The moment has finally come. When I was sat at the airport, on the plane, the first few days back at the beginning of September this seemed so far away. And I guess it was.
So, for my last week in India I headed across to Pondicherry... did I mention that? Pondicherry is nice, very French,and just in case I didnt mention i, what I was told was a 9 hour 2 bus ride overnight to get there was in fact, a 19 hour 4 bus ride.
Anyway, the real reason I went to Tamil Nadu (the state wot it's in) was to see Auroville, a place I nearly went to 3 weeks earlier instead of Viswadarsanam. It's a model, international town founded in 1967 by two fairly religious hippy types. I was told it was all self sufficient communities, no money everybody pitching in etc., but actually, it's not at all. There's money and profiteering just like everywhere else, the hippies are dying out and the people who live there expect people who visit to pay more for everything. Having said that, there are still a lot of hippies, a different breed to the ones in Goa, they can still remember who they are but nobody cares.
I still had a great time in Auroville (despite the downpours), as yet again I met a really good group of people, and no silly English types! When we went out to Pondicherry on the Saturday night to watch the football (the results of which we won't mention) there was me, an Irishman, a German, an American and a Brazilian. Sounds like the beginning of a very long joke. And the only place we could find that would show the football was Pizza Hut, who don't serve alcohol. So, with 1/2 an hour before the game, we nipped down the road to a bar for a beer, then back for the football. Then again at half time, again at full time, and half timeof the second match. Each time we came back to reclaim our table in front of the bar at Pizza Hut, we ordered our pizza a little louder than the time before.
What else? We played few games of poker, I came a frustrating and incalculably unfortunate third each time (just missing out on the cash, although rupees don't count for much). On the last night, between the restaurant and the poker game, the bike broke on Irish Steve's moped (the rubbish ones we all had) and so I towed him the last 10-15 minutes with him holding the back of mine- a tricky manuvere, but we pulled it off! Half way through, my bike cut out too, although luckily there was still some fuel left in the reserve tank. That was no good when it was time to ride the 2 kilometres through the woods back from a beery poker game (I came third) and my moped wouldn't start. American Zeb and I tried the same thing, although for some reason it didn't work so well, as we kept swerving too close and far away. Then I had the slightly silly idea of hooking the back of my sandal to the back of his moped, cleverly leaving both my hands free to steer. Unfortunately, it also meant that when Zeb wobbled I couldn't stick my leg out, and flopped slowly into the mud. After a while, Zeb noticed and came back for me, although I was good enough not to move until he could see me with the bike on top of me in the road. We got better at it, perfectly sweeping a corner, before I found that the moped would start again andzoomed off. When I finally got back, I realised that we'd both left our bags behind and we had to head off again, me on the back of Zeb's moped. And when we got back to the party, we realised we might as well stay a while longer!
So I made everyone a proper English breakfast to make us feelbetter in the morning.
Then, aftera large lunch, I went and got on a bus to Kochin, and now I'm here, killing time before I head to the airport for my 4am flight. I'm quite looking forward to the flight, nice comfy seat, food and drinks brought to me, a film that's in English- much nicer than the 16 hour journey here!
So, in conclusion to the trip, I've had a swimming whale of a time. People, myself included, have asked me what my favourite place was, my highlight of the trip. It's not a very easy qustion to answer.The Himalayas are beautiful, Rajasthan enchanting, Goa was a lot of fun... but I really have to say it's the people that have made it, and those are the memories I'll take with me. I've had a lot of fun, and made some great friends. You know who you are... no, not you, cocky! I meant everyone else... no really, you've been great. And now I'm looking forward to seeing everybody who weren't here, which is everybody else. I'm also very much looking forward to not eating any fluffy rice that leaves you hungry again an hour later no matter how much you eat, and my first hot shower in 2 1/2 months.
I guess I should also say, India is great.You should come, really. I mean, it a bit smelly and dirty,and thereare infuriatingly stupid cows everywhere, but the people are really nice, except the ones who own shops and rickshaws and try and rip you off, there's an innocence about them and they wear their hearts on their sleeves. When they feel a certain way about something, they really feel that way about it. And they're all a bit mental.
Roger and out
