We arrived in Pondicherry on 22nd March by taxi which was a 3hour trip from Chennai.
The taxi eventually found it’s way to the Gratitude Heritage hotel in the French or so called “white” quarter which is located behind the sea front. We were greeted by the lovely Anyu who is French. The hotel was an old family home which has been beautifully restored to it’s original charm with 4 poster beds and long corridors and balconies. There is a communal dining room where we ate breakfast in the morning and the whole atmosphere is a very lovely and tranquil one. The rooftop terrace is large and you can catch glimpses of the sea.
There are a lot of restored heritage buildings and beautiful bouganvillea everywhere.
Some of the film (a building and the botanical gardens) were used in the film “Life of Pi”.
We wandered along the coastal promenade along with hundreds of locals enjoying the evening breeze. The hottest time in Pondicherry is apparently in May.
It is between 32-35 degrees during the day but not very humid and the breeze at night cools the place down.
We went to the “Palais de Mahe” hotel for dinner. It was previously a bank but was now a lovely hotel complete with pool which has only been opened for 3months. It was lovely sitting upstairs with the sea breeze blowing while we ate a delicious Indian meal.
We had breakfast the next morning in the dining room with another couple (Italian – Paolo and Virginia) and Anyu with whom we had a nice talk. She offered to take us to Auroville in the afternoon which was really nice of her. In the morning we explored some of the streets past the canal which is the Tamil side of Pondicherry and found a lovely young couple (he Kashmiri and she French) who sold us some lovely Kashmiri scarves. We went on to “Fab India” one of our favourite shops in India which sells all handloomed products as well as furniture, fabrics, jewellery and homewares.
I had managed to pick up a cold in Bali so was not feeling great. We stopped at the “Maison Colombani” on the sea front for a coffee and then went back to the hotel for a rest during the hottest part of the day.
The French left here in 1954 and were here for over 300years.
We were recommended to go to “Baker Street”complete with a picture of Sherlock Holmes which is apparently the best French bakery in town. It is over the canal in the Tamil quarter. Ponicherry is very delineated by a canal which runs the length of the town. On the side closest to the ocean is the French quarter and on the other side the Tamil quarter. There is a big distinction between the two with the French side much neater and reconstructed although they are doing major road works with laying of new pipes in the Tamil area.
Auroville is 20minutes drive from Pondicherry and is an amazing place. Anyu took us the back way via large coconut groves on a very red dirt road and a lot of the roads in Auroville are dirt roads. Auroville covers thousands of acres and is very spread out. You could imagine you were in the middle of the Australian bush. Most of the buildings are well hidden.
Anyu took us to the visitors centre which is state of the art with the most beautiful boutiques with everything you could imagine. The local artists Indian and expats craft lovely wares and clothes.
Auroville is a fascinating place and the concept was created by Sri Aurobindo an Indian and Mother a French woman who ran an Ashram in the area and wanted to create a non denominational city. The centre of the town is “Mandrimandir” an amazing gold domed structure situated in a lovely garden area which is used for meditation and contemplation.
We walked back to the shops and bought a few items before getting an Autorickshaw back to Pondicherry.
We went in the evening back to Maison Colombina where a festival called “Bonjour India” was taking place. It is held every year in Pondicherry and includes photographic exhibitions, writers evenings,
concerts and films in French and in various Indian languages. We went
to the Alliance Francaise building and to their auditorium to see the
Malayalam film “Alexander the Great” which did have English subtitles. It was a simplistic film based on the story of “Rain Man” but was quite entertaining. We then headed along the Promenade to the “Promenade Hotel” which had a special festival menu. There were food stations doing various Indian Specialties as well as an enormous buffet with Western and Indian food for about $20 a head.
I finally got to try “Bel Pouri” a mixture of raw vegetables and sauces mixed together and “Bel Pouri” little crispy pockets with vegetable fillings. These are a specialty in Mumbai with many stands at the beach but I was not game to try it there.
I also had a vegetable samosa which they proceeded to squash onto the plate and add various sauces and vegetables to it which was delicious. We are both very addicted to Indian food, south and north, non veg and veg. alike. It is all so tasty.
We walked the next day up and down the streets of the French area
where there were some cute boutiques and shops. A film crew was using the main park to film a rap dance sequence and that was fun to watch for a while.
