhat disappointing, but not really surprising considering the state of the town itself. Don't get me wrong, Pondicherry definitely has its perks: impressive and beautiful colonial buildings, a nice sidewalk next to the sea, hospitable guesthouses, and, of course, delicious food. However, like most cities we've encountered, trash litters the roads (most of which in our neighborhood were "under construction," meaning the sidewalks had been bulldozed and what remained were giant piles of broken bricks and dirt), the canals contained little water and mostly garbage, and many buidling projects appeared to have been abandoned ages ago. On the bright side, at least the botanical gardens were free!

Our next stop was the internet cafe, where Scott logged into his recently created (free, and very useful) Indirail account to gather information about the train we needed to book for our upcoming trip from New Delhi to Agra. Although the site doesn't accept Scott's credit card since it's not Indian issued, it has allowed us to figure out the names and codes of the various trains and stations in the cities we're leaving from/headed to, so that when we go to the train station to book our tickets, we can simply fill out a request form instead of having to deal with the language barrier and explain where we want to go, what berth we want, etc. to the clerk while people try to push their way in front of us. We definitely recommend this method to those travelling through India via train, as the train station is always crowded, and, if you don't have your act together, someone will finagle their way in front of you and cut you off - even if you're in the middle of booking your ticket. If you prefer using travel agents, it's certainly easier and less chaotic, but you'll end up paying more for your ticket. If you're cheap like us, show up prepared, and brave the crowds.

Once we'd taken care of business, we had a nice dinner date at a fancy hotel/restaurant called Villa Shanti. Though the service was a bit slow, the ambiance and food were amazing. We had delicious stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer, I oredered baracuda for dinner, and we shared a tasty (yet tiny) banana flambe for dessert. We ended up stopping to buy snacks on the way back since we wanted a bigger dessert, and, in doing so, I discovered the Indian (and much cheaper) version of Milano cookies...yum! I may have to smuggle a duffel bag full of these back to the states...

Even though we didn't do too much sightseeing in Pondicherry, it was nice to spend time there. Aside from the canals and main streets, the city was relatively clean and quiet with somewhat of a Charleston feel near the water. The traffic and roadside "construction" were annoying at times, but overall we enjoyed ourselves and would surely return.

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