If you guessed me, you're correct!
So. To pick up where I left off...
On Thursday, after training, we packed everything up, took pictures of the girls we had been training and headed off down the coast of the Bay of Bengal. Except we didn't take the coast road. We, instead, took the 'new modern highway'. At the begining of the trip we were told two things.
Thing number one - The drive to Pondichery would take 2.5 hours.
Thing number two - Our driver spoke English.
The first was most certainly NOT true and the second was only marginally so.
While the trip down was lovely and I saw a monkey, it was not 2.5 hours. It was 3.5 hours to Pondichery and THEN another 45 mins to find the resort we were staying at. It was very, very strange to look straight up and see the constalation for Orion. There are, however, more stars visible at my parents place. If you ever really want to see a LOT of stars at night? Come visit in the summer some time. A LOT OF STARS.
The food was excellent at the place, if slow in coming. Are you seeing a bit of a pattern here? This demonstrates my first rule of traveling in India - Everything takes longer than you think. If you think two hours, plan four. If you want a quick meal, find a place that sells snacks because as far as I can tell there really is no such thing. It isn't a bad thing but it can take some time to adjust to the pace of things and it can be frustrating if you're not ready for it.
The resort was eco friendly in that it was run off of solar power and all of the water was run through some sort of filtration system. Most of the rooms did not have air conditioning but I was in one of the ones that had. All of the rooms were themed and created by individual artists. The one I is really something Angel would have seriously appreciated. I will upload photos. I promise.
I watched the sun come up on Friday and we sat out in the sun. Did a whole lot of not much until later in the day. We went into Pondichery proper for dinner. Which involved a lot of walking around in crazy stupid heat and buying souveniers and things. Eventually, with the help of an awesome cool American ex-patriot, we found a good place to eat, even though we were too late for lunch and too early for dinner. (Dinner starts at about 7, apparently.) That evening the road down by the water and the statue of Ghandi was blocked off and there was some sort of festival thing going on. It was cool but we were all feeling a bit worn out and tired by that point.
I also had a yoga lesson as well as a head massage. I enjoyed both. I was sore from the yoga and the head (and full body massage I didn't enjoy quite as much) involved strange oils of different scents. The head massage oil smelled something like molasses and the body one smelled more like Vicks Vapo-rub. Not a bad thing at all but... an interesting thing.
The drive back up from the resort to the airport was done in the dark and took to ECR (East Coast Road) back up the Chennai. If you're looking for adventure, a night drive on an insanely dark road in a country where a lot of large trucks don't have functional headlights should be right up your alley. Especially when you're trying to pass everyone slower than you and there are plenty of semi-bland curves. It was a trip for the memory books, let me tell you that.
Security in India and in Germany is so much more intense than it is here. I went through four seperate security checks on the way home. And I'm sure someone would get sued for the extent some of them went to if they were tried here in the states. I found some excellent snacks which I shall HAVE to find a place to order them from here. Because they're excellent.
And... I think that's it until I figure out the whole strategy for pictures.
Oh and does anyone have a Netflix sort of membership recommendy thing they'd like to pass my way?
And I like the theme song remix here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FldGcdLgjgg![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
