Night trains and machine guns

We were sad to leave pondicherry, especially since I was sick for half of it, but tickets had been purchased and we had a night train to the tip of India from Chennai to catch. Catch it we did. We got to the station early had some great food and hopped on our train after. Shortly after we got on an armed guard got on and scoped out the car. As it happens some security people from the government were going the same way we were. We had an armed guard two compartments away for most of the journey. We could sleep at ease knowing that nothing would happen to us or our luggage.

www.IRCTC.co.in = Confusion

There are several ways to get tickets in India, which is convenient, however none of them are intuitive. Lets start with online reservations. First off a town may have more than one name, in the 1990s the government decided to make India more Indian by changing many of the names. Bombay became Mumbai, Pondicherry became Puducherry, Calcutta, Kolkatta to name a few, added to this the local name of the place may not be the official national name. This means I often get to do a wiki search to find out possible town names to find the station names. After I have the start station and end station I have to find out if a train actually goes between the stations or if there may have to be a junction, as the online system can’t figure that out. I have to search for each of 5 types of seats as some trains only have seats and some only have sleepers. After finally finding a train between the two stations I have to see if there are seats available, if there are I can reserve a ticket online. If not I have to pick a different day or get on the waitlist for a possible ticket later. To buy 2 tickets took me 6 hours in an internet café, granted I had to figure out plans and everything, but this gives you some idea. You can buy tickets at the station but there are lines and communication problems to deal with. At least at the internet café you can check the wiki for town names.

Pondicherry aka Pondy aka Puducherry

The morning of the 2nd we took a 4 hour bus ride to Pondicherry. It started at what's claimed to be the biggest bus station in asia, and I have to say it was HUGE. The bus ride went quick and we were pleasantly surprised at how pleasant the Pondicherry turned out to be. It was founded by the French and still had many influences including the architecture and naming. It turns out it also kept a large part of the cuisine and we enjoyed some wonderful sudo French food. Our stomachs enjoyed the bit of change and we spoiled ourselves with a bit of wine. We stayed the first night in a little ashram, which is kind of a place devoted to meditation and spirituality. The second night we spent in a more standard hotel, though there wasn’t much difference between the two except the ashram did have a wonderful garden.

The second day didn’t exactly turn out that great for me. I had great plans of showing Jenneli a wonderful little art bar/restaurant that served some fabulous French food and mojhitos. As it turned out I ended up getting a little sick. I had been fighting it for a week but the bug in my system won out and I had to take Imodium and antibiotics. I recovered but wasn’t up for too much so Jenneli went out on her own and gave me a wonderful surprise of Pizza Hut! I had wined the day before that we should get some but Jenneli wanted to try the local food, which turned out to be a great decision as we had some fantastic food. I really enjoyed the pizza hut and soda and went back to sleep. I’ll have to show her the art bar next time.