We left Munnar in the early evening and knew that we were going to be stopping somewhere to change coaches. We still don’t know where we ended up stopping (it was a typical busy, dirty, stinking bus station) but we used the opportunity to have a little snack and a good nimbu pani (we were still stuffed from the thali earlier). We got on the connecting bus without a hitch and arrived in Villupuram after sunrise where we were to catch a local bus for Pondicherry. We were initially expecting to get to Villupuram at around 3am (that is what the ticket agents in Munnar told us) but had found out earlier in the journey that it would be later (around 5 am). That was pleasing to say the least as more sleep and being dropped off later had obvious benefits. This place was even more of a dirty mosquito ridden dump and would have felt even more grim at 3am. We took turns to use the public toilets, which were unpleasant, and then headed for the chai stand to see what sickly sweet delights we could charge our bodies with. It wasn't long before we were tucking into some biscuits and chai.....along with a gold flake.
We waited untill we heard someone shouting 'Pondicherry, pondicherry, pondicherry!' At which point we were directed by the guy onto one bus and then told to get out and get on another one as it trundled past! We hopped out and up again. The only thing quiet about this bus was the amount of people on it, about 8 in all.......all staring, just for a change!
It was 5.30am and off we trundled onto the busy street, Hindu music blaring, driver shouting and tooting and all the time being stared at by 8 pairs of Inquisitive eyes.....
Pondicherry, renamed Puducherry in ’06, sits on the seafront and was formerly colonised by the French. It still has pockets of French culture and some beautiful architecture, and is apparently also a good place to go and stay in an ashram style guesthouse. When we got to India I was quite keen on spending some time in an ashram to see what they were all about. Literally meaning ‘a place of striving’, they are places for ‘spiritual and personal improvement’, and a stay in one involves abstinence, meditation, yoga, mainly always vegetarian food and some other strict guidelines, such as a complete sex ban or positive encouragement to have plenty! But seeing as we didn’t spend any time in an ashram itself, I thought we could stay in a guesthouse with only some rules to follow and yoga and meditation on offer if we wanted it and Matt agreed. After looking forward to it out of curiosity, we turned up at the Park Guesthouse and Matt jumped out to check for availability. The man at the gate was rude and unhelpful which was disappointing, and the guesthouse was full, so we decided to head to a normal guesthouse we had seen on the way. Never mind. We did look for some more ashram style guesthouses later in the day but we decided it wasn’t going to happen and had a look around Pondicherry instead.
My next car
The seafront
The obligatory Gandhi statue
Pondicherry is also talked about for its' array of 'fine French food and wine' so we were hoping to get in on some of that action! In the end we found the restaurants to be a little too expensive, and decided instead to wait till we got back home for some good food and wine and ate some local food instead. The following morning however, we found a restaurant serving an English breakfast and it turned out to be good which pleased Matt’s belly. We intended on leaving for our next destination the following day (from the limited time that we stayed there we found that Pondicherry didn’t do much for us) and there wasn’t much to see in Pondicherry, so we hired a motorbike to drive to a place called Auroville 12km away.
Auroville is a project in ‘human unity’ and consists of an international community, encircling more than 90 communities (about 2000 people), spread over 20km. The project was started 40 years ago in ’68 on a barren plateau of largely red earth and not much else, but due to their consistent tree-planting efforts, the first pioneers of Auroville have turned the area into lush green landscape in which a ‘city’ is starting to take shape. It is not a tourist attraction per se, and you can stay there if you like, but seeing as we only had a day we decided to visit the visitors centre instead to see what Auroville was all about.
Once we were off the main road into Auroville it was quite a long drive to the visitors’ centre (which was not well signposted) but it was pleasant and quiet. The red dirt roads were lined with trees and fields and the odd guesthouse or organic plantation of some kind. We ended up making a few u-turns and stops to ask people where the centre was and we eventually got there, hoping we would have enough fuel to get back seeing as there weren’t many petrol stations around!
The visitor centre was smart and informative and we learnt quite a bit from the various displays.
