Yes, I really spoke those words.....
This is because I am now in Pondicherry - the old french colonial seaside town which manages to mix french speaking Indians and hectic tamil street stalls, honking richshaws and empty french architecture-filled streets in a pot and create a chilled out place where dosas meet croissants (in my stomach) quite happily. Whats more, the ashram where I am staying serves the best cheapest coffee in town whilst overlooking the sea. Someone is a happy bunny.....
My last post began on the train to Bangalore which was a good calming stop over ....I was told to give in to Adi's mum spoiling me and so the next few days consisted mainly of eating lots of wonderful home cooked food, short trips into town, discovering new breakfasts (like crumbled chapattis in warm milk and sugar), a visit to the Bangalore Club where Churchill still has a debt of 15 Rupees and seeing Adi.
Bangalore is a very green and yet its not really a walking city between enclaves.... It is 'high tech city' but in all reality it is still just a bustling place with as many potholes and street filling antics as any other. There are fruit-sellers with mountains of watermelons everywhere, countless stray dogs and cows with their horns painted. One never walks on the pavement - in most of India this is true- as it continuously goes up and down if it isn't being dug up or covered with rubble....
We (me and Adi) took a day trip to Mysore which is one of the most touristy experiences of my life - the bus even stopped off at shops and in the evening a lit up musical fountain that 'danced' to bollywood tracks! Yup, only in India.... However, the Palace at Mysore was impressive and Tipu Sultan's summer palace, the first place we visited in Sriangapatnam was worth the 16 turned bus journey (and the punctured tire on the way back). It was a gorgeous two floor indo-islamic design with every wall, ceiling, surface bar the floor painted in trees, flowers and geometric patterns. Thought the paint was peeling and it wasn't well looked after its the only place I would want to revisit.
It was lovely spending time with Adi, meeting his friends, getting my first coconut water, seeing his old neighbourhood and generally catching up. So five days later, armed with lots of Adi's mums recipes written down, I left on a sleeper bus to Pondicherry and back to the sea.
One thing people tell you to see when you go to Pondy is to check out a place called Auroville - a small international community with land bought by 124 countries that has new age bonkers written all over it. In the name of Totnes I thought I had to go. It also has a reputation for lots of artists and craft and amazing paper....
Deciding to save money I'd been told by the women who booked my flights that I could get a bus there. I knew I'd have to walk through a village a little way to get there, so when the bus dropped me off on the main road I set off expectantly. I passed scores of coconut trees blown over in fields, which I'd been told is the reason that Pondy is hotter then normal for this time of year, a steaming 32-36 degrees with about 50-60 % humidity. In Pondy there is always a light breeze as its on the coast but in land it was a different game entirely. It was hot, seriously hot. But with the same stubborness of my mother on a long walk I was determined not to give in- it was good to feel like I was doing something. Besides, dotted every 500 meters was a few shops with names like Auroville boutique and cafes serving drinks should I want to stop.... My family may remember a time when we walked several hours in the Sinai Desert to the town that never seemed to get closer - and then we discovered it was 10 K away. This wasn't too dissimilar. The woman at the travel agency had omitted the fact that the walk was 8 K which was why I was the only one walking - everyone else passing me on rickshaws or motorbikes.
Eventually I arrived....exhausted.... The visitor center after explained the new age idea of a township outside of nations boundaries and prejudice bla bla bla with no religion .... everyone works but there is no money and no religion and yet everyone seems to worship this french woman called The Mother and a guru called Sri Aurobindo.......and to top it off there is a big bizarre gold ball look a like monument that isnt meant to be a shrine but no one is allowed in to see the crystal that represents something significant.
The only achievement I really saw was in the environmental issues - lots of organic farming, solar power and re-forestation - and craft. That said, the paper was no more impressive then some I've seen in Paperworks in Totnes i.e. not worth carrying home. I was too tired to really explore and it didn't seem like one could really just wander into Auroville itself with much welcome. I took a rickshaw back, resolute in the fact that I'd seen a lot of countryside and several real Indian villages and had a (mostly) enjoyable long walk.
I like walking and rickshaws don't seem to get this..... however, they do have a lovely policy of closing the road by the sea every evening from 6 pm so people can walk freely up and down the beach .
The only real frustration I've had in Pondy is that unlike Bangalore where no one cares, here I feel like a walking exhibit. By the end of last night I was ready to smack the next person who asked for a photo- I look forward to being anonymous again. That said, I've been drawing and found some very happy models and some not so happy models. Last night I was eating in a restaurant that was busy when a man, without looking at me or asking, rudely sat opposite on my two person table. I got my sketchbook out and drew him and having drawn up his own fate, he couldn't really move tables.ha.I felt we were even by the end.
