We left Goa via the busride of death. There's no train from Goa directly to Bangalore, so we had no choice but to catch the bus. We assumed the luxurious way to do this would be on an overnight sleeper bus... we were wrong! Our berth was above the seats so there was very little space above our heads, and of course the beds weren't long enough to lie flat - this meant that David didn't even have enough space to lie on his back without his knees touching the roof! And it was cold too.
But we made it to Bangalore, to find that our train options to Kerala were nil. And our preferred accommodation options were full. Reluctantly trusting our rickshaw driver, we let him take us to his recommended hotel. This turned out to be ok, with two exceptions: it was next to a Mosque, which in itself is fine, but it means that at 5am every morning the neighbourhood is woken to the sound of distorted Muslim prayers blasted out of loudspeakers (and wild dogs yelping in complaint); Our room also appeared to be a part of the neighbour's chimney, so our lungs were full of smoke, and our clothes still are. By the time we'd settled in, we also noticed that the room opposite ours was full of little plastic bags of white powder... All in all, an interesting (but cheap) place.
Bangas itself was ok. The main tourist attraction was apparently MG (Mahatma Gandhi) road, however this had recently been dug up to make way for the new metro line, so there was nothing really of interest to us, except the adjoining street Brigade road, which had some great shopping. We met up with some more of Sophie's family, attended the science & technology museum (where Sophie was the main attraction to everyone else) and wandered through the botanical gardens (where again we were a novel sight).
We caught the bus to Mysore, thankfully only 3 hours away, and the scenery was fantastic. Mysore is pretty much just a gorgeous palace. It was really pretty, even though we were sceptical of visiting yet another palace. We only spent a few days in Mysore.
Now we're in Pondicherry, after only 2 train rides and a bus. Pondy (again, not our choice of nickname) was originally a French colony so the streets, shops and restaurants are very european, a welcome change. We constantly comment on how the street with only 20 people and 5 rickshaws is so quiet and peaceful. On top of this, we have a room with a coconut-palm laden ocean view. And a wharf, which makes for good photographing.
We spent today wandering through the shops, which offer a far better range and quality of crafts than we've seen in all of India so far, relieving our fears of not having time to find good souvenirs. But we may have to get creative with our packing...
We plan on staying here until the 27th, when we head just up the coast to a village called Mamallapuram, which sounds like a small, more Indian version of Pondy. After this, home sweet home. For Sophie: David has to try and find a home in Melbourne.
