Indian Friday: Farewell Thanjavur, Hello Pondicherry

My diary, revived from my trip to India back in 2007. This second part details my solo travels during the last three weeks or so.

Farewell Thanjavur, Hello Pondicherry

Monday 26th November

Rang Le Rêve Bleu  and found they could take me tonight, but only in their more expensive suite. I said my ‘Goodbye and thank you’ to Gwen and took a rick to the New Bus Station.  The loos there were – characterful  – with no individual stalls at all.  I was passed from pillar to post in search of a bus to Chidambaram, but finally established it was the oldest bus on the stand.  With my luggage, I had to sit in the front seat: prime location for spotting all the near misses.  It was all very slow – a 20 minute wait at Kumbakonam so it’s no wonder it took over 4 ½ hours.  But still, only RS. 39. At Chidambaram I needed a pee and was a bit hungry (the railway cashews and some of the bunch of bananas I’d bought at the bus stand had been lunch). I went to a nearby cafe, and established , with no common language available, that sweet lime was made with tap water but orange was not, so I ordered orange.  When it came, it tasted of orange, though it was very pale.  But when the bill came … it was for sweet lime.  Aaagh! 

Views from the bus window en route

I had a really modern bus to Pondicherry, with Bollywood DVDs on constantly.  But I had again to sit in the front, with my back against the front window, with the driver constantly shouting at me for obscuring his nearside window.  It was hard not to.

The scenery became more and more what I imagined Kerala would be like on the coast.  Very flat, lots of lagoons and lakes, palm trees, palm-thatched low cottages.

First view of the coast on the road to Pondicherry

Anyway, we got there, and I got a rick to Le Rêve Bleu.  I couldn’t negotiate the fare very well, as I had no idea how far it was, but I turned out to have been charged a Right Royal Rip Off (RS 75, so under £, so no moaning please!).

View from my widow in Le Rêve Bleu

 Le Rêve Bleu is a lovely, slightly seedy but French colonial style house, where I was greeted by a French speaking Tamil, who rang the owner, Christelle, who insisted on speaking to me on my mobile to welcome me.

I had a trot round town and ended up at an Internet cafe where one could also eat: mushroom pasta, but quite nice actually.  And so to bed.

In the night:

The street cleaners sit in the road and have a nice loud chat in the middle of the road outside le Reve Bleu at midnight
  1. Women street cleaners all chatting jovially to one another whilst working almost a street apart from one another.
  2. 9 dogs involved in a street fight, just too far away for me to take any action.
  3. Builders renovating the house opposite arrived at 6.30 a.m. and started noisily manoeuvering bricks off a lorry while shouting merrily at each other.  Some, by the way, were women.
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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

22 thoughts on “Indian Friday: Farewell Thanjavur, Hello Pondicherry”

    2. It was fine thereafter. The difficuty for a bashful Westerner is that the bulk of a salwar kameez enables a woman to squat discretely in an uncubicled area, whereas trousers and a T shirt are rather more revealing,

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