Next I travel onwards to Madurai and possibly into Kerela or the Western Ghats..... and then mid- april I fly up to Delhi to explore the north- up into the great Himalayas: Long family walks on Dartmoor and elsewhere will not have been in vain......
love
L. x
This is because I am now in Pondicherry - the old french colonial seaside town which manages to mix french speaking Indians and hectic tamil street stalls, honking richshaws and empty french architecture-filled streets in a pot and create a chilled out place where dosas meet croissants (in my stomach) quite happily. Whats more, the ashram where I am staying serves the best cheapest coffee in town whilst overlooking the sea. Someone is a happy bunny.....
My last post began on the train to Bangalore which was a good calming stop over ....I was told to give in to Adi's mum spoiling me and so the next few days consisted mainly of eating lots of wonderful home cooked food, short trips into town, discovering new breakfasts (like crumbled chapattis in warm milk and sugar), a visit to the Bangalore Club where Churchill still has a debt of 15 Rupees and seeing Adi.
Bangalore is a very green and yet its not really a walking city between enclaves.... It is 'high tech city' but in all reality it is still just a bustling place with as many potholes and street filling antics as any other. There are fruit-sellers with mountains of watermelons everywhere, countless stray dogs and cows with their horns painted. One never walks on the pavement - in most of India this is true- as it continuously goes up and down if it isn't being dug up or covered with rubble....
We (me and Adi) took a day trip to Mysore which is one of the most touristy experiences of my life - the bus even stopped off at shops and in the evening a lit up musical fountain that 'danced' to bollywood tracks! Yup, only in India.... However, the Palace at Mysore was impressive and Tipu Sultan's summer palace, the first place we visited in Sriangapatnam was worth the 16 turned bus journey (and the punctured tire on the way back). It was a gorgeous two floor indo-islamic design with every wall, ceiling, surface bar the floor painted in trees, flowers and geometric patterns. Thought the paint was peeling and it wasn't well looked after its the only place I would want to revisit.
It was lovely spending time with Adi, meeting his friends, getting my first coconut water, seeing his old neighbourhood and generally catching up. So five days later, armed with lots of Adi's mums recipes written down, I left on a sleeper bus to Pondicherry and back to the sea.
One thing people tell you to see when you go to Pondy is to check out a place called Auroville - a small international community with land bought by 124 countries that has new age bonkers written all over it. In the name of Totnes I thought I had to go. It also has a reputation for lots of artists and craft and amazing paper....
Deciding to save money I'd been told by the women who booked my flights that I could get a bus there. I knew I'd have to walk through a village a little way to get there, so when the bus dropped me off on the main road I set off expectantly. I passed scores of coconut trees blown over in fields, which I'd been told is the reason that Pondy is hotter then normal for this time of year, a steaming 32-36 degrees with about 50-60 % humidity. In Pondy there is always a light breeze as its on the coast but in land it was a different game entirely. It was hot, seriously hot. But with the same stubborness of my mother on a long walk I was determined not to give in- it was good to feel like I was doing something. Besides, dotted every 500 meters was a few shops with names like Auroville boutique and cafes serving drinks should I want to stop.... My family may remember a time when we walked several hours in the Sinai Desert to the town that never seemed to get closer - and then we discovered it was 10 K away. This wasn't too dissimilar. The woman at the travel agency had omitted the fact that the walk was 8 K which was why I was the only one walking - everyone else passing me on rickshaws or motorbikes.
Eventually I arrived....exhausted.... The visitor center after explained the new age idea of a township outside of nations boundaries and prejudice bla bla bla with no religion .... everyone works but there is no money and no religion and yet everyone seems to worship this french woman called The Mother and a guru called Sri Aurobindo.......and to top it off there is a big bizarre gold ball look a like monument that isnt meant to be a shrine but no one is allowed in to see the crystal that represents something significant.
The only achievement I really saw was in the environmental issues - lots of organic farming, solar power and re-forestation - and craft. That said, the paper was no more impressive then some I've seen in Paperworks in Totnes i.e. not worth carrying home. I was too tired to really explore and it didn't seem like one could really just wander into Auroville itself with much welcome. I took a rickshaw back, resolute in the fact that I'd seen a lot of countryside and several real Indian villages and had a (mostly) enjoyable long walk.
I like walking and rickshaws don't seem to get this..... however, they do have a lovely policy of closing the road by the sea every evening from 6 pm so people can walk freely up and down the beach .
The only real frustration I've had in Pondy is that unlike Bangalore where no one cares, here I feel like a walking exhibit. By the end of last night I was ready to smack the next person who asked for a photo- I look forward to being anonymous again. That said, I've been drawing and found some very happy models and some not so happy models. Last night I was eating in a restaurant that was busy when a man, without looking at me or asking, rudely sat opposite on my two person table. I got my sketchbook out and drew him and having drawn up his own fate, he couldn't really move tables.ha.I felt we were even by the end.
Next I travel onwards to Madurai and possibly into Kerela or the Western Ghats..... and then mid- april I fly up to Delhi to explore the north- up into the great Himalayas: Long family walks on Dartmoor and elsewhere will not have been in vain......
love
L. x
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