Anjali Earns Her Wings

We were definitely nervous as we headed to the Patna airport for our trip to Chennai and Pondicherry.  We weren't sure how Anjali would do on her first flight or if we would get any grief about our documents for travel with her.  Twenty minutes before we headed out, Anjali got hold of a pepper shaker and put pepper in her eyes.  But when we finally got to the airport everything went smoothly.  We were able to check in and go through security with no problems.  Anjali was sort of in disbelief that she was actually getting on an airplane, but super excited.  We let Anjali sit by the window and when we took off, she had this to say:  Whoooaa!!!  She was a bit restless on the first flight, and had a slight meltdown when we were landing, because she didn't want to wear a seatbelt, but that only lasted a few minutes.  On the flight from Delhi to Chennai, she fell asleep and each subsequent flight seemed to get a bit easier.  Phew!

We arrived in Chennai at about 8:30pm.  We had a delicious South Indian meal in our hotel restaurant and then went to sleep.  In the morning, we took a three hour taxi ride to Pondicherry.  Anjali was unfortunately not feeling well, had a high fever and slept most of the day.  Thankfully, it all only lasted one day and she was fine after that.  We ended up staying in a guesthouse in Auroville, which is this wonderful little hippiesque town just outside of Pondicherry.  Our guesthouse was tucked away on a dirt road past a grove of coconut trees and was a lovely, peaceful spot for us to enjoy our stay.  It was about 5 minutes from the beach and a 20 minute motor scooter ride to Pondicherry.  Neither Adam or I had ever heard of Auroville, but we fell in love with the place and thought we might even enjoy living there some day.  The best thing we did was to rent a scooter for 150 rupees a day.  We were able to trot all over town and not worry about how we were going to get from one place to the next.  We ended up spending a lot more time in Auroville than Pondicherry.  It was so green and peaceful, with lots of wonderful little restaurants with lovely outdoor courtyards.  Anjali absolutely loved the beach.  She was a little tentative on the first day, but the second day, she simply couldn't get enough of the waves.  

We spent a little bit of time in Pondicherry proper. We went to this amazing Ganesha Temple, Manakula Vineyegar Temple, that had the most beautiful live elephant named Laxmi giving blessings to people as they went in.  The temple itself was absolutely fantastic with every imaginable replica of the beloved elephant headed god from places around the world.   Ganesha is known as the remover of obstacles. We definitely need his help on this trip, so I am so glad we had an opportunity to visit this temple that was built some time before the 1650s.  The French quarter and markets there are something I would definitely like to go back and explore more.

We headed back to Chennai on Tuesday afternoon.  Chennai is a clean, modern city with a laid back feel to it.  Adam had to work most of the time, but I was able to easily get around via Tuk-tuk from our hotel which was in a nice location.  I visited Marina beach, Pondy Bazaar and a nice botanical garden.  Anjali got some new outfits from Saravana store and she made big progress on slides at the botanical garden playground. On our last night we went to a really good South Indian restaurant with some Swedish folks from Adam's company.  

We got back early Saturday and are back in the Patna groove, but feeling refreshed after our little vacation to the beach.  Anjali did so well on this trip.  I am so proud of her.  She was happy to be home, but today was asking when we would go an airplane again.  Tomorrow is our big court date, so soon my sweet little adventurer, god willing, soon.