Travel Day 906 – Mamallapuram to Pondicherry, INDIA
Today we were planning to have an early start of the day, but unfortunately everything took a whole lot longer than expected…
French Colonial Architecture in Pondicherry
There was no bus going directly from Mamallapuram to Pondicherry (Puducherry) and from what we understood we had to go to the main road and hail a long distance bus that was driving the Chennai-Pondicherry connection. So we walked first to the local bus stand and waited 45 minutes for a bus to drop us at the main road, but in the end it never materialized. Since the rude station manager seemed to be determined to be as little helpful as humanly possible, we ended up taking an overpriced rickshaw to the main road anyway…
Hailing a bus was then no problem and it only took us two passing buses to figure out where exactly we had to stand and jump onto the overcrowded bus. By the time we finally reached Pondicherry (Puducherry) it was once more in the scorching sun of the mid day which made looking for a decent hostel to a real challenge. Also the fact that most accommodations were either booked out or 10 times as expensive as we were hoping to pay did not really make our day any sweeter…
French Colonial Street in Pondicherry, India
At some point we started considering leaving Pondicherry (Puducherry) straight away since we couldn’t find a decent place to stay, but then we finally happened to come across an affordable family guest house and they made us a good price. As we found out we could bargain the price down and claim a discount because we walked into the place instead of arriving with a rickshaw. Not only did the rickshaw drivers ask us to pay 150 rupees instead of the regular 40 to drive us into town, but had we arrived at the guesthouse with one of them, another 100 to 200 rupees would have been given to the driver as a bribe. Since we walked in, we could deduct that bribe money straight from the room price, yay… : )
Anyway, besides the little hick-ups, Pondicherry (Puducherry) seemed to be great place. Yes, in the area where we stayed everything was hopelessly overpriced and way too expensive for us, but once we walked a few blocks beyond the little canal, everything became instantly cheaper and we were even able to get actual Indian food for lunch. After that we were finally ready to explore the great French colonial center of Pondicherry (Puducherry)…
French Attitude in Pondicherry, India
For me personally the place was great and it had a much more European or almost Mediterranean feel to it than any other place I had been to in the region and I just loved seeing all the nicely preserved colonial buildings with its columns and verandas. While we first savored on the colonial architecture, we then enjoyed a stroll along the busy beachfront and we finally ended the day with a nice classical Indian music concert. Even if the start of the day had not been the very best, it was still a great day after all…
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