global_adventure

Bonjour Pondicherry! Sep 23, 2004

We set off from Chennai in the late morning to board a bus to Pondicherry. We got on a ricketty old local bus with a driver who appeared intent on setting 2 new world records - the fastest speed to go over a hump in the road and to see how high he could propel the back of the bus up in the air as the aftershock effect. Looking at the faces of the experienced locals, the driver set a new state record but needed to keep practising for the world record accolade. Once off the bus after a 3 hour journey (with Kiran adopting a strange walking style as a result of the arse crunching journey!) we got to a hotel detailed in the Lonely Planet and relaxed for the rest of the day. Pondicherry is a strange mix of French and South Indian influences with our hotel, Villa Helena on Rue Bussy. The villa was typically French with the rooms arranged around a pretty courtyard. We'd wake up to fresh croissants for breakfast, then wander around the French quarter. The highlight of the trip was the food and drink. The novelty of Europen food was great. Long French baguettes and next to no taxes on the beer. It didn't feel like India if you ignored the Hindi and Tamil speaking Rickshaw drivers and it is the cleanest town that we have come across so far. One afternoon we went to see Auroville. Auroville is a community established in 1968 near Pondicherry. There are aout 2,000 people living there rom 64 different countries. No one person can own anything within Auroville as it is supposed to belong to humanity as a whole. You can only stay there if you want to undertake research (into energy sources; medical advances; etc) or study literature and the Arts. Many businesses in Pondicherry are owned by Auroville - from hotels and tour guides to boutiques selling a whole range of products made at Auroville (e.g. paper, candles, clothes, shoes, etc). Auroville appeared to be very idealistic at first glance and so it came as no surprise when we later found out that there was a lot of bickering amongst the inhabitants. It seems that there is no such thing as a non-materialistic, harmonious community! We took a "luxury" bus on our return bus journey back to Chennai. The only luxury was a reclining seat, but apart from that it was the same bus with the driver who was from the same family as the last driver!

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