Advertisement
Published: January 21st 2008
So...to bring you all back to my wardrobe dysfunction of Friday-it got worse!! Not only did I have a hair elastic holding up my pants, right before I was about to start teaching, I was squatting on the ground and completely split my pants down one leg starting at the knee! yikes! Luckily these tops are super long, but becuase of the splits down the side, I had to be super careful. I had to modify some techniques that I was teaching as to not scandalize the staff! I am just bummed I ruined my pants but i will get them fixed if I am not too lazy.
Ok so Friday night was just spent hanging out and being silly because one of the girls in my building is heading back to australia today. we had meant to throw colored powder water on everyone but that never happened. We (6 of us-Jihan and Michael (Malaysians who study in the UK), Janan (Sri Lankan who grew up in the UK), Tom (OC guy who lives in Boston) and Carissa (Jersey girl who lives in Boston) decided to leave at 6:30am sat morning to catch the bus to pondicherry. The PT department was a bit concerned we were taking the bus, but we wanted to. They were all set to go and realized that i was MIA. my batteries in my alarm clock decided to die so i never woke up. oops. i had to get ready and pack in 5 minutes. luckily i am a speedy girl. We head to the bus station on the public bus which was the beginning of a crazy journey. Luckily we had on guy who speaks Tamil...he helped us find our way around and onto the bus. Never have you ever seen a bus situation such as what exists in India. Even the long distance buses won't have windows or doors and there will be people standing and hanging out the doors at all times. Some people will only have one hand inside the bus!! It is insane!! We knew the town we had to switch buses (since we missed getting a direct bus and didnt want to wait around), however we didnt realize we would be switching mid-driving!!! All of a sudden the bus money guy told us to get off and go to the bus a few rickshaws in front of us. literally-the bus was still moving when we had to jump off and climb onto the next moving one!! It was definitely an experience...since we all survived!
We arrived to Pondicherry and were so happy to be somewhere that it may be possible to pee. The guys all used the "Free Public Urinal" which was basically a ditch that everyone peed in behind a wall. We wondered around trying to find a place to stay. I had wanted to stay at this one place that had a yoga/meditation lawn and was on the beach but it was all booked up. We went around to a couple of places until we found a decent place. It was ok, but being only 1 night, we didnt care too much. We had lunch at a place called Rendevous that had safe salads (according to Lonely planet) and lots of different non-Indian choices! I am really enjoying my Indian food but it is nice to have a change! It was a really nice rooftop restaurant and the food was super yummy.
We wondered around for a bit and loved playing on the rocks which was the beach. Ofcourse I had to be the idiot to get way to far in on the rocks and get splashed by the big waves. We did a little shopping and just enjoyed being in a place that seemed way calmer than what we are used to. It was settled by the French and still had a French influence in parts. For dinner that night we went to another nice place that actually had a bar!! I was so excited! My meal...which included beer, salad, soup, entree and dessert and tip came to abotu $12...very expensive for here!!! IT was great! I tried to get a tomato mozzerella salad but the cheese was actually something kinda terrifying. For breakfast I actually got a chocolate twist and hot chocolate! yum!! We went to a Hindu temple and got to see a wedding and an elephant! that was great! I also had ice cream at some point. yum!
My highlight was watching this one family all huddled together on the beach in their clothes. They would not let go of each other and scurried away each time the waves came. They were so cute. They spotted me taking a picture of them from the pier and they waved!
There were a bunch of street kids who were asking for candy. When we didnt have any, I told them i would take a picture. one of the boys kept jumping in front and tried to block out the other kids. i kept taking pics and then showing them and they were cracking up. it was great!
It seemed pondicherry was full of European hippies or wealthier Indians. Those who lived there seemed to be pretty poor, but there was definitely the vacation crew also. It was strange to see so many Euro hippies being in India and all.
Oh yeah-we also went on the "Joy Train" in the botanical gardens. It was 2 rupees a piece but would only run if 30 rupees were paid. we realy wanted to go on it, so we paid the difference and then a whole bunch of kids were able to jump on it for free which was really coold. The book, Life of Pi, started in Pondicherry on a train so we think this must have been the one. I have never read it but thats kinda cool.
Yesterday afternoon, we went to another nice lunch, however 1 person never got his food. We all finished eating (a Greek salad with REAL feta cheese!!) and we asked where his food was. they said it was coming. we needed to leave for the train station and it turns out the forgot. oops. well, we headed for the train station and he would just have to starve.
The bus back was another interesting situation. we went in the morning to the bus station to find out the times but what they told us was incorrect. we would have had to wait 1 1/2 horus for a direct bus, but chose to attempt switching again. this time the switch was at a proper bus station, but it was still a challenge. i was sitting right in front of the stairs and kept being scared i was going to fall out. at one point, a women rushed to the front and started barfing out the door. i was terrified she was going to fall out and grabbed her arm to help hold her in. poor thing. she just barely made it to the door-had she not, i so would have barfed and that would have been gross.
we made it back to town and had dinner at one of the nice hotels here. weirdly enough, after all the non-indian food i had all weekend, i was really craving it. never thoguht i would say that, huh?!
anywyas, it was a great weekend and i will add some pics as soon as i have them. i need to go around vellore and take some so you can really see what it is like here, but so far i have just been trying to take it all in...
talk to you all soon! Go Giants!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.105s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0734s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jill
non-member comment
Sounds like fun!!
It sounds like you are having lots of fun adventures! And you are being so good about keeping up to date with your blogging. I'm impressed! You are getting my travel bug raring to go again :O)