Bonjour Pondicherry

After Mamallapuram, we caught a taxi 2 hours further south, to the gorgeous town of Pondicherry (or Puducherry). Pondicherry was colonized in the 1600’s by the French and still has a very European vibe about it today. There were lots of cute little cobbled streets to explore, so we hired bikes for the afternoon. We found a lovely little café for lunch which is run only by woman and cooks up a mixture of Indian and European food.

 

Mamallapuram

 Mamallapuram was our first proper 'beach stop' in India. It is a beautiful little town on the west coast, about 2 hours south of Chennai. We spent two days there, enjoying the fresh seafood and relaxing. It was one of my favourite stops so far. 

Journey to the south

The past week hasn't been overlly exciting, we've spent most of the time on trains covering 1729 km's of India's east coast. After Varanasi we headed east to Kolkata - which was really just another big city (but they have masses of cute yellow taxis everywhere), and then we started our trek down the east coast to Chennai, yet another big city. On the way down we stopped at Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada. There wasn't much to see at Bhubaneswar, except the Udaygiri & Khandagiri Caves which were really interesting and had a great view over the city. The train ride down the coast had some amazing scenery. There are palm trees everywhere! We only had one night at Visakhapatnam so we didn't have time to do anything there, except it was the first time we've seen the ocean since we left Australia! It made me so happy to be on the coast again, I didn't realise how much I missed it. Next was Vijayawada, where we had even less time. We pulled in there after all day on a train, had dinner and then got on another night train which brought us to Chennai! It has been a very tiring week and we are SO keen to reach the southern beaches!!

A door fetish

Since arriving in India, I seem to have developed an obsession with doors and archways. Sounds odd doesn’t it? But everywhere I go I can’t seem to stop myself when I see an interesting one. I love all the colours and the designs; I think they are a beautiful part of the cities.