Today's objective was the Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary. This was a place my driver knew and for which he didn't need directions or explanations.
But first it was another sunrise walk and a mission to find some of the amazing French pastries that I was told I could find here. Boy did I score. Perfect lamination and wonderful flavor. I got a banana coconut spiral bun, an almond crossiant, and an apple chausson. I had the bun for breakfast and gave the chausson to the driver. I saved the crossiant for later.
It was amazing once got a little west of Pondicherry there was actually open road. A four lane highway and hardly any traffic--amazing! There was also open land with farms. This is where all that great produce comes from!
It didn't last for long, and then we turned off on a side road to reach the sanctuary on a man made lake. I was ticked off again because it cost way more for a "foreigner" and the prices were not cumulative. So the list said 500 rupees under foreigner and cell phone. But now that is just for the phone, I still owed a 100 for entrance. And once they held me up for 600 rupees they gave me a wad of tickets. Paperwork!
Oh and this is after a rude man buttes infront of me while I was patiently waiting for the Ticketmaster to get his shit together. It's really the only negative experience I've had so far. One would think they would be happy I was there so they could collect so much more money.
Now I did not have enough to rent high powered binochulars. Snap. But it turns out they probably wouldn't have changed much. The majority of birds in sight were a few kinds of cranes. I did see what I think was a hawk and a big pelican who was quite entertaining.
But the wild monkeys out on the real show. I've never been a big monkey fan. I always thought Curious George books were dumb, and why couldn't that man in the big yellow hat keep track of his damn monkey?! I was a very serious little kid.
On this trip, however, monkeys have won me over. Seeing them up close and watching their behavior has been interesting. I saw a mom carrying her baby which was so dear. I also saw a female go over to a male and "submit to his attentions" if you catch my drift. Then she screeched at him and another male came and chased him away. I guess they are just as crazy as people.
The rest of the drive back was some more interesting scenery and passing few a few cities before we reached the outskirts of Chennai and traffic was back to normal.
Since I am now on vacation and i figured we would get back before 3 p.m., I booked a pedi and eye brow threading at a salon that was walkable from my hotel. I had never had eye brow threading before. For me, it was definitely now less painful than waxing, and unfortunately they didn't do tinting, which I also needed. The pedi was great; the guy gave an amazing calf massage and I am now sporting turquoise toes.
Next stop was Black Orchid for dinner where I was cautious and got the vegetarian sushi and once again a mocktail because it sounded more interesting than the cocktails.
I tried to do some blogs when I got back to the hotel but the internet was not cooperating and Amy called to chat for awhile. Then I was another early night so I could be up to walk before it got hot.
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