Rasputin1

annhig - around December to early February. But does not mean that you wont need AC.

Rasputin1

Lost the last posting, so will try again now.
Following a late night chat session with my friend talking about school days and friends, pouring over photographs and remarking how everyone had changed and unrecognisable now (not to mention ourselves!), we hired an Uber the next day to drive us to Pondicherry. It is a straight road following the ocean. Not too many photo opportunities as there is no beach - only rocks. The occasional fishing boat or tanker could be seen in the distance. Arrived in Pondi mid afternoon. Stayed at Villa Krish in White Town two streets from the Promenade which runs along the ocean. As you will see from my attached photographs, White Town is relatively clean with coloured colonial houses and lots of bougainvillea, frangipani and other tropical trees (eg jackfruit and mango). As with all things Indian, the colonial dwellings were torn down or left to rot until someone decided that there were tourist $ to be milked from the heritage buildings, so some are being renovated and others torn down and rebuilt as faux colonial.

Villa Krish Pondicherry

Colonial four poster (for mosquito nets) and cane colonial chair

Colonial house on golmohur and bouganvillea lined street

Promenade early morning

Promenade

Colonial building now turned hotel on the Promenade

Colonial house

On the left renovated colonial house, in the middle, original colonial house and on the right, new build faux colonial building.

Team beams removed from renovated building.

colourful colonial house turned hotel.

Rasputin1

e28 February 2019 - After identifying a gelato shop opposite Duplex's statue, I hurried back to try and get DH up the stairs to breakfast. At first instance we thought that the breakfast was very poor - cereal in wobbly dispensers, watered down fruit juice and spicy South Indian food. While we do eat spicy food, eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day does not sit well with our tums. Luckily they brought out some chocolate croissants and were prepared to cook eggs any way one liked. Even by 8.00am the sun was overbright and beginning to sting. We managed to find a shady spot to quickly have our breakfast. We overlooked the dome of Eglise de Notre Dam Anges.

The previous night we had checked out the two dining options near us and decided we would have a look at Black Town across the Canal (read open smelly sewer). Unfortunately Black Town is nothing like White Town. Black Town is where the native people lived during the French occupation, the dwellings are of poor quality and were replaced by just as poor "modern" edifices. The roads are poorly maintained, the footpath mostly non-existent and everywhere there is trash and mess. In other words watch where you walk and wear closed shoes. MG Road is the main shopping area with mainly shops selling Indian clothing and trinkets. There were a few buildings which if they had been maintained would have given a more graceful air to the area. The clocktower was looking very sad and I believe was almost lost in road works. A beautiful colonial building with verandahs and shutters was slowly disintegrating, with peepul trees having taken root in the roof and sending their roots down the walls. Once this happens, there is no going back - the trees are impossible to remove. The road is poorly lit at night along the Canal and the traffic very heavy. You are forced to walk on the road to prevent yourself falling down a pot hole or twisting an ankle on the so called footpath. The volume of both traffic and people in Black Town a hop and step away from White Town is chalk and cheese.

Clocktower in Blacktown

Beautiful building slowly decaying.

Destruction by peepul trees

Fading glory in Blacktown

More fading glory in Blacktown. Think it was once a library. Good restaurant opposite.

DH thought he could walk a little (all ideas of walking or cycling tours have been put aside), so we headed off after breakfast back to Blacktown to the Pondicherry Market - a local market. We avoided the fish market (wet and smelly) and concentrated on the clothing/trinkets and fresh fruit and veg part. It is a bustling market with women in their traditional saris - the women in the south tie their saris differently to those in the north and the colours and designs are also different. However, with the passage of time, this is changing and more salwar kameez are seen and less of the traditional dress. Women also wear flowers (jasmine) in their hair which is not worn in the north. Men's wear has not changed with Tamil men wearing lungis in white and generallyl the Muslims wearing checks. One old stall holder was more than happy to have his photograph taken and tried to carry on a conversation in English. Pan wallahs sold their leaves and the Banana leaf man was also present. Other than that, the stall were small with the usual cheap clothing. Men generally lounged around shops chewing pan and talking.

