I HOPE ..
MAKE NO MISTAKE .. I FULLY REALIZE HOW BLESSED AND HOW LUCKY AND HOW FORTUNATE I AM TO BE ABLE TO TRAVEL AS I DO. THE ENTIRE POINT OF MY WEBSITE HERE IS TO REALIZE MY DESIRE THAT .. IN SOME SMALL WAY .. ONE OF MY POSTS OR ONE OF MY PHOTOGRAPHS WILL MAKE ONE PERSON'S DAY JUST A LITTLE BIT BETTER.
TO FEEL GOOD .. DO GOOD !I HOPE THAT SOMEONE VISITING MY WEBSITE WILL SEE SOMETHING ON IT THAT THEY WILL NOT EVER BE ABLE TO SEE OR TO DO OTHERWISE .. AND THAT THIS EXPERIENCE WILL MAKE THEIR DAY OR THEIR LIFE JUST A LITTLE BIT BETTER !
IF YOU HAVE YOUR HEALTH AND ADEQUATE MONEY TO FOLLOW-YOUR-DREAM .. WITH DISCERNMENT .. FIND THE COURAGE AND HAVE THE GUTS TO DO WHAT GOD IS CALLING YOU TO DO!
TRULY THIS IS MY DOXOLOGY .. MY PRAISE TO GOD!YOU CAN ALSO VISIT .. http://babakaps.net .. TO SEE MY OTHER WEBSITE.
Because of the enormous influence of the French in Pondicherry .. the French East India Company actually founded 'Pondi' .. it is not surprising that there are several Christian Churches here in 'Pondi'!
There are three, major, Christian Churches in the French section of 'Pondi'. I am going to show you two of them. The third church is The Church of Notre Dame des Anges. Interestingly enough this third church is called 'Kaps' Church from The Church of the Capuchins. I will show you a number of photos of 'Kaps' church in a future post.
The first photo below is a photo of The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. It is what I would call a traditional Roman Catholic Church similar to many you will find in France. Note its heavy and imposing and 'somber nature'! It IS majestic!
Now take a look at The Sacred Heart of Jesus Church! OH MY! What a difference! If you want a happy and a colorful church .. feast your eyes on the below photos!
I could NOT get far enough away from the Church to capture it in its entirety in one photo. Below is a photo of the upper part of the Church!
IF you are ready for a photo of the inside .. just look below!
Some of the local Hindi folks that I have spoken with seem to be really impressed and delighted with the colorful and joyous nature of the Church!
I really enjoyed the Church because it seems like a very HAPPY PLACE! Knowing some of the history of 'The Church' in France .. coming out of hundreds of years of heavy Gothic stone churches .. look at the first photo above .. the 'weight' and the 'somber darkness' you see in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception .. I am amazed at the color and joy found in The Sacred Heart of Jesus Church!
Before I moved into my current room at MOTHERS GUEST HOUSE, I stayed in a temporary smaller room waiting a vacancy in the room I prefer. Several POSTS below (last Saturday the 23rd) I did a full POST on my permanent room at MOTHERS GUEST HOUSE. These few photos below just show you what a small room looks like here in India. The bed basically occupies most of the room!
The below photo looks into my room from the entrance into the room. The orange door leads into the toilet.
Clean and very serviceable. The Western Style toilet is an absolute MUST for me!
Looking back across my nice .. large .. double bed. The window looks out into a 'light well'.
And looking back across my room at the 'closet'. I know better than to expect clothes hangars in a closet here in India! Oh yes some hotels do have one or maybe two clother hangars but this closet does NOT have a rod for me to hang the hangars I carry with me! Smiles! And you wonder why I love India ! Notice Mister India Bag and Back Pack.
This is your very basic clean and extremely serviceable room in India. I would estimate 80% of the backpacker's stay in a room such as this. The cost would be from 250 to possibly 500 Rupees a night. Very reasonable at $5 to $10 a night US Dollars.
Smiles .. Cap ..
Traffic? In Pondicherry? Come on! You must be kidding!
Well you MUST remember that after all 'Pondi' IS located in INDIA! So you can not take this fact away from 'Pondi'! In the following few photos even Crocodile Dundee himself would exclaim! "NOW THAT'S TRAFFIC MATE!"
So here we go .. feast your eyes on TRAFFIC! On 'wall-to-wall' traffic!
The below photo is taken along an entirely different street! If you don't believe me .. just study the background of each photo .. NO .. I have not found 'the one and the only' busy street in Pondicherry to photograph some traffic! Of course it does letup from time to time .. and somehow you do manage to work your way across the streets ! Ah .. very VERY carefully !
