Rice fields, palms of different sorts, different ground crops, peanut fields, cashew trees etc. We also pass vast salt pans where extremely poor people work. On the main road itself, folk lay down rice or lentil plants so that passing traffic helps crush the grains or peas out. The trouble is that the stalks can get caught and clog up the prop shaft of the cars. This happened to us later on.
Women use the road to lay out the rice to dry in the sun.
The police take no notice we are told, as it is not really seen as a criminal offence. The police however were happy to stop us at a road check and examined the boot of our car. We reach Pondicherry at 1pm. Pondicherry is a noisy bustling place, very third world with clogged up drains, dispossessed outside the temples, etc. There are many small-time traders and shopkeepers, a bit like Quetta, but one can see the French influence, especially by the seaside with remains of French colonial buildings.