Dry goods store Pondicherry market

Lentil and dry fruit stall. - 10 - 15 different kinds of rice.

Spice store - several grades of turmeric.

Paan leaves

-The Banana plate man

Lushious grapes, oranges and pomegranates. Note the scales.

Sari stall

and next door - the tailor and "customers?"

Women stringing flowers for buyers' hair

This women was shucking the dry outer layers of onions prior to sale.

Vegetable man - happy to have his photo taken. The long thin veg are "drum sticks". Green mangos in the red bag.

and next door - fresh green herbs - pungent and fragrant - coriander and lady fingers.

annhig

<<annhig - around December to early February. But does not mean that you wont need AC.>>

lol, it had never occurred to me to think otherwise - I'm too much of a wuss. And I'm sorry about the lost post - It happens to me a lot under the new "regime". I try to remember to copy before I press the post button but I don't always succeed.

Lovely photos [like you I'm a sucker for a good market] and great candid shots of locals. Pondicherry is definitely a place I'd like to visit but most tours spend at most 2 nights there, mostly one. If that were one's first stop after arriving [quite possible as flights from the UK arrive in Chennai in the early morning] how long would you stay there?. I would be thinking of stopping off in Mahabalipuram for a look round en route. Did you do that? and would you recommend your hotel?

Rasputin1

Hi annihig.
I would not spend more than two days. A friend of mine had visited Pondicherry about 8 - 9 months before us and she only spent 1.5 days there. She said that everything could be seen in a day and she was right. If you are a walker, you can certainly see most things in a day. Yes, you can certainly stop off in Mahabalipurum on the way as long as you have your own transport. We did not stop in Mahabalipurum this time, having seen it many years previously and did not really want to relive the experience. It would only be more crowded and more dirty that it was before. A car in Pondicherry is not an advantage as there is limited parking and lots of blocked or one way streets.

Rasputin1

The police uniforms in Pondicherry are the last remaining trace of French colonialism. They still wear the kepee. The bright blue or red with gold braid contrasts beautifully with their white uniforms. There was a sit in outside the former Public Works Department for two days and there were lots of police in their French style uniforms keeping the peace. We also stumbled across the Police museum in Dumas Street. It is just a tiny one room affair attached to the police HQ and very few foreigners come that way. It was a real delight if you have studied anything about French history in India. The British in their usual underhanded way tried every trick in the book to ensure that the French withdrew at the same time as they did. The French were keen to give the citizens of French Indian colonies dual citizenship and to set up a university in Pondicherry. The English made sure that none of this happened. Correspondence shows that the English officials met with French officials but passed on incorrect information up the line. Anyway the French capitulated on Chandenagore in West Bengal due to fear for their lives from the socialist party that was rising there. Smaller "marsh" colonies along the southern coast were similarly just walked away from. Pondicherry was the only jewel.

Lots of braid here. A Head constable managing traffic for international guests visiting the Governor at Raj Niwas

The Police museum in Dumas Street

Cessation document for Pondicherry in 1954

Various police hats.

Police officer's uniform

Map of French dependencies in India. Note - Chandenagore (aka Chandinagar) in WB is not shown.

Police ceremonial uniforms

Sepoy uniforms and sword. It looked very heavy and unweildy.

We were the only visitors for several days!

We did not visit the Romain Rolland Library as it would have involved steps which DH could not climb.

I went out on my own searching for my sister school's embroidery school. This school was started by the nuns to give local women, particularly those unmarried or widowed some income. When I visited the women were happily at work and I spoke to both the nuns (who were very happy to meet a former student) and one of the women who was working on a drawn thread edge for a tablecloth. She worked effortlessly and fast and with a smile on her face. The women start early and then have a two hour break where they are given a meal and a place to rest. Then they continue until 4.00pm. The work is exquisite and cheap in comparison to what is charged for handsewn products in the Western world. There is not a large range at any time but you can order particular designs and items and they will be made and shipped to you.

