Mamalapuran, Jan 15 2009

This is probably my last post, as tomorrow I'm starting to fly back home.
As I said before Mamallapuran has been beyond expectations. Today I woke up early and went for a long beach walk.
On the way I passed by a restaurant which I had been in my last beach walk. They had a Pongal breakfast buffet. So for 80 rupees I ate Idly, Puri, Dosa, Omelet, fruits, coffee, tea, etc. It was great and a surprise. So this is was my brunch. Then in the afternoon
I went to a village visit organized by the local Tourism office. I met my German friend Margaret and I also met another German girl which I had 1st met in Gokarna. The tourism office organized a trip for tourists to this very authentic village to commemorate Pongal. It was just amazing. We get there and they greet us with flowers, music, etc. Then we go around the whole village and are greeted by all the locals. They live mostly in Huts but the village looks very well organized. Then they organized some games like musical chairs and breaking pots (blindfolded). Later the local women prepared the Pongal which is the traditional food which is eaten during this harvest festival. It is a kind of sweet rice porridge with different condiments and cashews. The tourist women helped stir the Pongal. The village people were very excited with our visit and very happy, specially the kids. I took tons of pictures. Later they organized for us a bullock car tour around the village. We spent some 4 hours in this very cute village with the locals commemorating the Pongal festival.
Tonight they say there will be similar commemorations on the beach which I'm planning to go.
I made some shopping for gifts and tomorrow I'm heading by taxi to the Chennai airport at 2:00 PM. From Chennai I take a flight to Mumbai and from there home.

Overall this India trip has been amazing and will be memorable. I visited amazing places, met tens of nice and very interesting people and less but not least really relaxed myself physically and mentally. It is good to go back home,
And who knows, when I get there I may start planning my next one (Himalaya, Nepal, etc ...... :-)


THE END

Mamalapuran, Jan 14 2009

This is my 2nd day in Malalapuran and this place is far exceeding my expectations. I thought I was coming to a small beach place with good seafood, etc. Actually this place is a world heritage and is full of huge stone boulders all with amazing carvings. It has many temples in the area, most dating back 1300 years. Therefore it is proving to be one of the most interesting places in my trip. It also has an incredible concentration of Stone Carving artists known world-wise. Additionally it is a quite cute beach place, with a few guest houses, many western tourists (many French coming from Pondecherry) and many restaurants serving western food and seafood. The beach is OK, but the sea on the gulf of Bengal is very wavy and almost impossible to swim. I got here yesterday morning from Pondencherry, the road to my surprise was extremely good and well signed. I'm staying in the Siva guest house, very good room for 400 RPs. As soon as I arrived, I met in front of my guest house in the cafe a nice German woman, Margaret. Since we have been sight seeing together. Yesterday we did a 9 kilometer wald on the beach. And today we rented bicycles and did a tour of 40 kilometers. She lives in Munich and commutes by bicycle every day. I'm also in very good shape. We went to an amazing temple which is on a high mountain. You have to climb about 500 steps (barefoot) to get there. On the way you pass by many small Indian villages, rice fields, etc. It was really very pleasant. At the same there is a dance festival going on, with performances every night. It is Indian folk and classical dancing. It is considered one of the best in India and is very high level. On this days there is also the Pongal festival, where people thank the gods for the harvest. All homes have some chalk drawings on their entrance which women do early in the morning. The area is full of Indian families on vacation for the Pongal festivities. All in all I'm enjoying this place a lot.Two more day and back home.

Pondencherry, Jan 12 2009

So I got to Pondencherry two nights ago. I got here in the evening, and as expected most of the recommended guest houses in Lonely Planet were full. I called them from the train. I found one which was available, a bit on the expensive side (700 RPs) but pretty nice.
I went for a walk in the beach in the French part of the city and it was very nice. On the way I checked another very recommended guest house, Park GH which was very full. They told me to come the next day at 9:00 for possible availability. Pondencherry has a "French" part, with numerous heritage houses, as it was a French Colony till 1952. This area is extremely clean (for India), it has French Heritage buildings and hotels and French restaurants. Most of the tourists are Indians. The boardwalk near the beach is very nice about 1.5 km. You cannot bathe in this area as it does not have a sandy beach. You need to go farther away. My hotel had very good hot water and I took a long hot shower after a long time with cold water only.
The next morning I woke at around 6:30 and went to check other lodging opportunities. I went to the Park GH again and they told me that they probably would have rooms but to get back at around 10:00. So I decided to go some sight-seeing before checking-out and trying to move to a different guest-house. I was a bit disappointed as I planned to stay a few days in Pondencherry and it did not seem that it deserved it.
As I've been saying, everyday is a new day.
So while I'm walking, comes this Young French woman Candice and stops me in the street asking If I knew of any good and cheap guest houses in the area. I told her about Park, but also the possible price. It was a bit high for her and she told me that she had checked another one which was cheaper. She decided to go back to the one she checked before and invited me to come and check too. We get there, they have only this big room with four beds, which is kind of a dorm and they offer for both of us to take the room for 350 RPs. Therefore we decide to share the room, which is great, big with a huge shower and toilet inside. So we become friends and we spent the whole day and evening together. We rented a scooter and wandered around Pondicherry. We went to Auro-Ville which is an experimental community (a bit like a kibbutz) with people from 50 different countries. Looks an amazing experimental community. They don't let you go Inside but they have a big visitors center and the place attract lots of tourists. It is impressive.
Then we went to a lake nearby, and to a temple city about 10 KM range from Pondencherry.
Candice actually changed my perception of french woman I had met before. They seemed a bit distant and not approachable. Maybe because she had such a good English and had traveled so much. She had been 6 months in Indonesia, quite a few months in Africa, spoke German, etc.
She has a degree in business administration and is doing research in Recruiting. This time she is traveling for a whole year by herself around the world. She has been in Africa in a few different french speaking countries, now in India for a few months, then to Tokyo, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico and Peru, etc. Today she already left and I'm staying another day in Pondencherry prior to going to my last destination (I think) Malalapuran.
Yesterday was Sunday and Pondencherry had the Sunday market, which filled with thousands of people the central streets.
So my India experience is a blend of seeing some very interesting places and meeting amazing people.