I was very proud of moriah this weekend. Because of good Friday, the hospital was closed and we got a three day weekend, and decided on an impromptu trip to Pondicherry, a city about 160 km south east of vellore. We left in the morning without bus tickets or any idea of where we were going to stay, and it turned out to be absolutely wonderful.
Pondicherry is a former French colony, and the gaelic influence remains very prominent in some areas of the town, where cobblestone streets abound and you can hear French spoken in some of the shops. We stayed at a beautiful guest house with a romantic bed and breakfast ambiance. It is run by a french national and her son who have been living here for many years. They served us real coffee(without loads of cream and sugar) croissants and baguette for breakfast.The hotel also has a one year old beagle named snoopy, and I'm pretty sure Moriah would have stolen him if I hadn't stopped her.
The French influence means that we can find non indian food in many of the restaurants, even steak (yes, beef) and European beers (real hard to find alcohol in most of Tamil nadu, especially vellore), as well as the somewhat risky salads, which were excellent after a week of tasty though mostly fried south Indian cuisine.
Pondicherry is on the ocean but there are no beaches near by, only miles of rocky sea wall. Still it has been nice to get the ocean breeze and drink espresso overlooking the water.
This morning we went to the Pondicherry museum, full of Indian relics from the era of the chola regime and some pottery from an ancient roman port. There were also many items from the French colonial era. We weren't able to take pictures inside the museum unfortunately.
A definite highlight of the trip was our visit to the Sri Manakula Vinayagar temple, dedicated to the Hindu god Ganesh (elephant head). No pictures inside the temple either, which had beautifully hand painted frescos of the deity, but we were able to take pictures of the main attraction, Lakshmi, an Indian elephant outside of the temple. If you put one rupee (two cents) into the elephants trunk, he would pat you on the head for good luck. You could also buy grass at stands just beside the temple to feed Lakshmi (he'd pat you on the head for that as well).
We head back to vellore tomorrow, but this has been a very relaxing trip thus far.
The French influence means that we can find non indian food in many of the restaurants, even steak (yes, beef) and European beers (real hard to find alcohol in most of Tamil nadu, especially vellore), as well as the somewhat risky salads, which were excellent after a week of tasty though mostly fried south Indian cuisine. 
Pondicherry is on the ocean but there are no beaches near by, only miles of rocky sea wall. Still it has been nice to get the ocean breeze and drink espresso overlooking the water.This morning we went to the Pondicherry museum, full of Indian relics from the era of the chola regime and some pottery from an ancient roman port. There were also many items from the French colonial era. We weren't able to take pictures inside the museum unfortunately.
We head back to vellore tomorrow, but this has been a very relaxing trip thus far.
Is Lakshmi always painted like that, or is it left over from Holi?
ReplyDeleteIts funny how it looks like the elephant is about to bite that woman's head off.
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