Back to the coast!

After five days of temple touring, moving everyday and attempting to find half decent accommodation (pretty sure Marieke got bed bugs in Tanjore), we were pretty stoked to have allotted five days for Pondicherry, especially since we had a lovely homestay booked on the basis of a recommendation from a fellow traveller.  Pretty soon I was relaxing on the very comfortable bed following a hot shower, while Marieke tested out the wifi in our sitting room. That’s right, we had a sitting room.

Our amazing room at La Maison Radha

Our first realization we were now in French colonial territory came when we tried to order chai the next morning, only to be told chai was not possible, but coffee was available.  It took a bit of getting used to, but a few days in we were enjoying baguette sandwiches with cheese (not paneer), cafe espresso over chocolate ice cream, and pain au chocolate.  Nice treats after seven weeks in South India.

Treats!

What I liked most about Pondicherry though is that is not just a tourist enclave clinging to its French past; it is a working, everyday South Indian city, with a few baguettes thrown in.  It doesn’t feel like a museum, and you’re not forced to eat in overpriced tourist restaurants every night.  We still ate dosa every day (yes!), and even took our second cooking class of the trip, whipping up masala (mix of spices) and rava (carrot) dosas, and coconut chutney with our homestay host.  She also showed us to how to properly tie saris the next night.  With the flash gold bangles we had purchased earlier, we were even told we looked like proper Indian women!

Proper Indian women!

The city seemed to be the perfect mix of European indulgences with Indian tendencies, colonial homestays in amongst Hindu temples, lovely handicraft factories employing Indian workers, all kept moving along by the refreshing breeze off the water.  Pondicherry had the best climate we found in South India, refreshing in the morning and evening without needing a sweater, and just avoiding unbearable in the afternoon.  Of course, it is winter here.  But hey, we’re Canadian.  Overall, it was a lovely five days in the city before heading off for some serious relaxation in the Andaman Islands.

Clothes drying in the breeze