Pondicherry

Although very small, Pondicherry was the largest French colony in India.

As we arrived just after 4am we had plenty of time to kill before we could begin looking for accomodation so we decided to walk from the bus station to the White Town. Seriously, yes, the western area is called the White Town and the Indian area the Black Town. When getting off the bus the smog in the air was ridiculous. Along the way we saw hundreds of piles of rubbish being burned. I'm not sure if it was to keep people warm or to get rid of it but it wasn't at all pleasant.

When we finally arrived at the beach we pitched up a spot and Will went for a lie down while I sat and read keeping an eye on the luggage. It was a long long long morning... Eventually it was 7am so we checked at a recommended guesthouse for availability and they said come back at 8am. We did but they were full. Luckily he recommended another guesthouse just down the road and we were able to get a room there. Finally a bed!! As it was peak morning to be honest it wasn't at all peaceful so we both just napped on and off until it got too frustrating to sleep anymore. When we woke Will was in a lot of pain under his arms and he had huge red spots. They had appeared the other day but they were nowhere near as bad. Today is going to be a bit of an admin day first do our washing, then doctors, pharmacy to top up on our supplies and get a photo for our Myanmar Visa.

It was 2pm by the time we were out and we were dying of hunger and "When in France", so we went out for a luxury Chicken Mayo Baguette and a Mushroom, Spring Onion Grilled Toastie at Cafe des Arts. Bread heaven!!!

Cafe des Arts recommended to go to Clinic Nallam, to which we did and Will had all his medicine within the hour. Pretty good service I'd say.

Next stop was to find a passport photo shop. We tried to find quite a few on Google and none of them existed so eventually we just asked around and found one straight away. It took quite a while to make her understand that we don't need anything printed and that we need an electronic copy on our phones for the evisa. Eventually we got there and it was all sorted. We have 4 days to get our visa approved... Eek!

Now famished we were in search of something scrummy. We were wandering down the street and huge crowds were round Takka Pizza, well we couldn't say no could we. Initially it felt just like a Indian version of Pizza Hut, but actually the pizza wasn't too bad!

Far too tired and full to handle anything else we wandered home via the beach in need of a good sleep.Read more