Ajantha Beach Guest House Pondicherry

After finishing school on Thursday afternoon, we took an overnight bus 8 hours north-east to Pondicherry, a former French colony. Whilst lots of "Pondy" is true India, there exists an enclave where French architecture still rules; strolling around parts of the town can certainly feel like you're in southern France! We had lunch on the beachfront in "Le Cafe", where you can get a perfect continental ...

... I’m happy I came to such a different world than I’m used to. India can be an intense place. I also think that is why I have learned so much about myself, life and the world around me. It’s amazing how much you learn and can realize when you step away from everything you once knew. I never could have imagined.

I’m trying to get quite a few things done before I leave for the weekend so I need to cut myself off here.

... last week and a man approached me asking “German? German?” I told him where I was from but long story short he asked me to walk with him (which ended up being well over 2 miles) and then invited me over for lunch with his family on Sunday. He is the retired registrar of the engineering college but he now lives across from the campus. His wife cooked an awesome meal with locally caught fish and chicken. It was the first ...

... days, I am able to shelter myself in this old area and indulge myself again in a lighter version of India.

On my second day there, I decide to rent a bicycle and ride to Auroville, a village that hosts a small 'New Age' community (more than 2/3 are foreigners) that tries to live according to the spiritual values taught by a well known 'guru'. There are currently 2000 people living in communes with names such as Fertility, Love, Peace, Joy, Beauty, ... with ...

... interested in what life was like in the States and they couldn’t understand why we would want to study here in India. Last night we took the bus into town for dinner in the French Quarter. None of us really understand how their bus system works yet. We have just been walking outside of the campus and standing wherever there is a group of people in hopes that a bus will stop for us. I ...

... seashell sculptures (say that five times quickly) and there was a giant Gandhi statue that was a popular site for school groups. I spotted some Matador vans that look similar to volkswagen kombis that were parked outside the hospital and being used as ambulances. I went back to the package wrapper tailor guy who still hadn't done the job so i wandered around the temple some more. I spotted a strange thing happening out the front whereby a priest was carrying around a brass ...

... Essentially she was saying the west over medicates and we need to use alternative methods for coping with mental illnesses. She also talked about how a lot of companies put out drugs knowing they have adverse affects on the patient but pad the Md's wallet so they prescribe them anyway and the patient becomes addicted. The speaker gave out a lot of interesting information and invited us to a full moon party where she would host the party as a shaw woman. I ...

... we noticed was that while Mother had asked her followers to eschew religion, perversely it seemed that the followers were basically worshipping her. Classic cult. Having said that it seemed a pretty chilled out place and the devotees seemed like peaceful types rather than psychos. Good for them we say The highlight was the Matrimandir which is a giant gold dome that looks like a golf ...

... to buy an Enfield. After listening to Julius and I recount our numerous and exhausting stories of trudging around Chennai in the midday sun for days on end, they thought 'sod that' and went and bought the first bullet they laid eyes on. Probably not a bad call. A Swedish couple called Lars and Anna had also made the short trip down for a few days break from their 3 month stint of teaching kids in Chennai's slums. Lars too was infected with the Enfield bug and was ...