The Autorickshaws or “Auto Wallas” and their drivers are amazing. They sound like sewing machines and they can turn on a postage stamp. The drivers are very adept at dodging traffic and we felt very safe in them. Some of them have very funny sounding hooters which they blow every time they come to a cross street. There are no traffic lights.
We found a lovely restored house and courtyard called “La Maison Rose” where we had a delicious French dinner. I had a very nice “cheese plateau”! The only drawback when asking for drinks or coffee is to have to remember to say “no sugar” otherwise everything is too sweet for us. Our favourite drink was lime/soda with fresh lime juice and very refreshing.
Some of our last day in Pondicherry was spent at “the mother’s parcel service” where we had an entertaining time watching the owner and worker prepare our parcel to Australia and Ireland being wrapped, first in thin cardboard and then in calico which was duly sewn up expertly by a worker.
We walked along and found old man to whom we asked directions. He walked along with us and put a hand on both our shoulders. He was very gentle and sweet and gave us directions for the “Hand made paper factory”. which was a very large establishment where they turn out wonderful stationary and other items from hand made paper earrings to papier mache vases. Everything was extremely cheap so we purchased a few items and they were at least light in weight.
We visited the giftshop at “Hotel de L’orient” and bought another couple of beautiful items and decided to come back for dinner in the courtyard. This time it was another delicous Indian meal. The hotel had a lot of before and after photos of the hotel and they have done a beautiful job of restoration from an absolute ruin with trees growing in and around the structure.
We were sad to leave Pondicherry the next day but will definately come back to the city. By Indian standards it is very small with only a million people living there.
We had a good flight on Malaysian Airlines from Denpasar
to Kuala Lumpur (2 1/2hours) and stayed at a very convenient hotel 5minutes from their lovely new airport. We left again early the next morning and had a coffee at “Harrods” at the airport before flying on to Chennai (a 3 1/2hour flight). We were collected by a lovely man from the hotel complete with cap and white gloves who kept on calling us “Sir” and “Ma’am”. He told us that in Tamil Nadu they have outlawed window tinting as there were too many murders!
There was a student demonstration for we don’t know what but which was holding up the traffic and the driver told us that the traffic was “slightly moving” so it took us a long time to get to our hotel the “GRT Grand”. Again a lovely hotel with excellent staff.
We took a tuk tuk to “Express Avenue” Chennai’s newest mall of which they are very proud. We found a good little Olympus camera with worldwide warranty for a fraction of the price we would pay at home.
I have only been using my mobile phone for the last few years but have decided that I would like to be able to use a good zoom function. It even takes 3D photos which you can view with 3D glasses that they supply with the camera. What will they think of next!
We ate at the hotel’s “Copper Pot” restaurant which was superb, delicious food and great service. We both felt as though we had a bit of a cold so took it easy and had a good sleep. In the morning I lashed out and had a wonderful “Masala Dosa” for breakfast. I’m addicted to Indian food.
Chennai is very different from the very populous cities of Delhi and Mumbai in the north. It has many more low rise buildings and seems very spread out. The beach area has a very broad sandy area with very poor people living along it’s road and on the beach. Fish seems plentiful and we passed many fish markets which exuded a very strong odour from our open tuk tuk. There are some tuk tuks on LPG gas but many also that are not which makes long journeys in them a bit uncomfortable. We visited the interesting Kapaleeshwar temple and then the San Thom basilica – one of only three in the world that have the remains of one of the disciples. This one being St Thomas who lived her in 52AD. The only other two are St Peter’s Basilica in Rome and St James in Campostelo de Santiago.
We walked a fair distance and were asked a few times where we came from and the answer seemed to please the people who all welcomed us to India. We waited at a large intersection with a flashing little red man sign opposite. I asked the policeman standing next to me if the light ever went green to which he replied ” I am the traffic manager” and he proceeded to show me the switch in his hand which he pressed to turn the light green. “Come along” he said, so we did and crossed by the green light!
I found a taxi company online to take us to Pondicherry, a 2hr 30minute taxi ride away.
We departed the next morning the 20th March about 10am and there was not a lot to see along the way. A few low hills and small settlements and a lot of arid land. It reminded us a bit of the north west of Western Australia.
We arrived on the 10th March and met up with Des, Mary and Pauline.
Helen arrived a little later and we had a nice dinner and catch up.