St Josphy of Cluny Convent

St Joseph of Cluny Embroidery School

St Anne's Hostel in the grounds of the embroidery school

Entry and garden - St Joseph's Embroidery School

Embroidery school

Embroiderers

Plaster decoration on walls of embroidery school

Verandah - embroidery school

Happy worker making a tablecloth.

Unusual red clover

Rue Romain Rolland

Red Frangipani in the garden

Rasputin1

There are not as many churches in Pondicherry as there used to be. We visited three. The Immaculate Conception Cathedral located in Mission Street, Blacktown. Built in 1781 it is a white Jesuit edifice, in a Portuguese style - very typically Indian with lots of statues and neon lights. It is the See of the Archbishop of the Diocese of Pondicherry. Outside you will see the large flagpole (kodimaram) at the entrance, which is used during church functions - again this is a typical Southern India feature that is not seen in other Christian Churches.

Immaculate Conception Cathedral Mission St Blacktown Pondicherry

Interior of cathedral.
I also visited the Eglise de Sacre Coeur de Jesus in the Sacred Heart Square. Opposite the railways station. Gothic architecture. Contrast to the cathedral - it is red and white. It also has a large flag mast outside.

Eglise de Sacre Coeur de Jesus - Sacred heart Square

Exterior with kodimaram on the left.

Side chapel - Sacred Heart Church

Interior of Sacred Heard Church

The third church was Eglise de Notre Dame de Anges in Rue Dumas The original structure was built in Greco Roman architecture by Napoleon III in 1855. The architect was Louis Guerre. It is the only church that offers mass in 3 different languages namely French, Tamil and English. The smooth limestone exterior was polished using egg shells. In the closed square between the church and the Promenade is a statue of St Joan d'Arc.

Exterior of Church

Church prayer

Chandelier

Church interior

Joan of Arc

Opposite the church is the Capuchin orphanage for boys. Each morning the boys are supervised and they clean the street in front and side of the church. I felt sorry that I did not keep some of the clothes I had brought and given away in Delhi for these children. They are poor and things like shoes and nice clothes are foreign to them. So if you are visiting Pondicherry, please take boys clothes and donate them to the orphanage.

CaliNurse

Rasputin, thanks again! Great photos! I was there in January....nice memories.
I missed the embroidery school...darn!
Agree, two nights in Pondicherry is adequate.

MmePerdu

I must wholeheartedly disagree with you both, nowhere near enough. But we all know how that goes, all depending on one's personal definition of what constitutes entertainment and how long it entertains.

Rasputin1

If you are ambulant (which my husband was not by this stage) and don't mind the heat you would find more things to do and see in Pondicherry.
We did not go to the Aurobindo Ashram as it was a long way and a toll (passing into another State) was payable. Return from Aurobindo would have been difficult. Unless you are booked in to stay and take some of their "courses" you cant get near the golden orb and while the restaurants may provide some good meals, they are expensive.

So here are just a few more photographs of things we saw. Duplex statue at the end of Goubert Street/Promenade was interesting to me because his home in Chandenagore (West Bengal) is right next to the St Joseph of Cluny convent. The house has now been turned into a museum and French language school.

Dupleix's statue - Promenade

Dupleix's statue
The canned wedding music van which has taken over from the phoo phoo bands.


Candy floss sellers

Canned wedding music wagons.
Fresh coconut seller in Blacktown -

Coconut seller.

Early morning chalk patterns in front of houses

Jackfruit tree

More police

Orange juice

The man in the red shirt spoke French.
Although the tourist brochures state that people speak French, this is not true. Only a small proportion of over 65s speak French and not very refined at that.

Bike patrol

Promenade at dusk

Pizza restaurant

Promenade at dusk

Promenade at dusk

desserts

Cakes and pastries

Thin and crispy pizza

GMT Gelati

Chocolate gelato + lots of other yummy flavours.

