Day 29
After sleeping in the sleeper I felt like my body is in little pain at some places, but at least I slept a little bit. I had full day ahead of me as we came to Pondicherry just before 6 AM. I decided that I need to roam a little bit, before I will knock at my next stay's door. My first destination was the beach as it wasn't far, but still some tuk tuk tried to convince me to get me somewhere. Of course even the little distance with my baggage was quite tiring.
As I was going along the streets I immediately felt different vibe of the place. Architecture was different and many locals - restaurants or stays advertised themselves accordingly. Streets were empty at the time, but still I managed to hear French from tourists (or residents maybe?). There were even street signs, which I never saw in India (at least in uniform manner) and they were called "rue" from French and often after French personalities. I was excited to see sea again after Madurai. I realized that coastal areas became my comfort zone here in India which maybe would be quite surprising for me before the trip. I thought that I'll manage before the sunrise, but when I reached the beach it was already bright.
I sat at the bench, unloaded my baggage and looked around. There was quite a lot of people for such an early time. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, here in India even not much people at places like that means quite a lot. Soon someone came and sat beside me on the bench and tried to sell me some trinket, but after I refused multiple times with smile he gave up. It was beautiful beach, although it is actually rocky coast, but there is nice promenade bordered by pretty, charming buildings.
After the rest I went along the promenade. There were nice looking restaurants, but also bakeries. On some government buildings I could spot French alongside Tamil, but English was also prominent, actually more so on practical signs. I saw group of scouts training some drills, apparently for some occasion. It wasn't only scouts, but also schoolchildren in school uniforms. There were also group of soldiers or police doing some ceremonial drills at Gandhi statue standing at the coast. I wasn't sure if it was also training or actual thing.
To cover some time before going for my stay, I went to look for some restaurant. I found one with beautiful entry full of greenery. At this time they had only basic breakfast items, but either way I just wanted to fill my stomach. After that I visited one nice looking church and I even found picture of Polish Pope put into some corner. I knew that I need to go for the stay, I couldn't properly roam through the town carrying the baggage so I decided to go to my stay even though it was just 8 AM. This time I decided to go for single bed in dormitory option. Normally I was always taking single rooms for myself, but still budget friendly, but this time I felt I could try that, because single rooms were either too expensive or didn't satisfied me as regular hotels. I registered and left my baggage at dormitory. It was dark and some people were still sleeping there. Before I left I decided to drink some tea as the stay were serving it. I was listening to conversation in French between French girl who were staying in dormitory and some local man from hotel. I wanted to add something and try at least a little bit of French, but didn't found courage and opportunity. I went for quick bath and formed some imaginary conversation in French in my head, but when I left nobody was in corridor already.
I decided to simple roam around Pondicherry without specific plan. Just to go from one closest attraction to another. I discovered that I started to be more confident entering Hindu temples and I went into habit of making photos and not insides, as it's generally forbidden, even if there are exceptions I rarely make inside. In one of them, full of various Ganapati (Ganesha) version statues, payasam was distributed, but since it was made with milk I didn't take it. I didn't really want to go to any queues for blessings or other rituals so I simply went around looking at statues and people. There were many characters represented in statues, but Ganapati was most prominent. There was whole row of Ganapati statues in every color, pose and version.
I went next for Aurobindo Ashram. It was calm place, despite of the crowd. The most interesting place there for me was bookshop though. I wasn't exactly interested with these specific books, mostly written by or about Aurobindo, but there were books in many languages, including some obscure European, but I didn't find anything polish. I visited also some very nice park. In a way it reminded me some more prettier parks in Warsaw, but there were obvious differences, like tropical plants or the fact it was rather more densely decorated with statues and other small things.
