Puducherry - Old French colonies and hippie communes

Pondicherry, 21st - 23rd February.

Remnants of old French colonies

First things first. Cheaper than Mamallapuram, "backpackistan." We stayed in a heritage house based off French Colonial era with high ceilings, wooden pillars, antique furniture, wooden staircase and roof patio (where we enjoyed our breakfasts in style). And we paid just as much for our room here as we did in Malla. Real luxury! We had free wifi, a large comfy bed in a stained class window room and got a full breakfast of toast, eggs, coffee/tea/ fruit juice and what have you, for less than 3 usd.

Food in Pondi is at half the cost than in Malla. And there are loads of little gems of restaurants to be found where we got an extra-ordinary amount of food for what otherwise would've been a meagre meal in Mamallapuram. Food so far in south India has been incredibly savoury. No dish has disappointed and everything has been so incredibly yummy!


An old canal - or open sewer - divides the city into east and west. The more French part being on the east side (closer to the sea, obviously!)where the lesser spotted street signs still say 'Rue' instead of street, and the more Indian side being on the west.

Blessing elephant

The collection of cobble stoned roads lined with colourful town hosues in varying conditions, walking through Bharathi Park, where Indian and colonial influences is evident in the design with sculptures of Shiva and other gods guarding the entrances, while old canons line up neatly buried in the central flower bed really make it a delightful experience. Inevitably, everyone stumbles onto the  beach promenade where people gather to admire the Gandhi statue and have masala tea from one of the many vendors on the side of the path, while watching the sunset (Also where we incidentally came across our friendly friend Max from Malla, a very pleasant surprise indeed). And if you walk far enough in any direction you spill out on the busy streets of typical India where scooters are plenty, the aroma of delicious curries fill the air, and where, if you stumble into the right road, there is a real live elephant ready to bless you for a few coins.

Being an old French colony, it's not surprising we stumbled upon a plethora of churches. One of which was "Notre dames des anges" Ian, being the art historian manage to guide Christa through the church describing architectural details and the layout amongst other things.

Even the streets were laid out in a typical grid like fashion which was very planned out, evidence of modern urban planning. The main reason was to get rid of the mosquito's as the grid like streets create a wind tunnel effect to blow them away. If you notice how at home the grid like streets are windier than usual (in Toronto, blasting cold air plow the wind tunnel like streets downtown in winter)

Notre Dames des Anges in Pondicherry

Pondicherry provided us with our first attempt at keeping pace with the Indian traffic with our measly one gear scooter.We rented a scooter and dived into the traffic, navigating our way through a larger part of the city whilst desperately trying to avoid an accident in the chaotic streets. The main reason for getting the scooter was to head out 14km from the city to see the infamous "hippie" commune called Auroville, built in commemoration of Aurobindo, the "mother" (a term given to to female spiritual leaders) of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. This Ashram is located in Pondicherry and seeks to synthesise yoga and modern science.

Matrimandir /Auroville center ball of "concentration"

Auroville is a 'new age' concept of an international community in the process of creating a 'universal township for a population of about 50, 000 from around the world. "Auroville wants to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity."
The community researches and experiments with subsistence ways of living and everyone in the community has their  part to play.

With the "new age hype" and one of the most organized hippie communes, it's a bit anticlimactic to experience as a 'visitor'. Visitors may merely roam around the information area, eat at the overly priced but delicious cafeteria (or restaurants along the road) and shop at street stalls of your choosing. There is very little chance to see the actual community or interact with the "Aurovillians" (expats seeking a self indulgent rustic escape).Visitors do, however, have the honor of having a glimpse at the outside of the Matrimandir (the holy grail or 'spiritual heart' of Auroville). The Matrimander matches the shape of a giant gold golf ball stuck in dirt, consisting of a chamber lined with white marble and in the centre flaunts a solid crystal 70cm in diameter (the largest in the world) for all of Auroville (pop. 50,000) to see. The Matrimandir can only be accessed by Aurovillians which they use as a place for deep 'concentration' (as apposed to meditation).

Banyan tree with roots stretching from
the branches

Personally the most impressive part of Auroville (accessible to visitors) is the Banyan tree (where the inauguration ceremony of Auroville was held in 1968). The Banyan tree is both a sacred tree and the national tree of India. It is believed that the leaves of the Banyan tree is the resting place of Krishna. The Banyan is a fig plant that starts it's live on a host tree. The seeds of the plant germinate and send down roots straight to the ground, sometimes down the trunk of the host tree or shooting straight down from the branches, giving the appearance of giant wooden columns coming down from an outstretched green canopy.

To us Auroville seemed a bit pretentious and had an air of exclusivity. But we spoke to an acquaintance who had previously volunteered in Auroville for 3 months and he said that if you get involved in the community and stay there for a while that it really is a magical place of peace and harmony with wondrous experiences to be had.

Back in Pondicherry, after a nice little tour of the old French Colony, that included a succulent "steak au poivre" and "coq du vin", we headed out on a night bus to Madurai.

http://www.hotelcoramandal.hostel.com/ - great place to stay. Beautiful, clean, good location and the people who work there are super friendly and helpful. Rooms of various price ranges, our room was 900 rupees a night. Highly recommend this place.

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