Next off to Tranquebar

MmePerdu

By "Aurobindo Ashram" I'm assuming you mean Auroville? I can see that for those not wanting to stay at least a night or 2 it might not be worth the trip. But having stayed several days, I found it one of the most fascinating places I've ever been, & I've been a lot of places. But this is your trip, your experience, your report so I'll simply say, for those traveling to the area, consider a stay in Auroville, if only for a walkabout to see the architecture throughout the community, not just the public buildings.

Rasputin1

Tranquebar (Tharangambadi)

120 km from Pondicherry
We organised a car through the hotel for over Rs6.000. The single lane road is more than a little bumpy and windy and traffic really slows down through some villages. The drive takes about 3 - 4 hours even if you leave early. On our return journey we left Tranquebar at 6.30am and it still took us three hours (on a weekend). With that lengthy and tiring journey we did not want to return the same day and also felt it unfair on the driver. We stayed overnight at the Neemrana Heritage Hotel in Tranquebar 24 King Road opposite the Fort. This was way overpriced at Rs8,000+ the most we have ever paid for mediocre accommodation in India. It has 17 rooms. Good restaurant, swimming pool and wraparound terrace. The same hotel chain now also runs the Gate House which is even more expensive.
In its heyday, the Bungalow (now Neemrana) functioned as the summer residence of the British collector. Subsequently, the ‘Bungalow on the Beach’ fell into disrepair, until it was brought for a sum in 2002. After extensive restorations that went on till 2004, it was converted into a Heritage hotel. The photograph album on the restoration is very interesting - the absolute desolate state it was in and to see it now. The area had also been affected by the Tsumani and the nearby temple lost part of its building. However, you would not be able to identify the damage now. The hotel has subsequently built a wall to block out unwanted visitors and also to prevent another possible deluge.

To say that Tranquebar has streets is a misnomer. There is one main street from the bazaar through the entry archway all the way to the Fort. Anything else is unnamed and often not paved. If you tried to ask directions you probably would not get a proper answer. People just do not know anything outside of their own little world. Our driver very kindly drove us around to the various sights and had great difficulty, even though he spoke the local language, to get directions to any of the buildings we wanted to visit.

Since the Fort is right across from Neemrana, across the parade ground, we walked across the hot sand and paid full price for our entry tickets. There is an extra charge for photography. Although they charge foreigners for this privilege, all Indians are allowed to take photographs with their mobile phones! The guards pay no attention to this. Anyway there are not many things you would want to photograph in the fort. It is basically an empty building with a few signs indicating what the rooms were used for. The main building has been converted into a museum with some pretty dusty exhibits. There is however a very good historical pictorial and text record. All the Indians look for the foreigners and want their selfies taken with them. The views you get from the fort, you can get on the rocky/sandy area in front of the fort or from the breakwater.

Neemrana wrap around verandah.

Our room - however not named after a Danish ship

Pristine Pool

natandmiriam

Thank you so much for sharing Rasputin - I feel like I was there! The photos are great.
I'm hoping to go to Southern India late this year. Which way did you fly?
I realise how hard it is to actually write comments once you are home but I do hope you will continue with your description.

annhig

yes, natandmiriam I agree.

I feel like I've been there with you Rasputin 1, but not so much that I don't want to go there my self!

Thanks!

Rasputin1

Natandmiriam we travelled from Delhi to Madras, Pondicherry, Tranquelbar, Pondicherry Bangalore, Mysore, Sirigapatnam, Hampi, Goa and then back to Delhi. Mysore is probably the only place I would return to for a day or two but no more.

I had a lot of computer problems so could not continue this report.

Tranquebar has an interesting church and a museum. The Church is easy to find as it is in the main street, but the museum and even older church are tucked away behind the high walls and locked gate of a school, making it extremely difficult to locate.

jobin

Certainly I cannot read all this material. Plz seek some journalist employment, Mr. OP.

But i did note that you would not remove your shoes before entering a particular temple. Is that your common mode, or was that temple especially filthy on the foot?

And in general, are shoes removed before entering hindu (?) temples? In Thailand all the buddhist wats (temples) ask patrons to remove the shoe before entering. I've seen many western folks amazed at how dirty the socks get after the visit.

