This weekend I decided to get out of the Shanti Bhavan
“bubble” and go to Pondicherry, a beach French colonial town. It took a loonnng
time to get there, 7 ½ hours! We hired a driver to take us there so it wasn’t
extremely bad since we didn’t have to take a bus, but still we had to travel
through monsoon weather, etc. We reached Pondicherry at 11:30 pm and went
directly to bed to get up early the next…one problem though, our motel was next
to a mosque so we heard the loud speakers proclaiming the “call to pray”
throughout the night.
Hiring a driver for the weekend was extremely convenient and
we were able to go everywhere we wanted to go, hassle-free (aka no
autorickshaws). It was a weekend of sightseeing! We started our day by travelling to the nearby
city of Auroville, which is basically a commune. “The Mother” who believed in a
community where there is no religion but that everyone lives “divinely” started
it. There are 2100 foreigners living this lifestyle in India. The center of the
commune is basically a golden “Epcot!” Followers can meditate inside the golden
Epcot. Auroville was a nice break from city-life with gorgeous paths through
forests.
After Auroville we went to a wonderful beachside café. The
beach at Pondicherry was more like rocks, no sand. Still it was nice to see and
smell the ocean again. The French Quarter of Pondcherry was so different than
the rest of India cities. It was calm and clean! We were able to stroll through
the French Quarter free of cares ad enjoyed an afternoon of shopping. Indian
money, by the way, is a pain to deal with. You have to carry a lot of it with
you since the exchange rate is 50 rupees to $1.
It’s really difficult to pay for things efficiently when the cost is
1000 rupees.
The highlight of the day though was going to the Manakkula
Vinayakar Temple. I was even blessed by an elephant! Basically you put a rupee
or 2 in the elephant’s trunk and it bops you on the head. I decided to get
blessed twice, Lord know I need it. J The
temple was beautiful with tons of colorful decorations, etc. Soon it became obvious
though that we were the “main attraction” at the temple. A huge family called
out to us asking where we were from. Next thing we knew it was like being
attacked by the paparazzi. The family started taking pictures of us and with
us. The mother of the family was touching my arms and my hair, even pulling on
my pink feather telling me that she liked it.
It was a little overwhelming!
It was quite rainy in Pondicherry, but we were still
able to enjoy a nice garlic and parsley shrimp dinner on a rooftop garden. I am
very addicted to the fresh lime and lemon soda (basically lemon/lime juice with
soda and sugar added). I even had some
chocolate ice cream.
The trip ended with a trip to a museum, which was so
interesting. They had artifacts from the 1st century B.C. when a
there was an ancient Roman trade town near Pondicherry. The ironic thing was
that they really didn’t care about the preservation of these artifacts. There
was no temperature control and all the display cases were broken as if someone
tried to steal the artifacts. You could touch everything and anything! We also
went to two Catholic churches, which were decorated over the top with lights, bright
colors, etc.
I was very impressed by Pondicherry. The people were
extremely nice and I had so many conversations with people on the streets, in
the museum, in the churches. They have a lot of foreigners there, but for some
reason I found that we were the most popular to talk to…maybe it was because it
was 3 girls traveling alone. Even in the church, the little girls took a break
from praying to wave. Pondicherry was a great escape.
