XVIII – Pondicherry

As I get more settled in my job and in the city I feel more comfortable taking weekend vacations that are farther away than 50 km. This weekend, Lex and me went to Pondicherry.

Pondicherry is a former French city, it is located in a part of India that was a French colony. Hence, we saw a lot of French and European architecture in the city center.

Pondy is also surprisingly clean. There are public garbage cans on almost every street corner, a phenomenon that I have not seen anywhere else in India. In fact, I have not seen a single public trash can anywhere in Bangalore (one that does not belong to a shop or restaurant). Another frequent view in the city are garbage pickers that separate the garbage properly into four different categories. The city center is a very clean place that reminded me a lot of home. As the streets and buildings are so properly maintained I did not even mind that the city is also full of tourists.

A public park

Seaside houses - almost looks like a small city in France.

Not far from the train station (about 30 minutes walking distance) is the beach, offering an amazing view on the Bay of Bengal. This is where we spent most of our weekend.

We did not, of course, stay on the most crowded beach in the middle of the city but on a smaller, more local beach about 8 km south. As soon as we left the neat city center Indian reality struck us once again: The beach was all rocks and full of garbage. The fishermen living next on the shore on the outskirts of the city used the Bay of Bengal as a garbage dump and bathroom – yummy! We had to get quite a ways away from the city until the beach was acceptably clean, meaning it was not full of garbage anymore but still full of human feces.

Rocks, garbage, feces and goats right next to the beautiful sea

The fishermen's houses

As we crossed a little harbor I even saw a fisherman taking a dump in the water. He sat on the boat, let his rear hang over the railing and... well, I guess you can imagine the rest. It was pretty gross. I really wanted to have jumped into the water and just swam all day. My motivation to do exactly that ceased immediately.

A little improvised place of worship at the fishermen's settlement 

Luckily, the spot on the beach we found later on had was directly at the open ocean, which meant that at least the feces are washed away and smashed in the waves immediately, distributed in the whole ocean, not gathering on the shore. So, we did get to play in the waves a lot :)

Playing in the waves and fresh, cheap fish from the local fishermen (1 Euro per kilo) made our stay worthwhile and made us forget at least for a while that there are people who use this beautiful ocean as their bathroom.

Lex carrying the inner tube for playing in the water

Fresh fish! :)

And lost of crabs

Staying the night on the beach was yet a different experience. The local fishermen were very convinced that the spot we wanted to stay at was infested by snakes and that their settlement, which was situated only 50 meters from our spot. According to the locals, the bright spotlight that lights their village made all the difference of keeping animals away. They came and talked to us four times and even brought a translator to try and discourage us from sleeping on the beach at that particular spot. I got a few mosquito bites during that night because we did not have a tent but I did not find any snake bites on me in the morning.

The fishermen's boats close to our camping spot.

Watching the sun rise over the Bay of  Bengal

I would highly recommend seeing Pondicherry. It is very clean, has beautiful architecture, the sea is right there and the fish is super fresh. Especially if you stay in the city center it is a great place for vacationing and adventure awaits you just outside the city.

The obligatory garbage pickup - always leave a place better than you found it!