Chennai & Puducherry


      


After Hyderabad and 3 days of wedding celebrations (article about the wedding to follow) we took another sleeper train, which was much smoother and comfier, to Chennai (known as Madras under the British Raj).


We went for a really short exploration of the city but the heat and the small amount of touristic sights pushed us to stay mostly in our great 4 stars hotel where the wedding reception was happening.
We did grasp a much more modern vibe in Chennai than in the other cities and towns we'd been to in India. The city even has a clean and very efficient metro service which made our movements much easier. 



University of Madras



We still had the time to experience the most crazy rickshaw (or tuk-tuk) ride. Our tuk-tuk journeys were always quite frightening as we would always be slaloming between cars, trucks, buses and cows. But this time we reached another level of mad driving when our driver took as a shortcut a 4 lanes road in the opposite direction during a good 5 minutes. Same slaloming than usual, but this time with all the other vehicles facing us!..
 



From Chennai we took a bus to Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry while it remained a french territory in India). The landscape we could see from the window of the bus was beautiful once we finally left the sprawling city of Chennai, we went through villages, rice fields and coastal roads.


Puducherry was the most touristic place we'd been so far. It actually felt pretty good as we were much less stared at, not asked any more for selfies, but on the downside there were sadly many beggars asking us money.
Puducherry town centre is very different to other India cities, while the rest of the town is still incredibly busy and hectic, Puducherry still has a je ne sais quoi from its french influence and its seaside ambiance which makes it very calm and relaxing.
Most of the buildings are in french colonial style, very colourful, street names are in french and even some locals still speak Molière's language.


 

There isn't really a specific monument to go visit in Puducherry but it's all about wandering in the clean and empty streets, taking the time to have a café or a patisserie in one of those very nice coffee shop or walk along the beach.


 

Puducherry seafront




The french international school of Pondichery




 


 

One place worth a visit is the Arulmigu Manakalu Vinayagar Temple. This temple, devoted to Lord Ganesha, has its own Elephant called Lakshmi and attracts many pilgrims and tourists giving Lakshmi donations (food for her and money for the temple, she really knows the difference) and getting blessed by her. Just bow your head in front of her, she will gently bless you with her trunk. 

 

Lakshmi the elephant





Pilgrims giving donations









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