Travel to Bangalore and Pondicherry

Our taxi showed up on time at the hotel on Tuesday morning (always a good sign!). Brij and Deepa came by to wish us farewell (and provided some PB&J and oranges for breakfast in the car, yum). Our flight from Delhi to Bangalore went off without a hitch. Mahesh and Nina were waiting as we came out the exit. We came back to their flat in a very large apartment block, where we  spent two nights in a nearby guest room.

Dhruv showing off his new hand-knit socks; I think he's worn them all weekend.

On Thursday morning we left very early for our drive to Pondicherry. After a few hours on the road, we stopped at a nice restaurant for breakfast (nice means usable washrooms as well as good and safe food). We arrived at the Club Mahindra resort by 2:00 and spent the afternoon enjoying the property.

My breakfast dosa -- you can't even see the ends, it was so big!

Tea and coffee served the Tamil Nadu way -- pour some into the larger cup to cool it off

A visit to the beach at dark. Not a swimming beach.

The resident peacock who loved getting food from visitors

Friday we drove a half-hour or so into the formerly French town of Pondicherry. The architecture was very distinctive and we enjoyed driving around looking at buildings. Our first stop was the showroom of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, famous for their handmade paper. They had everything from notebooks to earrings to wrapping paper and it was all beautiful.

One of several walls of wrapping paper

The oldest European-style hotel in Pondicherry. Typical architecture and a great lunch.

I had chicken kabobs on a small naan.

Dan's was very unusual: a good chunk of paneer topped with masala and wrapped in a banana leaf.

After lunch we found a French patisserie and indulged.

View of the beach at Pondicherry

We had a long drive back to Bangalore with lots of traffic near and in the city. At our first rest stop the rain poured down while we were there, and miraculously stopped just as we were ready to leave. Lunch was at a Burger King along the highway. We moved into a nearby AirBnB for our last nights here. Today (Sunday) and tomorrow we are relaxing and visiting. Tuesday morning we fly to Mumbai, where we will board our cruise on Wednesday.