Feeling like a local for a night

The most touristy thing I did in Pondicherry
(Yes, that is a statue of Gandhi in the background...)



Pondicherry was once a French colony. I think it is important to note the past tense clause here. Now, Pondicherry is another Indian town (which many say is by far the most corrupt in Indian for reasons I shall discuss later) with a French quarter. Well, I went there to escape India for a day, so I went directly to the French quarter! I passed GO! I collected my $200 and hung out in the french quarter for a full 24 hours. As soon as the train arrived into the station I hired a cab and told him to take me to a nice restaurant, a nice french restaurant. He asked me where I'm coming from I said I live in Chennai. That was key. I did my little spiel in Tamil and he was overjoyed to take me to the good restaurant. He dropped me off at a place called Rendevous. If that doesn't scream French, then "How ya doin'" doesn't scream Philly. So I gladly go up to a beautiful little rooftop restaurant in the palm branch shade and proceed to order the most expensive lunch I've had in India. I paid THIRTEEN DOLLARS. What the hell is that matter with me? That's more than a full day's wages. Who cares, I needed some spoiling. I had a fresh avocado and tomato salad with olive oil, fish and chips, and a big bottle of Carlsberg.
(I should mention, that Carlsberg is not much of an improvement over Kingfisher, but it has good sentimental value from my days in Atlanta.)

I was sitting by myself and a German woman was sitting by herself next to me, so we decided lunch at a cafe should be more social and we joined at a table and had a pleasant lunch. She happened to be staying at some Ashram outside of the city because it was cheap. I was there to drink and sit on the beach and drink tea and not do any religious type stuff. We said our goodbyes and in total southern indian style there was not even an introductory handshake, in fact there were no introductions at all, just lunchtime small talk. But it was nice to have a relaxed lunch in that way.

On to the next mission: sitting at a bar enjoying myself like normal. I decided to just walk around to see what was going on. I didn't have a hotel or anything, so I walked up the beach (wherein there is no swimming or any beach like activities allowed not even BB guns!). I turned a corner when I saw a book shop, but got distracted en route by a bar. An englishman was sitting there and I knew I'd come to the right place. He was simply a patron, but a friend of the owner who was eating lunch and so he got me a beer himself. We chatted for quite some time and during that time (wednesday mid afternoon) an australian, a german, and another english bloke showed up. I was told in the evenings there is a very nice bar on the roof. So I paid for my drinks thanked the gentlemen and found a hotel. Super sexy posh boutique hotel called the Richmond. I splurged and spent about $60 on the room. In Indian money that's 5 days wages. I took a nap, ate dinner at a fancy "asian" restaurant. I thought that was a bit unusual to have a restaurant labeled as Asian here in south asia, but I just go with the fact that I don't know anything about anything and enjoy the meal.

After dinner I headed back to my afternoon digs and climb up to the roof to find a bevy of foreigners! I sat down with one of the englishmen from earlier in the afternoon with a crew of his mates; two Danes and a Canadian. Had a normal evening type conversation and went "late" into the night. We left at closing. By that I mean to say we got our asses kicked the hell out at a quarter of 11. That was the most disappointing part, but hey I felt like a local for a while. The Englishmen both live in Pondicherry now and informed me this is the only bar of this style in Pondicherry of which they're aware. So I found a real winner just by putzing around. That made me feel even more local. I was asked to come back the next night, but alas I'd decided to return to Chennai to get back to work the next day. I'm still asking myself why...