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Published: August 21st 2008
Today had a little bit of everything. Amanda went to do the henna tattoos with the ladies and I went out with the guys to run a few errands. The few errands (with Rangu the groom driving in crazy traffic, ended up being; stop by the wedding hall, stop by a hotel where family will be staying, buy some shoes for the groom (I picked up a pair of shoes and went to buy but Rangu’s dad insisted on paying, very generous but we’ll have to find a way to repay him) go buy a cell phone for Rangu and let his dad sample all the PDAs then decide he’ll wait for the 3G iphone, back to the wedding hall to meet someone else, over to the Madras Club for lunch (which we couldn’t go in because we were wearing shorts, too bad!) then back home to Rangu’s to eat lunch since we didn’t eat out. All this in about 2hrs!
When I got back to the house, there was a full on party going on with the girls in the living room getting their hands tattooed and Indian pop music pumping. We ate some more home made Indian food
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.for lunch and then hit the road for Pondicherry which took about 3 hours with traffic. Pondicherry was a French colony on the beach and I kind of expected something small but this place is big! Our eyes were a little wide when we pulled into town, dust clouds blowing everywhere, headlights coming from every direction in the dust from motorcycles and auto rickshaws. But then we pulled up to the Hotel de L’Orient where we had booked a room. This was a French colonial mansion built around 1721. A French guy greeted us at the entrance, Bon Soir!!! And from there on it was like we stepped into another alternate universe. This place might be in the Caribbean except it has the Indian influence but it’s not like being in India or France either. Whatever this is, it’s a welcome break from the honking, booming, yelling India that’s right through the archway out there. We decided not to even leave for dinner. The restaurant is in the courtyard with a great selection of French food or Indian food if you want it. Too bad we almost burned the place down when we left a candle on a little too
Room in Pondicherry
Two big rooms, built in 1721 long, but we caught it in time. I could really just chill here for about a month. But tomorrow it’s back to Chennai and the wedding madness. Sundeep should be showing up at the cricket club tomorrow so hopefully we’ll get to hang out and have a few drinks.
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Linda Allen
non-member comment
beautiful hotel
Jay and Amanda - What a beautiful hotel!! What an experience. Loved the tatoos !!! Linda