Colorful & Frenchy India
Color me Pondy! Pondicherry was on my ‘must-go’ list for three reasons:
- It seemed very unique because of the French influence remaining (particularly in the architecture), from when the French colonized in the 1600’s until the 1950’s
- It’s on the ocean
- One of my favorite restaurants in Houston is called Pondicheri (Indian food😆)
*footnote: M. Night Shyamalan was born here
**footnote #2: this post dedicated to François and his Frenchy, purple light
This is absolutely a town where you feel like there is no other place on earth like it. Multiple cultures stacked together – Indian in all ways, but Frenchiness still remains. Tamil and French both are the official languages. Street signs in Tamil and French. Indian restaurants, French restaurants, Italian restaurants… Indian people, French people… temples/ashrams, churches/basilicas/cathedrals, mosques… smorgasbord.
The most popular temple in Pondicherry is the Manakula Vinayagar Temple, and when I was looking at it, I kept thinking of the candy necklaces I would wear / eat in the 80’s😂 Those were the days.
In fact, the colorfulness of the whole town makes me think of the Candy Land board game😍
Rainbow of buildings…
cafe
my hotel
Goubert Avenue
On many of the sidewalks, there is artwork in the form of kolam, which is a type of drawing using powder or rice flower, that is a Hindu tradition. Every morning, (mostly) women decorate in front of their houses, as it is traditionally supposed to bring prosperity. They’re on the sidewalks and streets, so they get stepped on – I was keeping my head down trying not to destroy any with my big feet😳. At the end of the day, they’re washed off, and in the morning made again.
flower color kolam
flowers
kolam
Street signs in both languages…
french + tamil
tamil + french
Some interesting monuments / landmarks…
Immaculate Conception Cathedral
inside cathedral
Manakula Vinayagar Temple
Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
inside basilica
stained glass
stained glass
outside basilica
buying rosaries
rosary
Old Lighthouse
Gandhi Statue
French War Memorial
Some really cool door and window covering designs…
Ocean scenes…
sunrise
sunrise
sunrise
sunrise
pier
so many people at 6am!!?
Promenade at night
Food problems…
Gelato right next door…??
sambar, chutney, dosa, vadai
view from breakfast
Random rats…
what are they keeping these rats for…?
Cute town❤️❤️
Next up: Abu Dhabi (this is the only thing I know about Abu Dhabi) & Dubai 😃
Ooty, ooty, ooty, ooty rockin’ everywhere
“Ooty” is short for Udagamandalam… and it’s my favorite town name in India because it rhymes with booty😳
No judgment zone. After Munnar, I took local buses to Coimbatore (and got attacked by a monkey). The trip was 3 buses + 1 tuk-tuk, and it took around 7 hours. I was only in Coimbatore for one night, using that as a stopping point on my way to Ooty, which is north of Munnar, in Tamil Nadu state. Ooty and Munnar are fairly similar – they’re both in the Western Ghat mountains, they both have tea plantations covering the landscape, and they’re both beautiful😍.
I got a non-A/C taxi to take me from Coimbatore to Ooty because I didn’t want a second day in a row of local bus travel on windy, bumpy roads! Ooty is in the Nilgiri Hills (“nilgiri” means “blue mountain”), and the climate changes quite a bit from Mettupalayam, which is at the foothills, to the hill stations at the top. When I was in the taxi in Mettupalayam, sitting in traffic, I think it was the hottest I’ve ever felt (excluding being in a sauna or exercising)… it was ridiculous. But, for Ooty, the high temperature for the days I was there was 75, and the low was in the 50’s at night. It was sunny and beautiful all day, both days I was there😄 Perfect weather. It doesn’t rain hardly at all in Ooty in February, but during the June-July-+ months, it will rain a lot – for hours and hours non-stop – so I randomly visited at a really good time.
Pictures of Ooty town and area around…
Ooty building
cafe coffee!!
This is where I stayed – soooo cute, with the cutest family running the place…
I visited the Botanical Garden, Ooty Lake, and a tea factory (again)…
The cooooolest thing I did was ride the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (steam locomotive! toy train) from Ooty back to Mettupalayam. When going downhill, it starts at 7,200 feet and ends at 1,070. The stations are used for a lot of movie filming, including scenes shot in the original A Passage to India film. The train system is a UNESCO World Heritage Site – it was first used in 1899. The views are AMAZING…
my little friend
Next up: India’s east coast
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