India: Tamil Nadu : Pondicherry & Trichy

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Tamil Nadu:

Famous for his Temples, devotees and poetry.

09/08 : arrival in Chennai for 2 nights.

Been sick on our way into the country, we didn't manage to see Chennai - nevertheless nothing missed as this big city is not inviting because of his chaos, dust, and hot weather.

11/08 and 12/08: Pondicherry - Puducherry - Pondy: the French flavoured Tamil town.

What is left by the frenchies is some colonial houses and some arts. The streets on the french side start with the typical "Rue" instead of street and names can change from the beginning to the end.

There is a distinctive difference in the cleanless of the street as soon as you enter the french corner. We stayed at Villa Labourdonnais - owned by a french man Gerard Louis who lives in india for 20 years now. We started to take the pace of India and to accommodate ourselves to this new life and way of dealing with things...

Already we were happy to be far from the sound of horns and rickshaws. On the streets, you share the pavement with cows, stalls, dogs, beggers, and the road shares its amount of noisy vehicules: motorcycles, rickshaws, cars and trucks.

The constant beeping, horn-blowing is difficult to adjust to and it does get on your nerves!

13/08 to 14/08: Trichy (Tiruchirappalli)

Home to the most famous and oldest temples in India, the Temples are as beautiful as the one from the Mayans/Peru.

We visited the Sri Jambukeshwara Temple, the Sri Rangan Temple and the Rock Fort Temple in 1 day.

Some temples charge for camera and of course no shoes inside - even in your bag!

One had an elephant - protector of the Temple wandering and blessing devotees.

We had a beautiful encounter with a Indian women who has a shaved head which means she dedicates her life to her God even if she's got a family (2 kids). We couldn't have a discussion but we had a kind of understanding and visited the Temple together. she was very nice towards me and we were sad to say goodbye. She was a beautiful person. A truely special moment!



One annoyance is that non-Hindus are generally not allowed in the interesting part of the big temples. Try to trick them in putting some Tika/Bindi - your third eye - like hindus - to pass through. It worked for us 😊

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