The sweetness of Southern India circuit (Day 7 afternoon) - On the way to Puducherry; brief walk around the city Patel Salai area - The 17th of February 2015

We drove towards Puducherry, (the home town of our guide) with fields of rice stretching for kilometres along the road.

Upon having reached hotel Atithi and checked in we were given an "appointment" late  in the afternoon, which still allowed us to "explore" the area surrounding the hotel on our own. Pascal, Carole and I ventured into the side streets stopping at several shops in and out of a shopping mall close by, as well as some local super markets to "pry" onto the available goods inside.


There is no doubt that part of getting to know a city is also having the possibility to "slip" into the normal day-to-day life of the local people and passively observe what is going on around. The only problem was that this time the three of us went out of the hotel without having written down or memorised its name and when we had to get into a tuk-tuk to drive back in time for the appointment we had to rely on our "direction" memory, which the driver found to be rather amuzing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ended up buying a silk coat and two long India-type shirts I instantly "fell in love with" before joining Sagar for a stroll along the coastline and a welcome drink at a local Hotel.

It had been a long day ... we had "covered" 180 kilometres since early morning and despite the culturally interesting stops along the way (encouraging enough to make us forget how tired we were) the moment I got back to the hotel room I felt like throwing myself onto the bed and going to sleep without (even) undressing myself ... that's how tired I was ...