I visited two other Hindu temples which were in close proximity to each other. Their long names didn't really say me much, but I had quite clear impression that one was Shaivaite with pantheon of Shiva and related characters like Parvati and Ganesha. But I don't really know that much about them so I could recognize more from the other - Vaishnavist. Not only Rama and Krishna and related characters from the epics - Ramayana and Mahabharata - but also line of Vishnu avatara, starting from my favorite fish and turtle (I actually don't know much about them, but idea of godly incarnation into fish and turtle works on my imagination and I would love to read full epics about them).
I went into the beach and there were more people than in the morning, but it was still from typical evening beach crowds. First I headed along the coast to northern direction looking for some attractions. I was thinking about Auroville and for some time I was moving in its direction, but then I decided that it's too far on foot, at least for today and there's no other interesting attractions on the way. Further I went from the town center, from so-called White Town, it became clear what except architecture distinguish it. Going further out of it streets became more blood veins like, typical for India, full of dead ends and sometimes to cross over something that on the map looks close. White Town in comparison has more grid-like plan, with streets laid down in such a way that it's intuitive for me to reach somewhere by knowing general direction of destination.
After that I felt so tired and sleepy that I had to go back to stay to take a nap. However much I was saying before on this trip about sleep deficits, I never went for a nap during the day, even though I considered that once in Alappuzha, so it was first time. Sleep I got in the bus was clearly not enough.
I woke up and left the bed after around 1.5 h, I didn't want to loose more time. I felt dizzy for a little bit, but it got better once I reached the beach. This time I headed for the south along the coast. Nothing was there in particular except other beaches, but it was what I wanted for the coming evening. When I entered neighborhood that looked more poor, two young woman called me while they were laying stretched in the tuk tuk. Between them little boy jumped on site excited. They asked about myself and also if I need anything. They wanted to invite me inside their house and give me food or tea. I was hesitant, but I said that I can come for tea only. The women were sisters and older one was mother of little boy. At the house were two sisters, little boy, women's grandmother and husband of older sister, sleeping in one room. The younger one was speaking mostly, because her English was better, but I still felt we don't understand each other completely, either because language or some social misunderstanding. Older one couldn't say much in English, but she quickly started to tease me if I want to marry her sister (ah again, why it can't be always that simple). I become flustered easily out of it, explaining that it can't be that quick, but she become theatrically disappointed and left the house to do some chores. It wasn't the case as with Mariah, but the younger one looked also very youthful so I asked her about her age. She was 26 years old, despite of looking much younger, but I already get used to the fact that they can look so surprisingly young. She said that she's studying electronic communication, but she doesn't plan to work after, but be householder. It felt quite sad for me, but I thought I shouldn't judge, I can't quite understand her life circumstances. What was surprising that they not only asked me if I want any food, but also if I need any money. That was very surprising, I tried to understand if there's no some English confusion and if they ask about money from me, but apparently they were willing to give me. Of course, it was ridiculous and I vehemently refused, saying that they did enough for me already. I decided to go and said goodbye. Younger one felt sad and said I should visit them later too. I'm sorry that I didn't note down their names, because it slipped through my mind, but I can note at least that I met them somewhere at the northern edge of Vambakeeparalayam neighborhood / district.
While I was going along the coast further south, I texted Susmitha, Tamil girl from Pondicherry that I met once at the bus to Warsaw. She was excited to see photos and relation from Pondicherry. She recommended me "Pondy Marina" which I actually just reached when she did it. It was restaurant area mixed with lunapark close to the beach. It was nice place, I ate something and looked around.
After a while I decided to return slowly and roundabout way to the hotel through main promenade. Some open concert was hailed there, probably as last parts of pongal festivities. I liked it and stayed for a while, listening and recognizing various songs. I returned to my hotel with certain amount of anxiousness. It was clocking to the time to return to Kerala and I didn't have really a plan. Meeting with Tini seemed unlikely due to her exams in Trivandrum, but it put even meeting with her family and with Nicha under the question. Despite of this concern I knew that I need to carry with my trip and I planned to go to Mahabalipuram next day in the morning.
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