How about this? What YOU .. looking at these photos are missing is the NOISE! The seemingly never-ending 'DIN' of horns constantly honking! The 'action' at intersections is WILD! Sometimes you have 'gridlock' and traffic in all directions just 'freezes up' and comes to a complete HALT! Then .. somehow .. it gets itself 'untangled' and away they all go! AMAZING!
I mean they 'fly' into intersections going fast! How they manage to avoid constant collisions I will never know!
And .. when the traffic clears as you see below .. and it does indeed clear from time to time .. THEN you cross the street ..
For now I will say .. "That's all folks !"
Sure it IS pretty funny EXCEPT that it is also seriously and downright DANGEROUS! Calcutta traffic ranks as the most dangerous for me personally!
One of the WORST phenomenons is this: When you are crossing a one-way street .. you are looking at the direction from whence the traffic is coming .. to your right or to your left. Then suddenly .. going the wrong-way-up-the-one-way-street .. a motorcycle 'blasts' past you! So you MUST look both ways even on one-way streets! Sometimes the traffic works its way up onto the sidewalks!
Lucky to have survived twenty two (22) years of India Traffic!
I will sign off as .. 'Lucky' Cap !
This should teach me NOT to be looking at what all of the French visitors are eating for their breakfast! I asked my waiter this morning .. "What is that breakfast over there that they are all eating?" .. "The Spanish Omelette Sir!" .. "I will have one of those!" ..
Go down to Thursday February 21st for a special POST just on Hot Breads!
This is going to be FUN for Patti and others who 'know' me well .. so here we go!
When-Oh-When is the last time that an Omelette has spoken to you? Well it happened to me this morning at Hot Breads where I buy my wonderful bread. Hot Breads have several different menus for each part of the day. I want to show you their 'Spanish Omelette' from their breakfast menu ! EVERYTHING I have gotten at Hot Breads has been just GREAT .. from breakfast to lunch to evening meals! So having 'eyed' what the French visitors were eating .. I tried one!
When she 'arrived' in front of me my 'Spanish Omelette' said to me!
"JUST LOOK AT ME DAD!" .. "AREN'T I SOMETHING DAD!" .. "I take up your entire plate and I come with tomatoes and I come with cucumbers and I come with a nice piece of fresh lettuce and I come with a bowl of coleslaw and I come with nice french fried potatoes and I come FILLED with all sorts of wonderful things .. "JUST LOOK AT ME DAD !" .. "AREN'T I SOMETHING DAD !"
"You sure are something you beautiful Spanish omelette!" .. "Man alive! The French sure know what to order for breakfast!" Now .. in 'hindsight' .. I wonder why she is called a Spanish omelette? Were she a FRENCH Omelette .. I maybe would have 'suspected'! Read on my friends!
"You are one GOOD LOOKING Omelette !"
Well this is a FRENCH Bakery in the FRENCH part of Pondicherry and .. I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN! But my mind took a 'mental holiday' and POW! I lived in Europe for four years and traveled in FRANCE and I am FRENCH by ancestory!
When I gingerly cut into my wonderful Omelette GUESS WHAT?
She WAS filled with lots and lots of goodies! Some green peppers and some onions and lots of cheese and a few pieces of minced hot peppers .. and .. AND .. OH NO ! ..
She WAS ALSO FILLED WITH .. MUSHROOMS ! 'Shrooms!
Well I could NOT imagine cutting her into bits and into pieces and totally destroying her by picking out all of her mushrooms! I just could NOT do this to my beautiful Omelette Friend! So I just put on my Zen Mind and relaxed my way through her .. 'Shrooms and ALL!
With great love I totally enjoyed my way through my Omelette! I ate each and everything on the plate and enjoyed it all! I DID make sure to 'mix' with many bites some tomato and cucumber and lettuce and cole slaw and french fries to kind of 'hide' the 'Shrooms'! In the end it all came out just fine! SHE WAS SO HAPPY .. ME TOO !
And she cost me 88 Rupees or .. adding on a nice gratuity .. 'about' Two Dollars and Twenty Five Cents!
And tomorrow? Back to my old stand-by! One basic breakfast omelette with two pieces of toasted brown bread (dry no butter thank you!) and a 4 oz glass of Mango Juice (which I pour into 12 oz of water I bring with me) to make a full 16 oz glass of 'Mango' Juice!
Smiles .. Cap .. I lived to tell the story!
I want to go back to December 30th, 2011 when Pondicherry experienced a major weather event! Nineteen days after Cyclone Thane (Thane is pronounced as Taah - nee) hit 'Pondi' I was here and shot the below photos. They are somber evidence of the power of nature! I wanted to re-post them since they do show some of the damage Thane infliced on 'Pondi' a year ago! Cyclone Thane was a really bad storm! 42 people lost their lives in the storm. This humble post is just my way of remembering those who died and expressing my feelings of love for 'Pondi'!
