Well, I'm way behind on everything, so here's a brief run down of Pondicherry and around Tamil Nadu. I'm in Kerala now, but I'll get to that soon. Pondicherry is where parts of Life of Pi were based, but the movie actually had very few parts that were actually filmed there. We stayed in the French part of town, known around as White Town - not because of the color of the buildings. There were not as many Europeans as I expected given the name, but definitely more than I was used to seeing in Andra Pradesh (the state that I had been in prior).
Overall it was a fairly lazy and laid back couple of days in Pondicherry. Many people spoke at least some level of English, so it was very exciting to actually be able to communicate. In White Town, there wasn't a huge amount of traffic and it was a fairly small area, so I was actually able to walk around. Having not been able to walk at all in Vizag, that meant that I walked until I wore out my feet in Pondicherry, and then kept on walking more. Just wandering around town, looking at the buildings with French influence, going to a museum and a few showrooms of different art forms made through the Ashram. Wandered around the Sunday market, where vendors bring lots of clothing with small defects to sell for cheap prices. Lots of walking along Beach Road, which didn't have very much traffic and was completely closed off to cars from the evening until the morning. It isn't a sandy beach in town, but the big black rocks were nice to sit on for a view of the sea (as long as I looked past the countless ice cream wrappers scattered between the rocks). The sunrise would have been gorgeous, but I couldn't get myself up and out early enough to see it.
We spent part of one of the days at the animal shelter in Auroville, which is run by a German family and unfortunately doesn't have a full-time vet at the moment, nor any support from the government. A vet was there that day doing some spays and neuters for owned animals, and it was very interesting to observe her and note the differences in surgical technique as compared to what we had seen at the shelter. It was a much slower pace, with only six surgeries taking several hours, but there was a tea break in the middle (I'll miss the chai here so much) and it wasn't the assembly line sort of preparation that we did at the shelter. In between patients, I of course befriended Ruth, the three-year-old girl who lived at the shelter. She spoke only Tamil, so I couldn't communicate verbally at all with her besides the ABCs and 123s, but she still had quite a good time parading me around in circles and gluing herself to me. After five weeks abroad, it was definitely striking how much easier it is to communicate with a toddler than an adult when there's a language barrier in the way.
There's not a spay/neuter program nor any management of the stray dogs in Pondicherry, so there are quite a few of them, though most appeared well fed - likely helped by the many food stands that line the beach. As I was walking back from the beach one day, one dog decided to come along. She declined the bread that I offered her, but trotted on along with me, always checking to make sure that I was still with her. At one point, we came across a gang of five dogs and she stood right against me, baring her teeth and telling the dogs not to approach. I'd seen them before and they were just minding their own business, and they luckily decided not to engage with my little protector. She followed me for about fifteen minutes as I rounded corners and dodged traffic. When I entered the tour office (where there were no tours since I was the only one interested), she sat outside pitifully at the door, pawing and wanting to follow me in until the owners shooed her away. No idea why she wanted to adopt me, but it was quite cute and gave me a nice dog fix.
Anyway, after the shelter, we headed out into the town of Auroville for lunch (I finally got to eat broccoli!) and to see the Matrimandir. Auroville is an international community based upon spiritualism and human unity. The Matrimandir is a special meditation area in the center of town with amazing architecture. The viewing point was closed that afternoon, but we took an alternate path and got a look at it from a distance. The golden sphere surrounded by twelve petals with gardens took 37 years to build to completion and is quite the sight.
Another day, I took a trip to Mamallapuram, a town full of ancient temples about two hours north. At the bus station, I stood in the long line to buy my ticket (or as it turned out, to buy my numbered seat; I paid the actual fare while on the bus). I got a few strange looks and was soon informed that the ladies' line was on the other side - I had noticed that it wasn't mostly men around, but that didn't strike me as odd because it often tends to be mostly men who are traveling. It was a very nice thing, though, as my line was about a quarter of the length and I soon was on my way. I took an auto between the various sights, visiting Tiger's Cave, Shore Temple (pictured below, gradually eroded by the ocean air), and countless others with long names that I lost track of.
