Lost in Auroville

After dumping my pack in my cockroach infested room (didn't find that out till later, I went to find something to eat.....ended up at some french place where the food was awful, but the beer was damn good!(it was actually only Kingfisher which you get EVERYWHERE in south India, but I assume it was why the place was full). Ended upsitting at a table with two French guys,and Indian, and a german!

The Indian guy went through an entire charade of swapping emailsin order to get my contact details, and tried to get me to goalong to some rave with him and his mates............hmmmmmm.....anyway, employed the old false contacts details trick and went on my way!

Next day I took a tour to a few sights in Pondi.......the backwaters (a bit of water with a couple of boats and a whole heap of Indian tourists), and Auroville.....where I ditched the bus in favour of finding my own way back and taking a goodlook around! Randomly came across a German and Frenchy from the night before and whilst we were wandering the other French guy turned up on his bicycle having just checked into Auroville for a week!

Auroville is quite mad! All of these hippies come tothe place from around the world in order to get away from religion, the restrictions of race/culture and personal possesions......all fair enough I suppose, until you takea walk around behind closed doors (as we did) and descover that there are Indian communities living in hovels, and rich europens right next door in a house that has won architectural design awards and is FENCED off!!!???? My conclusion - a whole bunch of hippies on drugs, trying to seek acceptance from others rather than being happy with who they are.....or some other drivel! Anyway.....their renewable energy jazz was quite interesting and some of the architecture was quite stunning!

Not sure how my French friend is doing, but the other two took off on their bicycles and left me to get a rickshaw where there were no rickshaw 17 Km back to town.......end result????? after a tiny panic I managed to talk two korean girls to let me share their rickshaw with them and thier two bikes!

After catching up with Katya and Tashina (friends from Bagepalli)back in Pondi for dinner and amusement park rides (I am not sure the amount of rust on those things is terribly amusing) I decided it was time to get out of pindi and head north.....for all of the hype, although it was relaxing and enjoyable there was not really all that much to see!

I  DID  however manage to find a  place that made good coffee.....and spent a couple of hours there talking to some couple from america, live in a commmune their and appeared to come to pondi every year to find FREEDOM!!! A littleless dramatic than braveheart!

Conclusion - To truly appreciate pondi you must be in a cult or on mind altering drugs!