Pondicherry-September 2010

So soon after coming back from R&R, WAY back in September, my friend Amy is like-we have a long weekend, want to go somewhere?  I was like-sure, but I can't spend energy planning.  So she said-no problem!  We are going to Pondicherry!

So we did.  She got there a few days before I did, scoped the place, and we had a great girls only weekend.

I also shamelessly took some of her pictures from her blog.  And after reading her blog, I am going to incorporate some elements to jazz mine up.  You will see...

Amy's Favorite Photo

This is a great photo that Amy took.  She calls it a teaching photo because it is so rich with lessons.

The dog sign: reference to the men peeing on streets everywhere.  They just whip it out and go when nature calls.  We call them MORPS (Man on Road Peeing) thanks to Courtney and Scott.

There is also the French road sign with what I presume is the road name on it in Tamil

Trash everywhere

And items signifying a blessing or good wish gesture with marigolds and that red fruit.

Oh this is right by our B&B.

My Favorite Photo

I took this while walking on the boardwalk area near the ocean. 

 I love the message in the background-really the first place I have seen a public service announcement in English for wearing helmets.  

Very long tangent coming

 I am not sure if I have captured it in the blog, but folks here not only cram up to 5 people on a scooter, but maybe one (and usually the driver) is wearing a helmet.  Actually, one night we went through an intersection with a guy who had been hit on a motorcycle and he was lying in a pool of blood from his head.  I still get shivers when I go through that intersection.

Also, the dog just lying there too hot to move.  Total dog days of summer.  And of course Delhi has stray dogs everywhere.  Pondicherry less so.

Around town

A more modern graffiti.

You can tell this was once an amazing building, and has been a bit ruined

You can see how wide the streets are.  And relatively no one on it.  In full disclosure I took this around 2 and it was near 100 degrees, but still would NEVER see something this empty in Delhi.

This man is moving part of a sidewalk down the road.

Anyone need dentures made on the side of the road?

Bakery we stopped at on Sunday.  This is a French baker, with a British name/outside and Japanese inspired inside.

Our yummy pastries.

Amy in the bakery checking out the decor.

There is something wrong about this toilet sign.

Churches and other religious places

These were workers at one of the local churches.  They asked me to take their photo.

Outside of the church

Amy and I called this the Vegas churchbcause of all the neon signs and flashy lights.  It is hard to see in day, but it was awesome.  See the ticker running under the glowing lit up Jesus?

Mary is here in a sari.

Beach scene

Guys taking a nap on the boardwalk.

Trash, diesel back up generator, and the beach behind.                                   Vendors lining the beach.

A big tribute to Gandhi in the middle of everything.

Our Hotel Gratitude
We stayed at a nice place called Hotel Gratitude.  It is owned by two women who were just delightful.  They sat with us at breakfast and told us of their life journey to become hotel owners-free spirits who are fiercly independent and driven at the same time.  Imagine why I liked it?  It was really a highliht of the place.

Outside view

took this from a charming little seating area in the inner courtyard

Upstairs where our room was located.

Me in courtyard

The lovely courtyard.  Breakfast is in the doors on teh left, sitting area straight and also through the other door.  All outdoors and so lovely, quiet, peaceful.  Hard to find in a country of 1.2 billion.

Our delightful cook.  One of the innovations the owners have is to teach their staff many skills, and always work to develop them professionally.  Very different from what we have seen elsewhere where workers have skills that are very segmented and specific.  

Breakfast table.  Yummy jam included!

Ganesh

Our peaceful room.

Tokyo-Architecture Tour

The last day, despite our aching feet, we walked some more.  We did an architecture tour in the area of town known as Shinjuku, where we had gone to the tower top the day before.

Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower

The world's largest pendulum clock. Unfortunately, it was not running that day.

City Tower from the day before.  Such a great design.

Cute little ladybugs.  This was outside near the city towers.

One of the city towers

Japanese Johnny Depp playing the guitar. 

There was actually a music festival at the city towers, and it was awesome.

MEIJI SHRINE HARAJUKU

Entrance is near the bridge from day one, when we went with Yusuke. 

Dedicated to the spirits of Emperor Meiji and his consort, it is am impressive forest complex in the middle of the vibrant city.  This place was completely destroyed in WWII, and rebuilt soon thereafter.  For a bit more information, click here.

Main temple

People write their prayers and wishes to post here, for a nominal fee of course.

I really like these lamps

PEOPLE-WATCHING

As many of you know, one of my favorite things to do is people watch.  So we sat on a corner in fashionable Harajuku with a cold beer and watched the world go by.  Lots of individual fashion all over the fashion map!

