Anandha Inn Pondicherry

... A few of us met the priest at his house tonight so he could take us to the school for the first time. Once we got there we found not only his house, but the farm animals and dogs that come along with it. His cook felt bad that she couldn’t make us coffee or tea (the cow was sick today so she wasn’t able to milk it), so she insisted that she made us a snack to make up for it. The priest sent us with his driver to show us a ...

... the journey set up &#8220;camp&#8221; out font of the gate where they stayed for the night. <br><br>We experienced our first monsoon rain last night. I think the start of the season is here and if not it will be shortly. The rain came out of nowhere and it was as if someone were dropping buckets of water out of the sky for a few hours. It had never crossed my mind but with monsoons also comes power outages much more frequently. We ...

... br>After spending a few days in Pondicherry we left for Chennai which started our 11 day south Indian tour. We stayed in three different cities and everyday brought something new. The trip was mostly in the state of Kerala which is known as "God's own country" due to its lush rain forests, the Western Ghats (similar to a mountain range), and the backwaters which are waterway systems made up by lakes connected through extensive canals. There were eight of us traveling ...

... I only heard it twice. <br><br>I liked the colonial buildings, the little catholic churches and statues. But what I liked the best was again watching people in their daily life. They were not very active but I suspect that was because of the heat, just like in Southern France! Mmmm maybe it is more French than I thought afterwards. A couple stopped me so they could take a picture with me. Even though that has happened a lot since Madhan and I left Bengalore I still find it ...

... there are still tons of people walking on the side of the road. It seems like it&#8217;s impossible to drive thirty seconds without seeing a human being. Well, I guess the fact that India is the second most populated country in the world explains it. I&#8217;m not used to that. It&#8217;s a little strange. When we crossed the border between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Madhan pulled over. He changed his clothes and instead of his shorts and tee-shirt he put on nice ...

I wasn't quite ready to leave the Sadhana Forest community and have definitely left a little piece of my heart there somewhere in amongst the vegan food, fruit salad orchard, vegetable gardens, flowers, scooters, bugs, bamboo huts, babies, fabulous friends, dogs, cats, mud love however, i'm sure Auroville will call me back again and i'll return to the simple paradise to contribute some more. Next time with a more peaceful and present mind, at the moment my path is leading me to ...

... crew. People leave everyday and new people arrive everyday. Word of mouth keeps a stream of workers coming and it keeps if fresh on the farm. New people bring new ideas, skills and fresh energy. <br><br>Also there's a no- talent show once a week and volunteers hold workshops in whatever they can do like yoga, men's circle, women's circle, creative writing, solar oven making and junk art. When i was there, a group was also doing Vipassana meditation together. One day ...

... There is also a shift for someone to be the fire starter who starts and maintains the fire for the brick stove tops and oven. There is a shift for several people to bring the pots and pans in from the main hut after the meal and wash all pots and pans used to prepare the meal. Someone needs to organize the veggies and fruits twice a week so that the older veggies go on top of the new ones and get used up first (Greg and I split this job and it took several hours ...

... at a very cheap price. The equation has been balanced, wouldn't you say? The city is a large, endless mass of buildings and so we opted for an unconventional way of exploring it's streets. We played the "left/right" game, which is a simple case of taking the first left and then, when the opportunity arises, the first right, and repeated until you are bored or too tired to continue. This is an unbiased guide, detached from human opinions and ...

... taking place. But hey, they only cost about 60 cents a pop! Despite these conveniences, the most fun way to shop is at roadside vendors and the mammoth Sunday Market, a several-street extravaganza, where you can haggle to your heart's content. A creative use of some Tamil and Hindi can usually bring the price down 30%. For the truly cutthroat there is the ultimate trump card: the feigned walk-away. This usually creates a panic in ...