You may have to look closely to see the mess that exists .. so many trees were still down ..
In the lower foreground .. note the iron railing bent out from two falling trees and their remains (baren stumps) after they were cut away and removed ..
Mute evidence of 'Mother Nature's' awesome power!
More evidence of 'Mother Nature' and her power ..
Can you imagine what 'Pondi' must have looked like Nineteen (19) days ago .. I have heard that MANY of the estimated forty two (42) people who were killed .. were killed by falling trees ..
Words are beginning to fail me ..
More downed trees and the remains (on the far left of the below photo) of yet another ..
More 'mute evidence' to the damage ..
Work crews were still out working with determination and with passion .. nineteen (19) days after the storm hit .. the back-hoe was NOT stopping for one second ..
The clean-up of a real mess ..
The below photo was right downtown in the business section .. where there are but few trees .. locals are calling Cyclone Thane a 'Hurricane' .. winds to 135 km/hour ..
One last photo .. and then I had to put-my-camera-away .. trees were not the only objects that felt the enormous destructive force of Cyclone Thane on December 30, 2011 .. in Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu .. here in Southeast India on the Bay of Bengal ..
Now .. a year later .. little evidence remains of the above damage .. but local people have not forgotten Cyclone Thane!
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I have MY PLACES ! In 'Pondi' one of MY PLACES is MOTHERS GUEST HOUSE !
So allow me to walk you to and into 'MOTHERS GUEST HOUSE' here in 'Pondi' .. The next two photos look North up the street named Ambour Salai. In the first photo below .. spot 'Lucky Foto' and look for it in photo 2 below to orient yourselves to the first two photos below.
Photo 2 below is shot having walked a little further North on Ambour Salai from the above photo. Do you all see 'Lucky Foto'? Note 'Hot Breads' and 'China Town' Restaurant. Just this past Thursday the 21st of February .. I did a Post titled .. 'PONDICHERRY .. FRENCH BREAD .. OLIVE OIL ..' . In the Post I took you all inside of Hot Breads showing that it is a to-die-for genuine bakery with phenomenal breads and every other bakery item under the sun ! I also enjoy eating at 'China Town' . OK .. the 'Lucky Foto' sign is immediately adjacent to MOTHERS GUEST HOUSE which is red and green in color. It is hard to see but photo 3 after the below photo 2 shows you a front-on shot of MOTHERS GUEST HOUSE.
In the below photo 3 we are looking directly at MOTHERS GUEST HOUSE which is the red and green building that is the tallest building in the photo.
Below is MOTHERS sign on the street. I formerly insisted on putting the proper (possessive) punctuation on the word Mother's. You will note they do not! To them it is just MOTHERS GUEST HOUSE. Well they have a right to spell the name of THEIR Guest House as-they-like!
In the next photo below .. we have walked into the bottom of the building and are looking up at their sign inside. IT SURE IS MOTHERS spelled with no possessive punctuation mark ! I guess that henceforth I will honor THEIR spelling of THEIR Guest House!
To get to my room at MOTHERS .. I walk up four (4) individual flights of stairs .. 16 and 16 and 10 and 9 steps each flight respectively beginning at the street level. Doing the math I walk 51 steps up. Oh yes .. it IS great exercise! Since this IS A PROGRAM OF HONESTY I have begun to 'pause' for a short 'break' on each flight of steps. I must be getting old!
Below are photos of my room. Photo 6 is immediately below and I will come back to photo 6 again. Just look at what I am getting here at MOTHERS !
In photo 6 above .. walk to the green door you see straight ahead .. turn 180 degrees and put your back against the door and snap photo 7 below. In photo 7 below NOTE I have a second chair and also NOTE all of the cupboard space! Mister India Bag and Mister Back Pack are in the doorway patiently waiting to come in .. the two chairs give you an idea of the depth of the room.
Now look back at photo 7 above. Looking beyond the doorway out into the hallway beyond you will see .. just below the top of the doorway in the distance you will see a sign. A close up of this sign is shown in photo 8 immediately below. This sign gives you an idea of 'what MOTHERS GUEST HOUSE is all about'. I mean it is unreal .. talk about great 'vibes' ! MOTHERS has GREAT VIBES !
Now look back at photo 6 above. In photo 9 below I have opened up the green door you see in photo 6 and you can see that my room actually has an outside exposure. A very pleasant breeze blows in when the door is opened up and I am keeping it open most of the time!
OK .. now walk through the doorway and looking to your diagonal left .. you will see the restroom.
Going in and looking back in the below photo you can see that it is VERY large! It also has very nice tile work on the walls .. straight through the door to the diagonal left is my room.