Auroville is the invention of The Mother and was created as ‘an experimentation in international living where people could live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, politics and nationalities’. The layout of the ‘city’ was also seen as a reflection of their beliefs for unison. In the spiritual and physical centre is the Matrimandir, the soul of Auroville, and four zones (cultural, international, industrial, residential) radiate out from it.
The Matrimandir contains a silent inner chamber lined with white marble and houses the largest (70cm diameter) solid crystal in the world. The suns rays are beamed into the crystal from a tracking mirror in the roof but as a visitor you get to see only the golden outside.
Each community has its own area of work interest or expertise, such as organic farming, arts and dance, herbal medicine, women’s groups etc. They even have a Solar Kitchen, powered totally by solar energy, which serves over 500 meals a day.
We had mixed feelings about the place with regards to its ideas about a better future, some seem promising and some not, in our opinion, so it will be interesting to visit again in ten years time. We decided to head back to Pondicherry after we were done in Auroville, stopping in a local fishing village along the way.
We even stopped at a spirulina farm so I could stock up on the algae superfood. It's amazing stuff you know! And it was so cheap. The drive back to Pondicherry through the traffic was fun because there wasn’t too much of it but Matt got to test out his horn lots! It was good not to be on public transport and if we were to come back again to India one day, I think we would seriously think about buying an Enfield motorbike. Dangerous, we know, but it seems to be the only way you get to really get off the banana pancake trail excluding walking.
Later that evening, back in Pondicherry, we tested out some French dishes in the restaurant we had found. Although it was tasty, it wasn’t as good as we were made to believe but we did choose a relatively cheap French restaurant. Who knows.
Next on the hit list (and the last port of call before the Andaman and Nicobar islands!!) was Mahabalipuram, further North up the coast of Pondicherry and famous for its rock carvings. By this point in our trip, we weren’t too bothered about ‘sightseeing’ any more, and were just looking forward to relaxing in peace and quiet. However, seeing as Mahabalipuram was closer to the airport for our flight to the islands, we decided to head there and caught a bus the next morning.
The bus journey was bumpy and I had the wind blowing hard into my face for the two hour journey, but we couldn’t care less as this was another last for us in India (yay again). It was to be a short stay in Mahaballipuram, so after checking into Tina Guesthouse, we went for a wander. It’s a small place and consisted of the usual small shops, restaurants and travel agents. We enquired about booking our flights home (exciting and scary), got on the internet to write some last emails and then thought about dinner. We had passed many prawn farms on the way, and the place is supposed to be known for its cheap seafood, so we were looking forward to some jumbo prawns. Following our restaurant inspection we were quite surprised, and disappointed, to find that the prawns weren’t that cheap and their cost varied a lot, sometimes 3 or 4 times more times more expensive in some. We ended up at a dud restaurant in the end and had a rubbish meal, followed by a spoonful of sugar breath fresheners that on closer inspection was riddled ith ants! (Matt quickly ejected his mouthfull over the balcony!!). It was a shame but we headed back to our rooms as we were pretty tired.
The next day was spent on bicycles, taking in the sights of the Five Rathas and the Shore Temple. The description of the Five Rathas is long and mostly boring. Being close to the sea they were hidden in the sand until discovered by the British 200 years ago.
Once finished, we got back on our bicycles and took the long way around the village for some exercise and to see what else was around. As soon as we arrived at the Shore Temple and before we got off our bikes, we were accosted by a local trying to sell us leather chappals (flip flops). This time I was actually interested in buying the ones he had so I promised to return later.
The guidebook made the Shore Temple out to be quite ‘majestic’ but we weren’t too sure.
To be honest, I think we were both templed out and couldn’t give a monkeys about it but I wont do it the injustice of not saying something about it. It was built a long time ago in the 7th century and represents the ‘final phase of Pallava art) and contains shrines for both Shiva and Vishnu (I think).
With the sightseeing over and done with we headed back (not without buying my chappals) to the village, picked up our air tickets, and went for dinner at a better, but still not amazing, seafood place. It was an early start the next day and we were excited! We had been looking forward to some island life in the Andaman and Nicobar islands for a while, and it couldn’t have come sooner.
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