The next day Terri, Sarah and Bubbles arrived and Maurice and I went off to the airport (the day before Nyepi – the Balinese day of silence) to pick up Robert and Gay from Sydney.
The Balinese create large effigys of evil spirits out of paper mache and some of styrofoam. After prayers these are paraded around the individual villages and then burnt or destroyed to be rid of the evil spirits. We all went down to the closest village Senkidu to watch the procedings before going back to Joglo restaurant for dinner.
Nyepi the following day was a very quiet one with no one including tourists allowed on the streets. The Balinese have guards patrolling the streets to make sure no one breaks the rule. After
6pm all the lights are turned off and it was quite eerie but nice
to be sitting by the sea in the dark. We all sat around and had a few drinks and then were back in our rooms about 8.30pm.
We all had a lovely week shopping,visiting the various restaurants in Candi Dasa, going to the “white” beach by boat 20minutes away or visiting a few of the water palaces and Amed to have lunch overlooking the bay below.
Pondok Bambu where we stayed is a very relaxing place right on the ocean and there is usually a lovely sea breeze and lovely sunsets to enjoy.
We are sad to be leaving this lovely spot tomorrow. We will fly to Kuala Lumpur for the night and then on to Chennai and Pondicherry for a week before going back to Udayagiri in Kerala for two weeks.
We had a good 4hour trip to Lombok with Ming and Janet and this time paid porters to lug the bags up the steep stairs. We had a bit of a wait in Lembar harbour while a barge discharged it’s cargo and moved off so that we could come into the dock.
Kudus our driver met us with his usual smile and took us to the Sunset House which over the last 10months has also expanded somewhat although the lovely staff are still there and are still very entertaining.
The feeling as you arrive on Lombok is still one of Bali years ago with a lot of horse drawn carts and bemos especially in the capital Mataram. The roads are much wider and there is less traffic which is a pleasure after the increased traffic in Bali, even in Ubud.
We arranged to go with Kudus to some waterfalls and towards Mt Rinjani however Janet and Maurice both had an off day so we deferred the trip. I walked into downtown Senggigi and found a good place for coffee.
It is sad to see all the small restaurants and cafes empty
most of the time with staff trying to entice you in. They are
ever optimists for when you say that you don’t need transport
today, they always say “what about tomorrow” and one night
after having eaten and politely refused another offer to come
into their establishment a staff member suggested we might want
a second dinner. They don’t give up and are all good humoured
if you do refuse their urgings.
At this time of year you see only a couple of tourists walking
around Senggigi and visiting the few shops in the area.
Ming and Janet opted to go to the Gili islands which are said
to be good for diving (Ming is a diver) so we went with Kudus
for the day up to Tanjung on the north west coast and to see an
amazing hotel resort set in beautiful gardens called “the Tugu”
The architecture is of an ancient traditional model on a grand
scale and it was interesting to do a hotel inspection which the
staff were keen to do for us. We also went to Kudus’s house and
met his wife and children again and had coffee there. His village
is set about 5kilometres back from the main road down a very narrow
and winding road.
We saw trucks unloading sacks of rice by the side of the road
on the way back from Tanjung and Kudus told us that the villagers
get between 2 and 5kilos of rice every three months and the amount
varies according to their financial status.
We decided another day to go and visit the Gili islands ourselves
and catch up with Ming and Janet so we hired a local outrigger
boat for $45 for the day and Mohammed took us on a lovely sunny
day up the west coast to Gili Trawangan first where we wandered
around the island with Janet and Ming and had lunch with them.
It is a pleasure to see there are no cars or motorbikes on the island
and only horse drawn carts or bicycles are allowed. There are mainly dirt paths
but they appear to be upgrading the area with brick paving which is
a good idea especially in the rainy season.
We then waited for Mohammed to come back from the mosque (a big prayer
day being a Friday) and we set off for Gili Meno, the neighbouring
island a few minutes by boat away.
Gili Meno is a poor cousin to Gili T with pretty basic accommodation,
some deep sandy paths and very suited to backpackers on a budget who
want to sit and read and swim. The white beaches on the island are
not of soft sand but of coral so it can be a bit painful on the feet
getting into the water.
We had a quick swim and then set off for a very pleasant trip with Mohammed
back to Senggigi which took about an hour.
The rest of our week was spent reading and relaxing and having the odd swim.
