They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, so to test out this theory a few of us decided to escape Chennai for the weekend, and made for Pondicherry, a French town around three hours' drive south. It takes an age to get out of the city, and on the way we stopped at the Madras Crocodile Bank, a conservation centre for crocs and alligators, to be honest I was expecting it to be a bit dire but in fact it was a pleasant little place, teeming with reptiles and information about reptiles. Although it had to be said once we had seen a couple of crocodiles, we had more or less seen them all.
On we went to Mamallapuram, a historic site with temples and carvings from 6th-9th Centuries, pleasant enough to wander around the old relics but what made it all the nicer was our discovery of a seedy little bar, cold beers were very welcome being as it was such a hot day..... Finally our car and our splendid driver Chandru made it to Pondicherry and our home for the night, the Hotel Atithi. The hotel was centrally located, being a mere 5 minutes walk from the French Quarter which is all wide streets, hardly any traffic (compared to Chennai) and quite a laid-back atmosphere. We discovered a pleasant French bakery with decent cappuchino and a nice line in cakes, then wandered down to the beachfront, lots of people strolling and lots of people selling stuff, very atmospheric.
Evening was spent at a very congenial French/Indian restaurant where we had the luxury of ordering a nice bottle of white wine - Indian wine, no less. Pondicherry is a little enclave where the licencing laws are somewhat more relaxed than Chennai - not too relaxed, however, as we discovered bars close at 10.30pm - reminiscent of the UK in the 1980s.....good thing there are such things as minibars!
So that was Pondicherry.. and it was lovely to get away. Pity the aftermath of the minibar precluded too much sightseeing on Sunday morning, but that is c'est la vie. The weekend did have one more treat in store for us, however. This was in the form of a trip to the theatre attached to the town museum, quiet a grand place. The event was an Abba Tribute band.... In fact they didn't look a bit like Abba, they kept forgetting the words, and sometimes even the tune, the person on the lights couldn't really get the hang of things and kept plunging the singers into complete darkness, meaning the acts kept on tripping over microphone wires and the like...but it was a great evening, if very surreal.
On we went to Mamallapuram, a historic site with temples and carvings from 6th-9th Centuries, pleasant enough to wander around the old relics but what made it all the nicer was our discovery of a seedy little bar, cold beers were very welcome being as it was such a hot day..... Finally our car and our splendid driver Chandru made it to Pondicherry and our home for the night, the Hotel Atithi. The hotel was centrally located, being a mere 5 minutes walk from the French Quarter which is all wide streets, hardly any traffic (compared to Chennai) and quite a laid-back atmosphere. We discovered a pleasant French bakery with decent cappuchino and a nice line in cakes, then wandered down to the beachfront, lots of people strolling and lots of people selling stuff, very atmospheric.
Evening was spent at a very congenial French/Indian restaurant where we had the luxury of ordering a nice bottle of white wine - Indian wine, no less. Pondicherry is a little enclave where the licencing laws are somewhat more relaxed than Chennai - not too relaxed, however, as we discovered bars close at 10.30pm - reminiscent of the UK in the 1980s.....good thing there are such things as minibars!
So that was Pondicherry.. and it was lovely to get away. Pity the aftermath of the minibar precluded too much sightseeing on Sunday morning, but that is c'est la vie. The weekend did have one more treat in store for us, however. This was in the form of a trip to the theatre attached to the town museum, quiet a grand place. The event was an Abba Tribute band.... In fact they didn't look a bit like Abba, they kept forgetting the words, and sometimes even the tune, the person on the lights couldn't really get the hang of things and kept plunging the singers into complete darkness, meaning the acts kept on tripping over microphone wires and the like...but it was a great evening, if very surreal.
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