Day 168 - Scrabble

We spent the morning playing one last game of Scrabble. I won. Again. Not that I'm gloating or anything. Not much anyway.

After a lovely lunch at V's house and a final ice cream from Baskin Robbins with M (they use a different recipe for the ice cream here - Indian Baskin Robbins is far superior to US Baskin Robbins), we made our way to the bus stand.

The bus stand is not nearly so organised as the ticketing office.

The first official-looking (as in wearing a KSRTC uniform) person I asked said no Pondicherry buses until evening. The next one sent us to one side of the station. The person on that side sent us back again. Repeat in various directions for almost half an hour. I finally went to to a street vendor and asked him. He knew. He pointed us in the right direction. We made it onto our bus by the skin of our teeth.

I should have asked a vendor to start with. Heaven forbid employees of the BUS STATION should have any information on the BUSES! Actually, I have found that street vendors, particularly food vendors, consistently have the most, and the most accurate information for any given situation. India is a country where information is currency, and is therefore hoarded. The best person to ask advice from is the person who stands to gain the least from it.

The bus was 'super deluxe', and in fact was as nice as any European bus. The seats reclined, the windows were large and clean - there was even a movie system. One seven hour bus ride equals two Bollywood films and a Hindi sitcom. I alternated between watching the song and dance numbers (the best part of any Bollywood film), and the scenery.

At one rest stop, I bought a few bags of popcorn. The vendor was an exuberant little man thoroughly enamored of Hollywood. Here's an excerpt.

He: Where are you from?

Me: America

He: OOOOOH. AMERICA! VERY GREAT COUNTRY AMERICA. OOOOOOH. HOLLYWOOD.

Me: I dunno. Bollywood films are pretty great.

He: NO-NO-NO. AMERICA. HOLLYWOOD. JAMES BOND. JAMES BOND IS THE BEST.

Me: Um. OK.

We arrived into Pondicherry exactly on time. I may have to revise my opinion on the Indian Transportation System. Unfortunately on-time was a little after 9PM. By the time we had offloaded from the bus and checked into our hotel, most restaurants had already shut down for the night. I was all for scavenging for street food, but Cz was feeling less adventurous. We had nibbled all day on the bus, and V's staff had served us an enormous lunch, so we weren't particularly hungry. We decided to call it an early night, and wait for tomorrow to sample some good Frenchy-Indian cuisine.