South India Full Day 4 - Pondicherry and Tanjore HD

Street coffee and samosas at the “Starbucks” of Pondicherry. Fishing village Nalla Vadu, mat weavers’ village, school for Bronze art & beautiful baratha natyam dance performane in Tanjore. South India travel video. Overseas Adventure Travel group tour Soul of India - the Colorful South, Saturday, 10-25-14: The day started out drizzly and foggy, but cleared up nicely. We went to a street fish and vegetable market and then to what our guide, calls the ‘Starbucks’ of Pondicherry. A corner ‘open concept’ coffee shop where people were drinking their coffees in tuk tuks and standing around in the street. The coffees are served in two little metal cups and you have to mix them to cool the coffee down. They make it look easy, but I know from experience that it’s not; especially because the metal cups are scolding hot. When I tried it, most of the coffee ended up on the table and I had a sip left in the cup! A cow strolled by our group very nonchalant. I guess bovines have the right of way here - we took tuk-tuks on the way back and a bull was blocking the road; he hardly moved as the little vehicle went by. Next stop was the colorful fishing village of Nalla Vadu. Walking towards the beach we got to peek into the daily lives of the local people. Right on the street, a woman was hand washing baskets of laundry, two very young boys were helping each other wash up, and a young lady was drying her beautiful long dark hair. And then I got to the beach… really you don’t know what to look at first. The colors, the level of activity, the fish auctions, the shouting, the ocean, the fishing boats, everything is SO interesting. I could have spent a whole morning there and still want more. It amazes me how our world is made up of so many layers. This way of life may be the only one that these people have or will ever experience. Then we drove by the sacred river Kaveri to a village that is known for their mat weavers. It had been raining for a few days and Sudha was keeping his fingers crossed that we might see them at work. We did because very recently they had built a roof cover over one of the work areas. We got to see how the grass, straight from the field, becomes a beautiful, colorful mat. The weavers sit on the floor and weave mats usually for special occasions such nuptial mats for weddings. The only process we did not see (because of the rain) was the dying and drying of the straw, which is too bad because the colors are very vibrant and absolutely beautiful. There were many-many stores around town selling not only mats but beautiful rattan furniture as well. I wish those chairs fit in the luggage  We had a very interesting visit at a school for bronze art where we were given a demonstration in the creation of the wax figures used in the “lost wax” method. We saw many different artists performing a different part of the process. Every piece is worked on by several different artists at different stages of the process because every artist specializes and bec