Anne and Maddy - Our Travel Adventures: Pondicherry & Tanjure

So sorry to hear bout the winter weather back home. When we started this tour with OAT, I forgot to tell you about the bus blessing. Everyone takes their new motorcycles, tuk tuks, cars carts to the holy man. We all got out of the bus. A string of marigolds was hung from the front windshield wipers, limes were placed under the tires, a coconut was smashed in the front of the bus, and some chilies were hung from the front license plate. I think we should also have black string hanging from the rear view mirror to warn away the evil spirits. We have visited many temples now. In Pondicherry we saw different types, especially rock-cut temples built between 580-780 AD. And I've forgotten to tell you we see so many goats. We have lots of pilgrims everywhere we go. Most in a group will be dressed in the same color. While on the road, we have seen men picking rice plants into bundles; then hours later, we have seen women doing the back-breaking work of planting them in their amazing even rows. We have drive by huge areas of salt flats. I think they harvest the salt in April. We saw salt flats a couple years ago in Morocco also. Hate to say it, but Trump has been negatively mentioned in 4 of the 5 newspapers I've read since we arrived. Also in the paper are marriage ads, mostly men looking for brides. This is a festival month in Tamil Nadu, so there is lots of activity. I think Anne will post a picture of rangoli aka kolams. They are painted by the women in front of their homes asking the god for success. Enroute to Pondicherry, we crossed a couple little rivers. We saw numerous sunbathing or swimming crocodiles. And what fun we had when we spotted an elephant coming out of one of those rivers with its handler. So here comes the elephant, black when still wet with a mottled spotting around its ears and feet. We learned it was 30 years old, could live to 100. It gave trunk blessings to. All who wanted one. Ganesh fed him a couple packs of cookies and gave the handler some cash. I quickly walked behind it to get back in the bus, keeping an eye on the elephant's feet and poop shoot. I think Jaylah and Aryelle would love to hear that I walked in elephant poop! Pondicherry was occupied by the French. Today the streets of the French side of town are calm and quiet. Our hotel was there. But, of course,we had to go by tuk tuk to the Indian side, where we had coffee and a type of egg roll at a street vendor's counter. Pondicherry has a lovely cement Boardwalk; no beach, just large boulders where we were. And there's a large statue of Mahatma Ghandi on the beach, in fact lots of statues everywhere . Along our way yesterday, we stopped to see rope makers. The women start by spinning coconut husk fibers, everything is manual. One woman winds the long handle around and around, which makes the first string of the rope. After that is a certain length, they sorta fold it in half but it is guided through a wooden mallet with grooves on the sides and the woman winds that long handle as someone holds the other end and the mallet holder walks toward the winder. The winder offered me the handle, so I spun for a while. Before we left, the winder asked if I had a pen or pencil. She got my good pen. Namaste! Last night here in Tanjore, a vocalist, drummer and a guy with a rock and a piece of metal which he hit on the rock played to accompany a 16 year old classical dancer during four dances/stories. Her eyes moved expressively as did her hands and her arms and feet. Her head seemed to move impossibly without rest of her body. Anne was able to capture some of it. I hope you can see it on her blog. Delightful. And our guide Ganesh was really enjoying this classical dance and music. Fun to watch him watching them. After lunch today a couple of us walked down to the women's police station. No gun, no hand cuffs, no stick. Just the woman police officer just for the women's complaints. Next door is the men's station which we did not visit. We also visited a bronze maker yesterday. Not a single piece of safety equipment anywhere. Wax is formed into a figure, it is dried and packed into and baked in sand mud. Then the wax is melted out of the sand mold. Then the bronze (melted lead, copper, zinc) is poured into the mold and baked. Later the mud is broken away and the statue is cleaned up and maybe polished. Just like they have done for 2000 years. And no safety equipment... Heading to Madurai tomorrow after another temple visit!

Beautiful flower markets to honor the Gods