And in the reception lobby of MOTHERS GUEST HOUSE you have the below 'nifty' message! I mean has MOTHERS got the 'vibes' ! I LOVE IT ! My kindda place .. oh yeah .. Baba Kaps (I will use the proper Hindi of Bobba Caps!) and all of the twenty year old european hard core backpackers who frequent MOTHERS .. THANK YOU Mothers Guest House !
Well I guess THEY LOVE 'Ol Baba Kaps too! Can you believe the below photos ? The staff at the front desk absolutely INSISTED that I sit for a photo shoot!
"Please Baba! One more photograph of you!" .. "OK you guys.. why not ?"
All I can say is this .."When I Am HOT .. I Am HOT !" .. "When I Am NOT .. I Am NOT !"
Like I said 'way back up at the top of this Post' .. I have MY PLACES and MOTHERS GUEST HOUSE IS ONE OF MY PLACES !
I Sign Off .. With Much Love .. Cap ..
Allow me to ask you .. "What do you visualize when you think of a Beach?"
Do you think of sand and waves of water washing onto the sand?
I kind of thought that maybe you think of a beach as being sandy!
Well I just happened to have a two photos of a beach that looks like you think a beach should look like! Below are two photos of the Beach in Arambol Beach in Goa! Do you see sand and water?
And from above looking down on another section of the beach at ARAMBOL BEACH in Goa ..
So here I am in 'Pondi' ! These photos were taken last January of 2012. And last January I walked East to explore the BEACH at 'Pondi' and I could NOT believe what I saw! WHAT BEACH? Where is the Beach?
"OH COME ON !" .. I thought to myself .. "I think that I will look South and see what the 'beach' to the South looks like" .. "WHAT !" ..
"Well ! I will now turn and I will look due East and see what the 'beach' at 'Pondi' looks like ! " ..
My friends and my followers .. I WAS DUMBFOUNDED .. I WAS STUNNED .. I WAS ABSOLUTELY ASTOUNDED .. I WAS POSITIVELY AMAZED .. AT THE 'BEACH' HERE AT PONDICHERRY ! In the three above photos you will notice .. these are NOT small pebble-sized rocks .. these are MAN-SIZED rocks .. these are NOT rocks .. these are BOULDERS !
And so I took a little stroll North up the 'beach'! This is not 'smoke and mirrors' .. notice the buildings on the left edge of the below photo .. I really did walk North .. and look what I found!
And .. IF you will look North in the above photo .. you will see .. that to the extent you are able to see .. the 'beach' at 'Pondi' looks to continue the same as what I have shown you in the above four photos .. OH MY .. if you were to walk out on the 'beach' .. you do NOT want to mis-step and take a spill falling down onto the 'beach' .. you might never be heard from again !
So when I write that in the evening I walk down to the beach here at 'Pondi' and watch the water from the Bay-of-Bengal crash upon the rocks .. you now know what I am seeing !
And the breeze is just magnificent blowing in from the water.
Much Joy from the Beach at 'Pondi' .. Cap ..
For a Post at Baba Kaps Doxology click onto the link at the top of the right margin ..
Hot Diggety Dog ! I am back in Pondicherry and I am in MY same guest house ! After getting kind-of-settled .. I went out and got water and olive oil and FRENCH BREAD !
To get a good idea of where both Chennai and 'Pondi' are located within India.. please see the map below following this Post.
Well fellow BREAD LOVERS enjoy the below photos ! I will start off by showing you a photo of the bakery (Hot Breads) immediately next door to MY Mothers Guest House here in Pondicherry.
In addition to Hot Breads I enjoy the China Town Chinese Restaurant.
When you enter the door .. on the wall to your immediate left .. you have the baked goods shown in the photos below.
OH THE FRENCH AND THEIR BREADS !
OK I am going to 'zero in' on the loaves ! Isn't the love .. as shown in the artwork on the loaves .. just something very special ?
And every-other-day .. at 7AM .. I usually go in and I buy the one loaf of herbal bread they set out each morning. I don't know why they only set out one loaf of the herbal bread .. but in the photo below is MY bread.
And OH YES Olive Oil Snobs .. this Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil cost me over Ten ($10) United States Dollars for 500ml .. take that you characters ! I have had Olive Oil Snobs look down upon Colavita Brand Olive Oil ! To me it tastes just great !
Luckily for YOU .. YOU do not have olive oil bottles talking to you ! I photographed Colavita with a white background and Colavita said to me .. "Dad ! I look better in black !" Well Captain .. you don't have to listen and act do you ?
For a long writing on the trip here from New Delhi .. please click onto the above link to .. Baba Kaps Doxology .. and you will find the most recent news ..
I am pretty 'road weary' but happy to be back in 'Pondi' and to settle for awhile ..
MUCH JOY .. Cap ..
