Blogs from Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 4

After spending a week in Varkalla on its amazing beach set against red cliffs LN and I decided it was time to move on with the "real India". Welcome to the overnight sleeper train, which might as well have been sold under the title coffin. I don't think I had ever experienced the chest-tightening fear known as claustrophobia before last night. After a few seconds of deep breathing I got over it, but the next 10 hours were anything but relaxing. No, at 3:30am I don’t appreciate being woken up and asked if I want some chai. Was it my earplugs and attempt at sleep that tipped you off that I want to buy some caffeine? Feeling a little worse for wear at 5am the next morning we arrived in Madurai where we were supposed to ... read more

9-10 Feb 2009. We’re on the east coast, in the French-influenced city of Pondicherry. You can see a strong European influence in the building design, wide streets, beach front - and cleanliness. There are two parts of the town: one Indian and dirty and the other French and clean - for the French parts of the city (only), they apparently pay people to pick up trash. Pondicherry is also the home of the Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville, a very interesting utopian settlement established to encourage the development of a perfect world based on belief in the divine, but WITHOUT organized religion. After visiting Auroville, we drove to Mamallapuram. 11 Feb 2009. We really liked Mamallapuram, a small coastal city with a very long history. It has a fair number of westerners and tourist traps, but is ... read more

We hopped on a local train for the short 40 minute journey to Thiruvananthapuram (better know as Trivandrum - and more easily pronounced) where our train to the state of Tamil Nadu would depart from. We were extremely lucky that we arrived at the opposite platform to where our train would depart from and we only had to wait another hour to board the train. Sitting on the platform, again Neil had a strange Indian guy talking to him - this time about the bible...that went down well and as soon as we could get on the train we scarpered! Again with another stroke of luck, we initially had the 4 berths to ourselves so we had a mini picnic with crisps and biscuits while we watched Wall-e on the laptop (as an aside what a ... read more

Visiting Pondicherry was dream came true to me for two reasons one to visit Sri Aurobindo Ashram,Auroville and second one to taste French cuisine. I was in Pondicherry from 29thDec 2008 to 3rdJan2009. Pondicherry is a Union Territory of India 160 KM from Chennai and well conected by road. It is a former French colony, consisting of four non-contiguous enclaves, or districts, and named for the largest, Pondicherry. A remarkable degree of French influence in Pondicherry exists to this date. Pondicherry divided into three quarters French, Muslim and Tamil. The best place to hang out is French quarter. During my Pondicherry visit I was staying at Villa Labourdonnais located at 25 rue Labourdonnais. It is home stay run by a French old fellow Gerad. He is a nice person; so does his family. They take care ... read more

Pondicherry, which used to be owned by the French is really rather agreeable. There is a long promenade along the beach with palm trees and the odd cafe, all the streets are named (highly unusual) and are all in French and are full of beautiful greenery and trees and although there are the odd noisy parts it is generally quite peaceful. You can even have a croissant for breakfast. And find good coffee. Definitely most agreeable. Also contributing to a sense of peace here is the fact that we are staying in the guest house of an ashram - quite a famous one - the Sri Aurobindo and Mother ashram. Our room is lovely and our balcony faces the ocean and we are close enough to be able to hear it. There are various rules such ... read more