We then headed back on the slow boat on the 10th March to Padang Bai harbour
where we sat outside the harbour for 1 1/2 hours waiting for a berth. Komang
picked us up and took us 1/2 hour up the coast to Candi Dasa to meet up
with Des, Mary and Pauline who had already been at our little hotel Pondok
Bambu for a few days.
We had an extremely comfortable flight from Perth to Bali on the 2nd February with Jetstar as there were only 61 passengers on board so we could spread ourselves out for the 3hr 10min flight. It was a very smooth flight and we landed 10minutes early.
Our friend Komang picked us up and took us to a lovely clean little warung for lunch where it cost us $1 per dish. Made a pleasant change after the food prices in Perth! You can still get good cheap food in Bali as long as you know where to go. He then took us via the supermarket to our brand new 2 bedroom private Villa Jepun with pool in Ubud. It is costing AUD50 per night whether there are 2 of us or 4 of us and includes daily cleaning of the villa, garden and pool and a breakfast of fruit and toast.
There is more and more traffic in Bali and the road from the airport in the Sanur area is pretty choked at the moment with a large underpass being built to alleviate
some of the traffic problems in the area.
We had some rain the day after we arrived but only a small amount which didn’t affect our wandering around Ubud. They have torn down the vast old Ubud market and have undertaken an enormous task of rebuilding and modernising the entire
area. I don’t know what the hundreds of shopkeepers are doing in the meantime.
The streets of Ubud however were quite deserted compared with high season and the last time we were here which was later in the year in April.
Our first five days were spent relaxing and sorting out somewhere to do yoga which happens to be only 10minutes walk away across the rice paddies and by local houses.
We have been doing a 2hour yoga session 5days a week in a lovely yoga hall in a high area with views across Ubud. There are lovely rice terraces nearby and a narrow walking path. It is a long way down to the river and I wouldn’t like to have too much to drink if going home that way! Luckily we live the other way down a wider path.
The three yoga teachers are Balinese and are very competent and give us all a good workout. Some of the classes have half a dozen people from all over attending and for a class the other day we had 20 people.
We have also been walking a lot around the area which is a mixture of villas, cafes, little restauants, rice paddies and jungle with the Campuhan river flowing below.
There is more and more traffic in the way of motorbikes and scooters as the density of housing and work increases.
We have had my aunt Franca and her husband Dayle here for the last week and we had a good time eating, shopping and lazing in and by the pool. It was just very unfortunate that Franca ended up in hospital when she got back to Canberra with an unidentified bug. She was in isolation for a week then sent home with no answers apart from having some gastro bug.
We have only had a shower of rain the other night and another heavy downpour yesterday, otherwise the weather has been fine.
In the 10months since we have been here in Ubud more cafes and shops have
sprung up. They build here at an astounding rate and all of it by hand. You see the little old (probably not so old but they look it) women wheeling barrel loads of dirt and heavy blocks up and down the alleyways to construct new villas on reclaimed
rice paddies.
Our villa is one of about a dozen in the area most of which are owned by foreigners but on land leased from the Balinese owner. At least a lot of the money stays with the Balinese when they organise it this way.
There is still a lot of land up here devoted to rice growing but the availability of ready cash is a big incentive to a lot of the land owners who want to give up growing rice and have villas built on their land. Sad in many ways but inevitable I suppose as people want a more comfortable life for themselves and their offspring.
We have had some lovely meals at the Bridges, Nomad, Casa Luna, Dolce Arancia, Il Giardino and at the Hanging Gardens.
Lindy our friend from Brisbane joined us for 5days and we had a nice time shopping and visiting various restaurants. It rained heavily for the first three days then fined up. A lot of the rain since has been overnight which is handy so that we can walk around without umbrellas during the day.
We had a quiet last week in Ubud apart from one day where we went to the Australian Consular Fortress to vote for our state election and meet up with our friends Frank and Raema from Perth in Sanur. We had a nice lunch and then did the 2hour trip back to Ubud. We went to yoga that week and went out for dinner to the little warungs along the road in Penestanan. We met a couple from near Boston (Ming was also doing yoga) and we are going together on the slow boat to Lombok on the 2nd March.
We also met Sharon from Canada at yoga and it was such a coincidence that she is from the same town Powell River as our friend Frank who worked with me at Qantas and with us in the business. We had a nice dinner with her and her friends at Kue – a great little cafe in Penestanan.