We took our first indian plane. It was so good to have more legs space than in European internal flight, even if the seats were a little bit less comfy, but a truly little less. It was only 2-hour flight but had the surprise of having dinner on board, even if it tasted like food plane.

At Chennai airport, we queued for duty but, when we arrived at the desk, the officer told us we didn't have to because we were travelling on a domestic flight. At least, we know it for the next time. We then bought a prepaid taxi, non A/C one but we thus enjoyed the fresh, smelling air through the open windows of the car, which looked like a very old type you only see now in movies. We also discovered the city by night, illuminated with colourful lightings.

Another good surprise was the hotel. It's really bigger than the one in Mumbai, so is the room. And we got kind of hot water in the shower, not enough to burn you but still more pleasant than pure cold water. The only true black point is an A/C making much more noise than in the last hotel but it changes us from all the Mumbai horning. The exterior also seems quite nice but I can't say more as we haven't seen it yet in daylight, arriving too late yesterday and leaving too early this morning. 

We actually woke up at 4.30 to take a bus to Pondicherry, which is, for the less cultured of us, the old French colony. The driver didn't take us to the right bus station but we still managed to find someone who could bring us where we wanted to, reason why we took a semi public bus, with no A/C, windows wide open to allow air to get through. The journey is approximately 3h30 long and the seats are not as comfortable as we could hope but at least we got seat (some people were standing in the middle of the row during most of the jouney) and Mum could rest a bit.

The arrival in Puducherry matched every other arrivals we've done so far : it seems like you've been jerked out somewhere, without any indication and the crowd looking at you, not helping you even if, as today, we looked completely lost, only speaking to us to ask if we need a taxi. But small unpleasant things like that one can actually be avoided with right gps and good internet connection. I can only credit here my dad and his insistance on installing India's maps on the phone. So 'nandri' as we say in tamil.

Thanks to our super heavy 4G SIM card, we were all set for something called the 'botanical garden', a site strangely (at that time) not mentioned in our guide. And we realized why when we reached it. I won't say everything was bad, there's actually quite a few interesting ideas put in the park but the majority seems lacking of common European sense, with garbage littering everywhere and no sign of caring for plants and trees left to display by the French biologists in colonial times.The lotus ponds (cleary indicated) were more looking like a muddy paddle from which some lotuses try to carve their way out. The rare specimens cactus which the flyer received at the entrance was speaking, were in deadly state. But enough of the bad things ! When you arrive to make abstraction of the dirt, you can perfectly enjoy green peace in the center of the city, and feel the strength of centenary trees.

We left the botanical garden a bit disappointed and hurried up to the beach, enjoyed coastal wind while trying not to cross unfortunately the path of crazy motormen and rickshaw wallas, much more present than in Mumbai. It's was not, once again, a real beach like the one we're used too. The sand seems like stone in process of being sand while it was giving way to rocks drowning into the sea. It was very pleasant as the street aling the beach street is a car-restrited area, combined with the fact that the water was clean (not blue but still, no garbage on site).

As we didn't have proper breakfast (one madeleine each and no tea) we decided to move on for some brunch at Cafe des Arts, recommended by the guide. It was already crowded but the waiting for a seat worth the price. The cafe is located in the court of an old mansion, with many plants outside. We ordered fresh juices with bananas, grapes and lemon, as well as sweet crepes and fruit salade. Yummy !

Meals finished, we set up for the beach once again and we came face to face with a giant statue of Gandhi, which has never been mentioned anywhere but which was pretty, within a circle of columns decorated with indian theme panels. After this good surprise, we went to a Hindu temple but could only see the exteriors as it was closed and as foreigners were not allowed inside.

To conclude our trip to pondicherry, we went to 'l église de l immaculée conception'', and Chloe just felt down a swamp. She's fine, except for big bruises on the legs, but we both laugh at that now. As she said, there are battle wounds. The church was closed, but we enjoyed the small place just before it to click picture.

For our journey back to Chennai, we jumped in a public bus that was, to our great pleasure, following the coast. We crossed brigdes, saw rice plantations and followed the green path made by luxurious trees. We gladfully arrive at the hotel to shower then went out to eat in some reputated catering of the city. Joelle took some parantha mixed with vegetables and Chloe ordered idli and dosa, everything stamped south indian food.