An idea of what we were watching.

In kimono

GOODBYE TOKYO

Time to rest our feet!

Tokyo-the day we walked it all.

This was the walk all over the place day.  We clocked I think over 10 miles, starting with a temple, through the big samurai park, then to take the boat ride we didn't take the day before, and finally on to the street with many mini bars (only after getting lost in red light district).  Oh and don't forget the search for the Godzilla statue and the lost camera!

Click here for total route, including one boat ride, one metro ride.  Doesn't include all the wandering getting lost looking for Golden Gai or to/from train stations and mad sprints to recover items.

Before the play by play, here is my favorite photo of the day:

YASUKUNI SHRINE

This is the place at which war veterans are honored, and has seen controversy over some of the WWII who are honored here.  (Click here for a good synopsis).  There is no denying it is a beautiful site.

The old mixes with the new in the background.  Pretty impressive gate.

Carvings on the side

The grounds.

 

not sure what these are, but it looked cool.

THE PARK

The park in the middle of the city, this is where Kazuma was sure the big bad wolf samurai lived.

Make sure to leave your beer and dogs at home.  Not allowed in the park!!

Me by the entrance wall.  This wall is on the northeastern corner of the park.

A great view of the lake in the park

GODZILLA!

Ok, so when we were out with Pritham and the kids, Sandip was SURE he saw a sign for the Godzilla statue near where we walked.  After looking for at least 20 minutes, we decided to give up because it clearly was not there....

Sandip made his own statue and we decided to move on, a bit crestfallen.  But we decided to ask the really helpful street police and low and behold...

We found it!  See how huge and awesome this statue is!

ok, kind of tiny and lame.  but still worth it.

The Lost Camera...

After finding Godzilla, we stopped at a burger fast food joint and had a great burger.  I said-ok let's move the camera off the table so Angie the klutz doesn't spill her drink on it.  So we moved the camera to the table next to us.   And promptly left the camera there as we headed to our next destination.

We walked about 15 blocks. checked out a store, were about to get on the metro when Sandip said "you have the camera, right?"  Realizing neither of us had the camera, I sprinted back to the burger joint where the camera was sitting EXACTLY where we left it, camera chip in place.  Only in Japan, the place of super friendly people.  Actually, it could also Buffalo, NY.  Those people are awesome too.

Back to the Park

So we walk back to the park from the first day, and are finally going to take the boat ride.  This is the site we saw on the way:

People waiting to cross the street in the crosswalk!  What an unusual/non-existent site here in Delhi!

This is one of the few pictures we took before totally falling asleep. 

Weird modern building mixture across the street.

SENSO-JI TEMPLE-the big red lantern one

No we are not even close to done with the day yet.  

So next on the agenda is a Buddhist temple which is huge and awesome.  Kind of touristy area around it selling all sorts of cool things for the shopper.  I had some tasty sweets.  It is also where Sandip found the girl that used to hang from the mirror of his car in grad school.  So we started the search for a replacement.  We didn't find it, but got great shots of the temple, and cool gifts for the family.

Lantern at the entrance

The actual temple

Kind of creepy sculpture

It was a great time of day to see how the sun played on the colors

I really like how the design of this clock mirrors the design of the tower

TOKYO METRO GOVERNMENT TOWER-Seeing the skyline

We went to the city building where the city government towers are awesome to see the skyline.  We will return to this area for the architecture tour, but saw it this evening.  Nice.

Cool statue and view of these modern buildings

Skyline out the tower window

ALMOST DONE-the search for Golden Gai

So we went to a neighborhood that had the red light district, but also a place that in theory had rows and rows of back alleys with bar after bar called the Golden Gai (click here for details).  That is what we wanted to find.  But we found lots of other stuff first.

Sandip's secret reflexology business.

Singing and dancing fish sign

Men out on the street with 1980s Bon Jovi/androgynous hair.  Yes there were also salons in the neighborhood advertising this kind of hairdo. Love Bon Jovi as I do, not the hairstyle.

OMG more street that is not where we want to be-again still in red light area.  At this point I am about ready to scream my feet hurt so bad.  I am hobbling, Sandip is hobbling, the place we are looking for is clearly not on the map where we think it should be.  We are about ti give up.

HURRAH!! The cool back alley street with all these little bars to go into.  How to choose?

You choose the one with the female bartender of course!  She was really cool.  We went into a second one with a guy bartender who spent time in SW America. Too random.

Goodbye day of walking!