Most of the temples were over 1500 years old, and some of them carved out of a single rock. The intricate engravings never fail to impress. After several hours, there was still more to see but the heat (that happened to be the hottest day of my time in the region) decided that wasn't a good idea. It was a touristy area, but people there were incredibly friendly and many of the shopkeepers just wanted to chat and offer me shade without trying to sell me anything. After a late lunch with fresh pineapple juice, I waited under a coconut stand (drinking a coconut, of course) until the bus rolled by to take me back into Pondicherry.
Overall it was a fairly lazy and laid back couple of days in Pondicherry. Many people spoke at least some level of English, so it was very exciting to actually be able to communicate. In White Town, there wasn't a huge amount of traffic and it was a fairly small area, so I was actually able to walk around. Having not been able to walk at all in Vizag, that meant that I walked until I wore out my feet in Pondicherry, and then kept on walking more. Just wandering around town, looking at the buildings with French influence, going to a museum and a few showrooms of different art forms made through the Ashram. Wandered around the Sunday market, where vendors bring lots of clothing with small defects to sell for cheap prices. Lots of walking along Beach Road, which didn't have very much traffic and was completely closed off to cars from the evening until the morning. It isn't a sandy beach in town, but the big black rocks were nice to sit on for a view of the sea (as long as I looked past the countless ice cream wrappers scattered between the rocks). The sunrise would have been gorgeous, but I couldn't get myself up and out early enough to see it.
We spent part of one of the days at the animal shelter in Auroville, which is run by a German family and unfortunately doesn't have a full-time vet at the moment, nor any support from the government. A vet was there that day doing some spays and neuters for owned animals, and it was very interesting to observe her and note the differences in surgical technique as compared to what we had seen at the shelter. It was a much slower pace, with only six surgeries taking several hours, but there was a tea break in the middle (I'll miss the chai here so much) and it wasn't the assembly line sort of preparation that we did at the shelter. In between patients, I of course befriended Ruth, the three-year-old girl who lived at the shelter. She spoke only Tamil, so I couldn't communicate verbally at all with her besides the ABCs and 123s, but she still had quite a good time parading me around in circles and gluing herself to me. After five weeks abroad, it was definitely striking how much easier it is to communicate with a toddler than an adult when there's a language barrier in the way.
There's not a spay/neuter program nor any management of the stray dogs in Pondicherry, so there are quite a few of them, though most appeared well fed - likely helped by the many food stands that line the beach. As I was walking back from the beach one day, one dog decided to come along. She declined the bread that I offered her, but trotted on along with me, always checking to make sure that I was still with her. At one point, we came across a gang of five dogs and she stood right against me, baring her teeth and telling the dogs not to approach. I'd seen them before and they were just minding their own business, and they luckily decided not to engage with my little protector. She followed me for about fifteen minutes as I rounded corners and dodged traffic. When I entered the tour office (where there were no tours since I was the only one interested), she sat outside pitifully at the door, pawing and wanting to follow me in until the owners shooed her away. No idea why she wanted to adopt me, but it was quite cute and gave me a nice dog fix.
Anyway, after the shelter, we headed out into the town of Auroville for lunch (I finally got to eat broccoli!) and to see the Matrimandir. Auroville is an international community based upon spiritualism and human unity. The Matrimandir is a special meditation area in the center of town with amazing architecture. The viewing point was closed that afternoon, but we took an alternate path and got a look at it from a distance. The golden sphere surrounded by twelve petals with gardens took 37 years to build to completion and is quite the sight.
Another day, I took a trip to Mamallapuram, a town full of ancient temples about two hours north. At the bus station, I stood in the long line to buy my ticket (or as it turned out, to buy my numbered seat; I paid the actual fare while on the bus). I got a few strange looks and was soon informed that the ladies' line was on the other side - I had noticed that it wasn't mostly men around, but that didn't strike me as odd because it often tends to be mostly men who are traveling. It was a very nice thing, though, as my line was about a quarter of the length and I soon was on my way. I took an auto between the various sights, visiting Tiger's Cave, Shore Temple (pictured below, gradually eroded by the ocean air), and countless others with long names that I lost track of.
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