Hotel Sunway Pondicherry

... br>On our final day we decided to go to Paradise Beach which is about 8km from the centre of Puducherry. We were expecting the beach to be full of people, have restaurants and bars and generally be somewhere where we could spend a few hours not doing much. However, when we arrived it was completely deserted, so in the hope that everything was further down the beach we decided to have a walk down. In the distance we saw a man sat on the ...

... hospital was not at all what we expected. Outside the front gate there must have been a hundred people camping out and sleeping on the drive waiting for people that were being treated inside. When we walked in the hospital, where what you would expect to be the lobby, were beds everywhere with sick patients and people waiting, sleeping and eating on the ground. In the room where I had to register there were two doctors trying to ...

... So the next day i got a ticket from my guesthouse (i love how they dont tell you all this but you have to figure it oot for yourself), for 20 rupees (50 cents) and joined the dining hall for lunch and dinner at the small time allotments. I sat in silence as you must eating my rice, some yellow curry thing with no spice (yay), bread and yogourt. i was very happy so have stumbled upon this. I was very happy with what the Ashram had given me in many ways...<br><br>

... br>Pondicherry is evidently at its busiest on Saturday night - so we went shopping (I bought so really cute stuff). However, I dodged a few bicycles and motor bikes - a few cars as well. Pay attention to the horns or lose a foot. Don't stop to see the lights and what some one is yelling about because you might get hit by a bicycle. You have to move along as if there is no sensory overload at all.

... People pay artists to create these effects. If the streets were not a writhing mass of rickshaws and scooter, with their synonymous orchestral accompaniment of hooters, bells and horns, I would swear I was in a backwater European village. Here, we are greeted in French. Many local Indians speak French. Some even have French citizenship and know how to bake croissants, which are served with good coffee, a rarity in most other parts of India. I like ...

... me of the lady in Thiruvannaamalai who asked me if Madhan was my bodyguard. I guess he looks like one and I have no doubt he would protect me if anything were to happen. <br><br>After the Five Ranthas we went to the Shore Temple by the ocean. It was late in the afternoon, the sun was going down, there was a little breeze and most people were leaving the site. It was so peaceful and the pastel colors of the sky, the temple and the ocean were like in a fairy tale. Some ...

... the vehicles is done once a month and i noticed alot of people had new vehicles or ones for sale in the line up for a blessing. It was a serious occasion and i found the whole thing hilarious as young lads drove their beloved Honda Heros and scooters up to the temple, had them blessed then drove over the lemons and paid the priest. Classic. Eventually the postage package was sealed up and stitched with calico and thread but after waiting at the post office for two hours in a ...

... celebrated with all our friends as we attended the drug/alcohol free dance party put on at the Visitors Center in Auroville. Before we got to the dance we all made jokes about how we would have to dance an arms length distance and keep the dancing G rated. I had expected to see a younger crowd but when we got there the majority of the dancers were actually older. There were a few teens sitting outside in the pavillion just watching which just goes to show ...

... be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages. 3. Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations. 4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.

... warm beer and competing (a loose term) in drunken sumo wrestling. Not a bad day all in all. Early the next morning we bid farewell to Lars and Anna - who incidentally had agreed to buy Mattias' bike from him when he was done with it - and set off in convoy on a two day glide towards Madurai along a dream of a road that curved sumptuously through some of Tamil Nadu's and perhaps India's most beautiful countryside. Within no time at all it became clear that this ...