Pondicherry
Nice place but not for us!
After Madurai had been a bit of a washout, we were excited to swiftly move on, we'd heard nothing but good things about Pondicherry, the formally occupied French capital of India!
An eight hour sleeper bus (we won't keep boring you with the stir fry crazy journeys) and we were here, a short tuk tuk ride and we were at our hotel just after 6am, knocked on the door and woke up the manager (he wasn't happy!), all we wanted to do was drop our bags off but we checked in, our room was cosy, modern and couldn't ask for more, we even had a little balcony on our floor which gave a decent view of the skyline! The first day we took it easy (we booked three nights here and intended to take our time), after a few minutes of walking around we noticed the streets were clean, everything was painted white, wide roads and even the roads had street names (all began with the French word 'Rue' French for road). It didn't feel like we were in a country with 1.2 billion other people. The first thing we did was head to the beach, expecting golden sands but found only large rocks, it was still a beautiful place however we were a little disappointed we couldn't go swimming, the Bay of Bengal did nothing but tease! One morning we went for sunrise (the road running parallel to the beach was mobbed with people!), even with the beach being packed, we got some spectacular pictures!
Osudu Lake We spent a morning relaxing at this lake which is meant to be famous for bird watching, but all we found were puppies, pedalos and rowing boats we couldn't go on! Seeing the six cute puppies and the worn out but happy mother made Kirsty's day! It was peaceful around the lake but everything was closed and we could only really access one area!
Auroville
Auroville is an experimental town that quotes 'Auroville want to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities, the purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity.' We were only here for a morning but felt like it was a place you needed a week just to explore, they run all kinds of workshops from sustainable building products to laughing yoga. You could definitely feel a sense of community and the place was like a little bubble away from the outside world, all we managed to do here was have breakfast, drink tea, wonder around aimlessly and see the huge golden sphere! Named the Matrimandir and located in the middle of the town, it has twelve meditation chambers and the whole area is silent and is called the peace area! It's a really interesting town to visit but we didn't spend enough time to fully explore and appreciate the sustainable and alternative settlement!
Serenity beach, This place was a mess and a bit of a waste of time, we only wanted a swim in the ocean however it was full of litter, fishing nets and boats accompanied with masses of locals! After a nightmare trying to get here by public transport (pros and cons of not hiring a scooter it can extremely difficult to get around and a lot people won't give you the time of day, the pro is not dying and saving money!) and the state of beach we decided to call it a day and draw a line under the three days spent here!
We lost a little faith in the trusty trip advisor after our three nights in Pondicherry, Osudu Lake and Serenity Beach were highly praised but what we found was disappointment. The French capital is obviously a popular place however we feel we made a few little bad choices and our time here wasn't as enjoyable as we thought it would be. We stayed near white town, which was like pleasantville and was a good place to stay away from the busy town!
MAHABALIPURAM
The thing with India is nobody has time for anybody else. We were sat at the front of the 5 hour bus and we had just arrived at our destination. So, there we were with our massive backpacks and a throng of people behind us. You think they would move back and off the bus wouldn't you? Wrong. Not one person would move so we literally had to squeeze our way past them hitting people in the face to get off whilst the bus driver was bellowing at them to move. After finally disembarking the heaving bus we continued on to Daphne Hotel. Our hotel, a 200m walk from the beach and it was very spacious and clean, apart from a few hairs in the sink. We dumped our stuff and the first port of call, obviously, was the beach where we would find Shore Temple. The beach was pleasing to the eye but not the best we have seen!
We made our way round to Shore temple. Shore temple is one of the oldest stone temples in South India. Another name is ' Seven Pagodas '. It is called this due to its pyramidal structure. In the time of the Pallava dynasty Mahalbalipuram was a popular trading port. It is said that the temple acted as a navigation for ships. It was visible from everywhere on the beach which made for some interesting pictures!
The main attractions reminded us of Hampi, the architecture was similar. The prices to enter the main attractions were expensive for foreigners and dirt cheap for natives, so we swerved going in however you could pretty much see everything from the outside!
Five Rathas
These five smallish structures were model temples, but now have become memorials!
The Butterball
There has been a few official attempts to move this huge stone boulder, including one in 1908, they used several elephants to try and shift it but the 'Stone of the Sky God' refused to budge, so now it just balances there (I even tried to move the boulder myself, but had little success!), it's a great place to be for sunset, even if it is a little crowded! Also around the Butterball was a Huge park with a lot of temples plus a 1500 year old lighthouse! It was fun exploring the little hidden gems this place had to offer!
Madras Crocodile Bank
On our last day we went to Madras Crocodile Bank! The crocodile bank has been involved in educating people about wildlife and the environment for over forty years! The bank is the biggest crocodile sanctuary in India. Other than one large family, we pretty much had the place to ourselves (We spent around ten minutes taking pictures with them)!
To be frank, the crocodiles were pretty creepy! They look frozen, dormant volcanoes which sometimes erupt, especially when the staff needed to move the Crocodiles (In loose clothing and armed with only a long stick) in order to clean an area (which was also weird the women would clean the poo filled, drained water trenches with bare hands and feet), some would snap viciously at sticks, gripping them and violently try ripping the transformed branch from the men's hands! they eventually obeyed but only after loosing a few teeth! We spent around two hours observing these dangerous creatures before heading back on the loud and majestic and outright lairy local bus!
Mahabalipuram had a very relaxed atmosphere (apart from the day I lost my wallet to the sea, Kirsty received another stupendously expensive phone bill and her bag ripped badly, that day wasn't so mellow), the town was relatively free from foreigners apart from a couple of others dotted about. You more or less didn't get hounded apart from the stone carvers, the men who were amazing craftsmen who created anything out of a single rock, from huge statues of Hindu Gods to petite necklaces. We feel a six foot elephant God would've been a bit much to take along with us on our travels! It was also great to be by a beach again (a real beach where you can actually swim), especially as the weather was reaching the 40's, the warm ocean that is the Bay of Bengal offered towering waves making the swimming pleasantly refreshing! The tranquil atmosphere and the small town friendliness was appreciated after the busy city of Pondicherry, this place definitely redeemed our time in the French capital.
Next we plan to visit the North of India starting in the capital, Delhi! We have heard many of stories about this place and many of them about rape, robbery, rowdiness and just the whole place being a rancid place, that's home to over 27 million people!There is two ways of getting to Delhi from Mahabalipurum, fly or a 36 hour continuous train, a flight was a £100 and the train was £10, so we went for the cheap option and would suffer the train! It's safe to say we wasn't looking forward to it however, leaving the comfort zone is part and parcel of travelling!
