18.07.18 - 24.07.18 Pondicherry, Chennai

Our last week in India started with a massive change in temperature. From Kodai, we drove overnight to the small town of Pondicherry, where it was already 20 degrees Celsius warmer at 4 am. As a result, we only spent one night in our originally booked room, as it was only equipped with a fan and we could hardly sleep due to the heat. To bear the 37-degree heat in the city better, we treated ourselves to a nice room with air conditioning. Pondicherry is located on the southern east coast of India and used to be a French colony before the British took over. This French influence is reflected in the architecture and food, which is also influenced by the presence of tourists, especially from France. The city center is divided into two quarters: the Indian quarter, lively with loud honking and many people, and the French quarter, noticeably quieter with many mustard-colored chic restored houses and nice cafes. Since we haven't been in a really touristy place for a while, we enjoyed the advantages and, for example, ate a plate of noodles for the first time in over 2 months.

After a few relaxing days, we were ready for our last stop before our flight to Malaysia - Chennai, the fourth largest city in India. As we spent our last day there trying to get our money back for a bus ticket that was canceled (without being informed, and we waited for almost three hours until very nice people helped us find out), and we miserably failed in this endeavor, which once again showed us the incomprehensible Indian bureaucracy, both our sightseeing program and our last dinner (we had included the money we received back for the bus ticket in our last withdrawal and wanted to save some fees) were rather limited. Luckily, we were able to take a train to the airport at 4 am for less than 10 cents the next day, and despite being tired, we were full of anticipation.

The last month in India brought many challenges for us. Nevertheless, we are happy to have been here again, and we have also learned a lot about ourselves. And we agree that we want to come back here again in many, many years to see how this crazy country has developed. But that will take a long time, for now we have had enough :)