Hotel Jayaram Pondicherry

After our train journey to Chennai we still had to go on a 4 hour bus journey to get to Puducherry (Pondicherry) to spend a few days experiencing something different in the former French colony. We arrived in the middle of the afternoon and the guest house we wanted to stay in was fully booked, that has taught us a lesson to have a back up now! After walking around in the heat for a bit too long, we found Mother's Guest House which was in a ...

... from the city but felt a world apart, really quiet. We seen some of the things and he told us the history of it-too much to put down here. We go the taxi back to town and I got head-hunted to play an extra in some film tonight. Remember, you knew me before I was famous! Gonna be some craic, and it pays 500Rupees as well!!<br><br>At the moment were just heading to do some shopping and Bailey is arguing with someone she bought a dodgy SIM card from because it doesn't work!!<br>

I spent my first week in India in Pondicherry or Puducherry, same same....relaxing (yes india can be a relaxing place). It's famous for its ashram, Sri Aurobindo Ashram.<br><br>I stayed in a guest house affiliated with the Ashram...i had a huge room, a balcony overlooking a grand garden of "positive vibrations" on the grounds and then the ocean. It couldnt get any more peaceful. It's no wonder i stayed a week, afterall i havent stayed more than 3 nights anywhere ...

... but I will sum it for you: I build because other people have helped me accomplish what I have accomplished - I would not be where I am without the help of my family and friends. I build because I want others to have the opportunity to live better, to dream big and actually see some of their dreams come true. The villagers here dream of homes and I am here to help make those dreams come true.

... architecture and the cute little hamster-rat-squirrels creatures, that race along and leap impossible distances between thickly leafed branches and awkward slate roofs. The stairways wrap around and climb up little gaps between the buildings. The walls may once have been brightly coloured and gaudy but now are wonderfully weathered, fading, with chipped off plaster revealing gaps of red face-brick. In fact everything in Pondy seems to be eroded to ...

... who taught him how to use a fork and a knife properly. And I have to say, he was unbelievably good at it. He was so happy and proud that I had noticed his wonderful table manners (wonderful to our Western standards). After feeding our stomaches with veggies and a galette we got on the road again and went through an area that had been hit by the tsunami a few years ago. I had not realized until then that we were all day long on the coast where the waves killed thousands of ...

... workers carrying woks of wet cement on their heads at a building site. The sun was scorching hot as I made my way to the ocean promenade where there were some more random rabbit bins, locals strolling and sitting in pavilions and men spruiking from pink ice-cream bikes, that was about it for the unattractive Pondy beach, i really can't see the draw card here, the sand is grainy and you can't swim here. The usual seaside seashell souvenir sellers were offering the ...

... 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 ...