Pondicherri

After a 2-hour train ride and a 1-hr taxi ride, we arrived in Pondicherri. There is an Ecole Française (pardon my French) and restaurants with French names. It appears that the eastern 5 blocks of the town were the original French trading town, and are laid out in a simple grid and occupied by mostly attractive and some original buildings, and we are fortunate to be housed in one. This part of the city is a seaside resort with a French history and conceit. Our tiny delightful hotel looks like it a transplanted upper-class home from the New Orleans French quarter.

There is not much to do here except take walks along the seaside promenade, eat and sleep – which is a welcome respite from the previous few days. It’s also a relief to be mostly free of noisy traffic and be able to walk and not to have homeless people and encampments a constant reminder of the extent of poverty in this country.

The promenade is nicely paved and maintained and vehicular traffic is prohibited in the late afternoons when tourists and locals alike enjoy walks to the sound of surf crashing against the seawall and the sea breezes – refreshing in this tropical climate.

We’ve changed our itinerary to include a couple of days in Trichy, a city highly recommended by Suzanne [Ziegler] (and the guidebooks) so we will stay here two instead of the four days originally planned – Thence to Kochi.