Weekend in three sentences:
"Bread bread, mr. bread, bread breaded bread? "
"French Quarter? Pshh, more like the French Eighth..."
"Is that East of Pondicherry?....don't overthink that one..."
AKA
Weekend of lovely company, endless good laughs, French food, colorful houses on winding streets, a little bit of beach action, and a spontaneous adventure to a mountain and a temple.
Hotel with a beach view. Check.
French food. check.
Wonderful company in wonderful little beachside neighborhoods: check.
Thiruvannamalai.
A random adventure that consisted of:
"Hey. Want to leave Pondy the last night?"
"Sure. Where to?"
"I dunno, open Lonely Planet."
"Thiruvannamalai....want to go here?"
"What's there?"
"Annamalaiyar Temple, one of the biggest Shivaite temples in India, and Arunachala Hill, where legend has it Shiva appeared as a column of fire."
"Yeah. sounds cool. let's go."
Thing about India, spontaneity seems to work wonders for travel.
After a three hour bus ride, we found a tiny hotel, dropped our stuff, and went exploring. We encountered wonderfully happy people, like these guys that threw colored powder all over us in honor of Ganesh:
The Annamalaiyar Temple was incredibly impressive. One of the biggest in India. (You can spot it in the background below.)
We climbed Arunachala Hill and found a cave. Still not sure if it was one of the caves we were supposed to find. But interesting nonetheless:
I think part of my insanity last week was a result of being in a loud crazy noisy polluted busy megacity for too long with no break.
Pondicherry was beautiful and relaxed and happy and clean and small and colorful and lovely, even outside of the ridiculously touristy and white-people-filled French Quarter.
And though Thiruvannamalai was noisy and crazy, it was much smaller than Hyderabad, and set in the middle of nowhere, and had that small(ish)-town happy feel, and the combination of these cities and the beautiful people I traveled with made me really unwind.
and breathe.
and realize that I only have two and a half months left here.
so I damn well better make the most of it.
and that I damn well better make the best of everything, actually.
Ahh India. you have the most complicated ways of teaching me lessons.
"Bread bread, mr. bread, bread breaded bread? "
"French Quarter? Pshh, more like the French Eighth..."
"Is that East of Pondicherry?....don't overthink that one..."
AKA
Weekend of lovely company, endless good laughs, French food, colorful houses on winding streets, a little bit of beach action, and a spontaneous adventure to a mountain and a temple.
Hotel with a beach view. Check.
French food. check.
Wonderful company in wonderful little beachside neighborhoods: check.
Thiruvannamalai.
A random adventure that consisted of:
"Hey. Want to leave Pondy the last night?"
"Sure. Where to?"
"I dunno, open Lonely Planet."
"Thiruvannamalai....want to go here?"
"What's there?"
"Annamalaiyar Temple, one of the biggest Shivaite temples in India, and Arunachala Hill, where legend has it Shiva appeared as a column of fire."
"Yeah. sounds cool. let's go."
Thing about India, spontaneity seems to work wonders for travel.
After a three hour bus ride, we found a tiny hotel, dropped our stuff, and went exploring. We encountered wonderfully happy people, like these guys that threw colored powder all over us in honor of Ganesh:
The Annamalaiyar Temple was incredibly impressive. One of the biggest in India. (You can spot it in the background below.)
We climbed Arunachala Hill and found a cave. Still not sure if it was one of the caves we were supposed to find. But interesting nonetheless:
I think part of my insanity last week was a result of being in a loud crazy noisy polluted busy megacity for too long with no break.
Pondicherry was beautiful and relaxed and happy and clean and small and colorful and lovely, even outside of the ridiculously touristy and white-people-filled French Quarter.
And though Thiruvannamalai was noisy and crazy, it was much smaller than Hyderabad, and set in the middle of nowhere, and had that small(ish)-town happy feel, and the combination of these cities and the beautiful people I traveled with made me really unwind.
and breathe.
and realize that I only have two and a half months left here.
so I damn well better make the most of it.
and that I damn well better make the best of everything, actually.
Ahh India. you have the most complicated ways of teaching me lessons.
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