On 23rd, we woke up with omelette and chae, trying to find courage to go to the train station as we bought a wrong ticket the day before. We were arriving in Mumbai at the time would have landed in Brussels. We were disappointed as we thought not to be reimbursed for our mistake. We were happily surprised when the man at the desk found us a ticket at 150 rps ...taking a discount into account. 

We then went to Marine Drive which is similar to our coast line without sand dunes or beach. After a short  walk, we reached our destination: Taraporewala Aquarium. It was ... Nice. The aquariums were small and there was no effort to recreate natural environment, at least for European standards. But we saw fishes we never saw before, like the alligator fish, a strange hybrid mix between a crocodile and a fish. 

In the afternoon, we booked a taxi to go to the Global Pagoda, a center of meditation which cupola rises at 96 m high. The roof of the building is covered with gold and diamonds. The place was also very nice because it was out of the city, so there was no crowd, no dirt, no horning. Once again, we played models for Indian people but as there was few visitors, we could still enjoy the full visit.

At night, we went to a small restaurant and enjoyed a thali which is a plate served with several dishes, rice and bread called paratha. As it was a local restaurant, we practiced eating without cutleries. It was fun and, cherry on the cake, it was cheap. It was a bit awkward because we were the only women in the place.

The nextday, we woke up early, tydied our room, and packed our stuff because it is our last day in Mumbai. As the plane was in the afternoon, we went shopping in the morning at the place called Mangaldas Market, a kind of indoor bazaar. The shops are around 1 m above ground and the sellers are sitting on mattress which cover the floor. We plan to buy a kurta in every city we visit and ... Mission accomplished in Mumbai.

On the way back to the hotel, we bought not-that-spicy samosa and jelabis, sweet dish made maybe exclusively of sugar. Mum (Joelle) qualified them as deliciously sugary. She loved them a lot, so she will eat a lot of them and get fat. We are now on our way to Chennai, enjoying the AC of the airport.

Chloe and Joelle

Ps : sorry about the lack of pictures, we had to write this article twice and didn't have the courage to upload the pictures.

r

After a difficult waking up and a fast breaking made a tea and omelette with fried onions, we set up to the train station to buy our numerous train tickets. Mummy was not attentive when scanning the passport so she scanned her Russian and my 2013 one. So we had to twice to the office in thevmiddle of the day, sweating our life.hot.

 Then we went to visit the gateway of india, which quite similar to a huge triumph arch but with hindou and arabic architectural influences. The gateway is actually the entrance to elephanta island, or more precisely the entry to the boat which took us to the island.

 The journey took.about one hour, and it was sunny but windy at the same time, so it was super cool. It started to rain when we reached the island but it was still.fine as the rain is hot. As the rain grew stronger, we started to climbed the slippery stairs up to the caves, because the elephanta island hosts temples dug in mountain. 

 There were typical tourist shop on both sides of the stairs, but we didn't have time to.shop because we took.the boat a little bit late and had only one hour on site. When we arrived at ticket office, he started to rain but it was still ok. We visited the first cave and it was super nice. It's actually decorated with carved statues of approximately five meters high but were not as illuminated as I wished for pictures. The sky was getting grey so only some light was entering the cave.

 We started to walk to visit the second cave when we encountered the beginning of what we did know at that time was a monsoon rain. We clicked some pictures then decided to the boat in order not to miss the last one. 

 It's when the real monsoon decided to express itself. Fully. We think all the rain of Belgium fell in twinty minuts. We took refuge under a rotonde with other indian people and as usual, and because we're so famous, some just clicked pictures with us. It's a bit awkward but we finally got used to that.

 The rain not willing to stop, we were forced to run in the heavy rain. We were soaked to the bones, but we found time to eat some grilled corns. With lemon. So yummy.we went back to the hotel after our first bargaining with taxi and let dry ourselves before making plan for tomorrow 

Packing Hell day ... for the pleasure of traveling to India and finally meet the people who looked after my daughter. Last checkings for flight tickets, hotels, making sure weight limit is respected (the correct one - I managed to mix the pounds and the kgs on the scale ;>), etc. Everything went into the bags, some items are still lying on the floor though ... Cannot wait to get on the plane tomorrow morning!!!!!

Joëlle

The mother ensuring all the papers are right! and typing up an itinerary for Chloé's dad