Pondy: Huhhhuhuh oui oui!!!

Bonjour from PONDY!
We only went out for dinner last night in Pondy but it was yummy. Whenever we have attempted to eat western food in India it has ended poorly, I guess it serves us for not " when-in-rome-ing". But this resto named "Le Feu du Bois" made great pizzas. Then today Ryan and I toured around in an autorickshaw to see the major sights here. Sadly there were a few reasons this didn't go very well: 1, driver barely spoke English so when I asked for an art gallery we got a novelty store called Gallery or something like that...but at least he hit all the major spots. 2, it rained a lot of today. 3, the botanical garden has no flowers and most of it was off limits for no apparent reason. 4, we chose the worst time to see everything: lunch time. This means nothing was open except one or two churches.

On the plus, we did get to see the French side of town, which really is quite lovely. The rest of Pondy looks similar to the rest of India, but the roads are wider and made of brick. We will go visit the Sri Aurobindo Ashram tonight since it was closed at lunch, wish us luck getting in this time.

For now we are at the coolest place (as far as "western" places go) Coffee.Com. This place has a few things that made us feel the comforts of home: fresh warm baguettes, coffee, green tea, and delicious homemade chocolate ice cream. It also has internet and dvds to watch. We watched the ever-watchable Love Actually (here's to you Isa and Vero!!!)

Well, we'll be off to the ashram now, a la prochaine!!
Leanne
apparently 10% of the population here is french-speaking...nuts!

Week 4 continued: Mamallapuram

Hello.
Just a quick note to let you know our 16-hour train to Chennai went smoothly-ish, and we arrived today around 11am. We headed straight for the buses to Mamallapuram (a last-minute addition to our itinerary). We got here at about 3pm and took a tour of the important sites. This little town is a great tourist town since it's all artists here. It is amazing seeing all these beautiful marble and stone sculptures being made on the side of the roads.

Tomorrow we will do a bit of shopping and wandering around here, then we are on a bus to Pondicherry to take in the French-Indian culture for two days. After that, back to Chennai.

I'll let you know all that happens in Pondy soon...

bisous,
Leanne

Atheists for Silence

I've lived long enough to know this about myself: I need silence.

In India there is a severe shortage of silence in general. However, if you are so lucky as to adhere to any religion, then you have the luxury here of a choice of thousands of mosques, temples and churches to visit, where you, my holy friend, may find peace.

But where am I to go?

I have given this some thought, though not much thought because my brain hardly has a second to process anything amid the crashing waves of noise that contsantly abuse me, and I have realized that there is nowhere for non-believers to go to meditate, in other words, we have no mute button.

The library, you may have thought, could be a place for us, but we all know everybody fights the silence there.

So this is my solution. I am starting a movement called Atheists for Silence, in India and other sonically overwhelming places. I would love to create a place where we can go to celebrate silence. Unlike many holy places though, there is only one rule. I do not care what you wear, who you swore at, or who you've killed, I only care that you make the least amount of noise humanly possible. It will not be taboo to not acknowledge the people in this place, because it would be understood that we are all appreciating our solitude, together.

So who's in?
(the statements made in this entry are based on actual fact but the Atheists for Silence movement is purely fiction...please do not react)

Week 4 Begins: Happy Halloween

Hellooo!
This is what has happened since yesterday, or the last time I wrote...yyeeeeash I have trouble remembering what day it is here...

We left Suma's family today..larme! And I never got to do a backwaters boat ride because all of the coastal towns/backwaters flooded because of the monsoon rain. On the plus side, during my voyage to find a good place to see the backwaters I paid a visit to Varkala Beach. I was blown away, but we only saw it for about 20 minutes and had to move on. But just my luck, since the backwaters were cancelled out, and Ryan wanted to go back home cause he's not feeling well, I got to go back and spend the day alone at the most beautiful beach yet.

Varkala Beach (and I'm only telling you this because I know you'll keep it a secret) is the best tourist spot so far. For one thing, the air was actually breathable. I have this cough that will not go away, and the air in India isn't helping, but yesterday I could breathe. Secondly, there are not a tonne of tourists here because this water is pretty violent so it is kind of hard to swim there (that is the one and only down side). The beach lies directly beneath these gorgeous red cliffs, and on the top of the cliffs are all the little shops and restos where you can watch the sunset perfectly (and I did). The other major difference that sets Varkala apart, is the lack of loud noise. I will write a separate blog about silence in India, but the gist is that there is nowhere to go that is quiet here. The main reason being that, without exaggeration, cars all use their horns as signals instead of lights, and if you have ever experienced driving anywhere like India, you'll understand why the horns are constant.

Varkala is set aside from large roads so the noise pollution is minimal. Man, I really needed a day to rest my brain, and I got it. Oh, and a minor sunburn :)

Now we are waiting to take a train overnight to Chennai and then we're off to more beaches in Pondicherry (which hopefully aren't spoiled by monsoon weather as well, we'll see)

A bientot mes cher(e)s!
Leanne