Pondicherry

English - we left Mamallapuram at 7am to catch a bus to Pndicherry (Pondy). Pondy used to be a French colonial town but I am sure if the French saw it now they would not be impressed. The town still has some reminders of the colonial times, tree line street, french restaurants, police wearing red caps and the french flag everywhere. But it has all the hall marks of India, pollution, noise, traffic and a pungent smell. Nevertheless, it is still an interesting place and needs exploring. The main thing for us here was the hype about a guy called Sri Aurobindo, a lady called The Mother and a place called Auroville. In short, Sri Aurobindo was in hiding from the Brits in Pondy and was well into his Yoga. A lady (later to be known as The Mother) fled to Pondy from the WWII and met Sri Aurobindo. She believed everything he said about Spiritual enlightenment and yoga and got right on the spiritual "this is how to live your life" band wagon. She continued the movement he started and created a place called Auroville, an international town with over 1000 inhabitants all showing us how to be the perfect community and how everyone should be equal. They belive that everyone should be treated the same and race, creed skin colour and all that are not relevant. However, what they don't tell you on the information book is how backward this philosophy is: if you want to join the town you have to denounce your religion because Ashram devotee's do not believe in religion, everyone earns the same money, everyone is equal despite the role in the community - whatever!!! Some people work their asses off in the fields all day and some people dance for the same money. In the centre of the town is the Matrimandir - a massive waste of time and money where you can meditate. To me it sounded more like communism than an ideal community but we all have our own opinions. Incidently while we were here we stayed in an Ashram house and these are the most unfriendly people I have seen - spiritual enlightenment.....these guys need to chill out and stop trying to come up with stupid statements about how we should all live and worry about themselves. Rant over. One other funny thing here was a sign which captured true Indian resolution, it was on a path and really low. I banged my head on it but it didn't hurt and on closer inspection it had foam to cushion the blow!!! Why did they make it so low in the first place?? 4 days spent here and both got first upset stomachs of the trip.

Banana Stall

Czech - Francouzy kolonizovane mesto Ponduceri jsme navstivili hned po Mamalapuram, byli jsme trosku jim zklamany, pac to co se pise o nem v knizkach, neodpovida skutecnosti, rusne prasne mesto, pachnouci ulicky, kde obcas lide zapominaji kde je WC a ne zas tak nic moc zajimaveho k videni.Navstivili jsme ale katedralu, a hinduisticky chram a take Pomnik Asrama Aurobindo, kde jsme si nemohli zprominutim ani 'uprdnout' jak prisna pravidla meli pro navstevniky.Ubytovali jsme se v jednom z hotelu Asrama Aurobindo, coz je spise pro lidi kteri delaji spolecne meditace v teto zkupine, ale turiste se take mohou ubytovat, bylo to levne a dostali jsme velice pekne pokoje, akorat druhy den rano pri pohledu z okna na more a zahradu, jsme zahlidli partu lidi provozujici jogu , libani nohou a rukou, vazne divny...:]]]

big bug

Jinak jsme ale meli bezva time a take jsme mohli navstivit mestecko Arovill ktere bylo vytvorene specialne pro komunitu lidi ,kteri maji sva vlastni urcita pravidla a byla vytvorena Asramem, takze vybudovali obrovskou kouli ve ktere delaji meditace.

Sice jsem dva dny zdtravila v posteli, jelikoz jsem mela mistni ananasovi drink namychany s vodou z kohoutku takze jsem na tom nebyla moc dobre, ale zlovek ziskava zkusenosti a uz jsem zase o.k.

big tree

Cactus

Catholic Mosque

flower stall

Ghandi Memorial

Klarka Guard

low sign

Matrimandir

Rules

tree hugger