Day 92 – Hers
It’s a bit of a shame that all we saw of Pondicherry
yesterday was one windswept street in the French colonial quarter, a few
streets of shops shuttered against the cyclone and flooded from the heavy rain
and the inside of our ‘Heritage’ hotel – for ‘Heritage’, read old, leaky and
lacking any amenities..... We had been told that it was a lovely small city –
and it was a bit disappointing. The
cyclone actually hit landfall back in Mallapuram where we had been yesterday
morning – so we even missed out on that experience. Never mind – I had hoped
that we might at least drive through a bit more of the town on the way to the
train station this morning – but after breakfast we just loaded up the bus and
drove straight out of town to Villapuram where we caught the train to Madurai.
At least it wasn’t raining!
We had for some reason been booked in sleeper carriages –
and the Indian couple in our carriage decided to stretch out and sleep on the
bottom bunks. Rob and TJ, who had been
given top bunks were okay – they just climbed up. Lisle and I had a bit of a
problem – we were assigned middle bunks: the ones that are folded up for
daylight travel. Lisle moved over to the aisle bunks with Kylie and Sam, which
left me having to squash myself into an uncomfortable corner in between a
stretched out Indian woman and a metal ladder.
I couldn’t see out the window – so I can’t comment on the scenery – but
I think it was mainly rice paddies, sugar cane and groves of coconut
palms. I just read my book, occasionally
trying to shift position enough that my bum didn’t go numb.
After 5 hours, I asked Rob to trade with me and I climbed up
to the top bunk where I could at least stretch out a bit. Apparently our guide had bought a bottle of
rum that he passed around the drinkers in the group down at the other end of
the train – they became quite merry and I think one girl promised herself in
marriage to one of the stewards on the train.... whatever.
We were met by a velvet lined (and mosquito infested) tour
bus at Madrai station and delivered to our hotel which is on the outskirts –
but has all the amenities our last two hotels were lacking: clean sheets and
bathrooms and wifi being the most important.
I straight away sat in the lobby making sure all my family in NY made it
through Hurricane Sandy and notifying them that we survived Cyclone Nilam. Perhaps we should all communicate via The
Weather Channel.......
Day 92 – His.
After settling in to the hotel we were supposed to get
together for dinner. To be honest we are a bit tired of our group and wanted to
go it alone. Three others had similar feelings so we went off to town to eat.
(We later found out the rest of the group seems to consider the five of us as
snobs – fair enough – I think they are drunks and children.)
Dinner was on a rooftop hotel, so the setting was good, the
food pleasant and the service appalling. It took ages to get our food and we
only got served after we had complained to the manager. Ah well, sometimes bad
things happen to nice people! We got back to the hotel via tuk tuks and a hair
raising dash through the traffic. The tuk tuk drivers really bring meaning to
the phrase – bat out of hell. All in all a bit of a tiresome day but then it
was a travel day and they are never the best.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.