Pondicherry - Chennai - Mamallapuram

Getting there - Friday was Republic Day in India, the day that British rule was relinquished to establish the republic of India, and Google had the day off. Following work on Thursday, Scott and I booked it to the airport for our first intra country flight. After arriving in Chennai, we hired a prepay car to take us about 150 km to Pondy. It was a memorable ride as we stopped at the equivalent of a trucker diner for a meal. We also had to confront the drivers, as they were trying to add on trumped up toll charges to our prepayed bill.

Pondicherry - Up early to catch the sunrise coming over the Bay of Bengal. For Republic Day, people were getting their floats in order for the parade. We meandered back through the French part of the city: the streets are tree-lined 'rues' and quite well laid out with some charming houses. Once you cross the canal, paltry in flow this time of year, you enter the Indian section of city, with the accustomed hustle and congestion.

Walking through the back streets, we stumbled upon a game of cricket of young-ins and were invited to play. We made friends with a group of guys, and they proceeded to tour the city with us. They first took us to a Hindu shrine, which are common in every city. We were barefoot, blessed, adorned with a bindi and string bracelet, presented with small flowers, and shown depictions of gods in our clockwise walk around the closet-sized shrine. Now fitting in, our entourage strolled through the well manicured botanical gardens. We then took out the boys for a meaningful lunch and wouldn't leave until one of the guys presented a flower to a lone female traveler. He was strutting the rest of the day.

After bidding fond farewells, we hopped a rickshaw Auroville Beach for some sunning. The town is a spiritual enclave with an interesting history, but we were there for the waves. We returned to Pondy and dropped by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, founded by the same people as Auroville. The peaceful courtyard was laced with flowers and meditators circled a central shrine. Again, we walked clockwise around the shrine on our way out to dinner.

Chennai - Aside from our walk to the match through the city center, we did not see much of the city as our day's mission was to bring the Indian Cricket Team a win against the West Indies. In a 1 day match, which this was, the teams bat once and try to get as many runs as possible on 300 balls. In a 5 day test, the teams get an unlimited number of balls and bat twice.

Despite resting 2 of their best players for the upcoming World Cup, the Indians put up a respectable 268 before being eclipsed by the Windies' strong partnership of Samuels and the legendary Brian Lara. The cheap seats were continuously chanting, even over 7 hours into the match.

We met a Canadian expat living in Chennai who sat with us and then took us out for drinks in a wine bar (back room of a liquor store) and out for some street dinner. You can see the scene and the man working his magic here below. I love how he snatches the rice out of mid-air.



Mamallapuram - A beach town located between Chennai and Pondy. We had a relaxing day checking out well preserved shoreline temples, grubbing fresh seafood, hitting the beach, and messing around with some locals.