By Reita Hutagalung, Global MBA student 2013-2013, Indonesia
After we reached the hostel, we rushed to take showers to freshen up
and then went to the recommended French bakery. The pastries spared our
tongues the pain of missing French bread and we were ready to discover
the city.
Pondicherry was recently renamed as Puducherry in 2006, taken from
the Tamil language, which means “New Town”. It’s a Union
Territory of India formed from four enclaves of former French India and
named after the largest, Pondicherry, which was known as “The French
Riviera of the East” (La Côte d’Azur de l’Est). The town is
divided into two sections: the French Quarter (Ville Blanche or ‘White
town’) and the Indian quarter (Ville Noire or ‘Black Town’.) Many
streets are still named with French names and French-style villas are a
common sight in the French part of town. The main sights to see were a
32 km coastline, palm-fringed beaches, fishing villages, beach resorts,
the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the Mahatma Gandhi statue, the international
city of Auroville, and churches and temples within the city. After
discovering some of the historical sites, we wanted to go to the beach
called Paradise Island. But before that, we wanted to have a good lunch!
In Pondicherry there are many French restaurants because I think that
there are still many French people living in Pondicherry. That hot
afternoon, we went to a restaurant called La Maison Rose and it was
perfect! Set in the backyard of a house, the eating place was in the
middle of a little garden shaded by trees. Several plants and flowers
were set beautifully and jazz music played softly, brought in the
relaxed feeling after going around the city under the scorching hot sun.
We rushed to order drinks to re-hydrate ourselves and then moved on to
satisfy our grumbling stomachs. The owner of the restaurant was so nice
and came to meet us in person to take our orders. When the food came,
they were just perfect! We were re-energized to continue our journey
around Pondi.
We had to cross the water in a boat to get to the island. In order
to get to the boat hub, we had to ride in a motor rickshaw (called “oto”
in India). That in itself was another unique experience for some of our
friends who come from western countries where rickshaws are not common.
With little knowledge of the actual price, we confidently bargained for
three rickshaws; after some (if not little, hahaha) success in
bargaining, we took off. The island was not far from the hub and it took
the boat around 15 minutes. Unfortunately, we arrived too late in the
afternoon, so although some of us swam in the sea, we couldn’t play
volleyball since they wouldn’t give out balls with the boat waiting to
go back. Another oddity was that we spotted several signs not to swim in
the water, but people were swimming. So with no swimming (by rule) and
no volleyball, there was little to do besides hanging out in a little
shop. Not much of paradise, as it turned out. Coming back to the city,
we closed the day with another amazing dinner at a place called Madame
Shanti, a fine dining restaurant. Food-wise it was just superb, superb,
superb!
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