A food vendor
Pondicherry was lame. I don’t know, maybe if you were going to an ashram or had more money to spend on accommodation you would like it, but for us budget travelers it is definitely lame.
There was a decent waterfront walkway filled with locals and a nice park close by, but walking by an open sewer and
The waterfront
trash dump to get to our hotel was kind of a downer. There were not many budget hotel options in general and they were all clustered together in the same run-down area without really any good restaurants nearby.
Pondicherry supposedly is filled with great french architecture, but when we did the ‘heritage walk’ our guide book recommends we came across one and one half streets that had a french feel, but it seemed very artificial. The buildings looked like they had been bought by rich ex-pats and turned into bistros and expensive craft stores. It looked sort of like the Fifth Street Market at home in Eugene, Oregon.
The best thing that happened in Pondicherry was that Andy finally bought a new shirt and pair of shorts on the streets there. He was really starting to need them.
3 responses so far ↓
saurabh somani // March 21, 2009 at 5:36 am |
pondicherry seems lame at first sight, but there’s a lot to discover!
am a resident (and have been for most of my life), and i still discover newer things about pondicherry!
Andy // March 21, 2009 at 7:19 am |
Saurabh,
I hope you didn’t take offense to our assessment of your hometown. We were only there for a couple days, so our opinions are based just on what we saw in that short time; we certainly don’t claim to be experts. We were, however, surprised about the lack of attraction the town had for us, given the amount of hype we’d read in our guidebooks and such. Maybe one day we’ll have a chance to explore it further and maybe change our minds. Cheers! Andy and Denae
saurabh somani // March 27, 2009 at 2:13 am |
Oh no Andy, no offense taken at all!
i understand how it can come across as drab – just meant to say that if you know where to go, and what to look for, Pondicherry might seem a like a better place!
cheers