Pondicherry and Mamallapuram

In its hay day India was a hotly contested spot by ‘advanced’ European companies/countries. Having seen a lot of what the English contributed to the country we were keen to see the two cents left behind by the French. To do this we set off for Pondicherry, three hours south of Chennai on the coast of the Bay of Bengal.

Pondicherry was, and in many ways still is, the French stronghold in India. It is home to a statue of Napoleon, the cheapest croissants in the subcontinent, and lots of surly French attitude - from Europeans and Indians to boot!

Pondicherry was hit hard by the Boxing Day tsunami but now you can hardly tell. The huts and shacks that line much of the coastline are back and its business as usual. The town itself is well laid out and boasts French St names and architecture. The thing we noticed most was that people take pride in their town and keep it clean.

It was the first time we’d seen the Bay of Bengal in a swimmable condition so we grabbed bicycles and croissants and put our legs to use. The photo below is of us enjoying the fruits of our labour.
Like France, Pondicherry is a novelty but has little of substantial value to offer. Having not been to France we can only jokingly speculate on this. Grabbing a local bus we went to Mamallapuram. Like too many small towns in New Zealand Mamallapuram is home to an oversized object.

Thankfully Mamallapuram’s object – Krishna's Butterball – isn’t man made and is slightly more dignified than an oversized vegetable/animal/bottle (Ohakune, Cromwell, Gore, Paeroa, the list goes on...).

The ball is housed in a well maintained (by Indian standards) park of ancient temples which were often carved directly into large rocks. We wandered around until the intense heat defeated us, forcing us to retreat to the comfort of the beach.


At the beach we saw something completely unnatural. Despite there being no natural food source or drinking water, dozens of cows choose to call the beach home.


They spend the day meandering around looking for rubbish and presumably working on their tans. Even with the heat none were brave enough to go into the water much to our disappointment. One evening we saw something resembling an albino dolphin playing in the surf; it turned out to be Clint.


Random Fact: Indians use the terms 'Lakh' and 'Crore' when talking about large numbers, usually cash. 1 Lakh = 100,000 and 1 Crore = 10,000,000 - it's all part of a larger system.

Highlights:
- Swimming. Doing anything between 11am-4pm can often take serious energy, a refreshing dip is just the tonic
- French cuisine, a more than welcome respite from masala and chappati
- Vigilante justice. If you’re foolish enough to leave a bag unattended on the beach do not worry. The locals use good children to inform on the bad ones, who are then apprehended and beaten by their parents in front of you. It won’t bring your $10 NZD back but hopefully the kid will learn his lesson

Lessons Learned:
- Don’t leave your bag unattended on Mamallapurum beach
- There are no seagulls in India. Instead crows have filled this vital niche. Incidentally we’re quietly campaigning for the crow to replace the kingfisher as India’s national bird…
- We were surprised to find that the croissants tasted like croissants. The French were obviously stricter task masters than the Brits when it came to the use of masala
- Injuring the right foot while running on Mamallapuram beach is common. In fact our small survey suggests it happens to 75% of all runners