Hope you had a good time. The journey seems much too hectic for me, rather like current telly adverts where each scene flashes one-third per second then the next, unrelated, scene pops up.

thursdaysd

Rasputin1

Hi Jobin
Thank you for your comments. Yes, we have travelled in Thailand and removed our shoes before entering temples. However, in our opinion, the temples in Thailand are cleaner and since we went to see them so many years ago before the great influx of tourists, they appeared to be cleaner.

Indians do not allow you to wear socks which we would be prepared to do and after having to walk through dirty water in one temple in the Punjab and getting a fungal disease on my feet which took almost a year to clear up, we will not be entering such buildings again. Had we known that there was water in the temple (not a Sikh Gurdwara) that was not changed and which you had to walk through and could not turn back, we would not have entered the temple.

I am sorry that you found the trip report boring and long. We do like to travel slowly but the amount of time we had allowed us generally two to three days in each place. Enjoy your travels.

Rasputin1

Cant work out why my posts and photographs are not "sticking". I'll try again.


Neerama Hotel Bungalow by the Beach - facing the Fort

Water/flower display

Danish Fort

Governor's House

The and Now photograph of Tranquebar

Danish Soldier

Danish Officer

Danish officer

Map of Tranquebar under the Danish

The Governor's House, though small is quite a good museum with lots of fading (unfortunately) maps and photographs of the events that took place in Tranquebar and the evening gowns of the governor's daughters or wife.. The Library next door has a few interesting books and pictures of Danish royalty at the time. There is also a museum on the artefacts that have been recovered from the shore - mostly broken blue Danish pottery and some fishing implements. A boat shows the type of vessel that the local fishermen used.

Next door to the bungalow by the Beach is the refurbished Post Office which has some interesting facts and figures on the Indian postal service. That is the only "service" you will get there - it would be hard to get any of the skeleton staff interested in providing you with service!

The printing press museum is located in the grounds of a school with high walls and locked gate, so it is difficult to find. It has been renovated and that has been done to a very good standard. There are storyboards in both English and the local language and the printing press is still in operation.
Upstairs are some more interesting photographs, especially of the renovation.
In the grounds is a tiny, old church - unfortunately not open, but I am sure it has an interesting history if anyone could tell you.

Entrance Bungalow by the Sea

Tranquebar with old sea wall

Zion Church 1701 in King Street (main street)

Zienenbalg's tomb in the Zion Church

Ziegenbalg Printing Press Museum and

Photos depicting renovation of the Printing Press Museum

Printing press in the printing museum

Printing Press still in operation

Printed material

Old church in the school /Printing Press Museum grounds.

Sunrise in Tranquebar

Rasputin1

Oops. My mistake that was not the Zion Church in the above photographs, but the New Jerusalem Church (Tamil Evangelical) 1718 built by the Royal Danish missionary Batholomaeus Ziegenbalg. Damaged in the Tsumani of 2004, it was renovated and reconsecrated in 2006 at a cost of Rs 7 million. There is an interesting cemetery in the grounds - all the graves have been renovated and many have epitaphs in Danish.
Early morning rising with a mediocre breakfast and a long drive back to Pondicherry. Even on a Sunday at 6.00am there was a lot of traffic through the villages and progress was slow through them. Lots of people out in their best dress on their way to temples. It was interesting to note several tiny churches in the paddy fields along the way.

Pondicherry airport is very new but the access to it is across an uneven playing field where the locals play cricket (several matches at the same time). As there are only two flights per day the airport is very dead. People only arrive a few minutes before they have to board.

The Spice Jet flight (Rs 7.000) was squishy to say the least even though we had paid extra for leg room (ha ha). The meal that was included consisted of a dreadful sandwich and a carton of coconut water. Bangalore airport is very modern and has lots of facilities. Buses ply between the airport and various parts of Bangalore. After looking at the local buses, we opted for an Ola direct to the hotel. It is a long drive from the airport into Bangalore proper.