TNB - Pondicherry and STREET SIGNS!

I still contend that the most amazing part of Pondicherry were the street signs on every corner. Honestly, in every other town in India, I could turn left 5 times and still not get back to where I started. We stayed in an overpriced room, but really just enjoyed being able to turn left 4 times and get back to square one. I'm not kidding - it was really that great not getting lost by walking straight.

So we walked around - a lot. Up, down, left, right, and just enjoyed the order. Miraculously, we found a 24-hour food joint (Salt 'n' Pepa - at 1:30 in the morning) and had ourselves a late dinner. The next day we headed to the beach... make that rock-wall-next-to-ocean. With our beach plans shot, we decided to go to Auroville, the utopian society founded on Sri Aurobindo's principles and set up by a French lady they call "The Mother." It's hard to explain what Auroville is or is trying to be. It's doing some pretty cool sustainable energy research, but it's Matrimandir is really a piece of art. The only way I can describe it is a mutant golf-ball that Snoop Dogg would play with. Then you read about it and find out how cool it is. The large, round, all-white-carpeted inner sanctum contains no murti - just a crystal ball upon which sunlight shines throughout the day, reflected into the sanctum by electronically controlled mirrors. A light-focuser kicks in on cloudy days to ensure a constant beam of light on the ball. It's a sanctum where one supposedly can fee the presence of Brahman in all of His attribute-less glory.

Then we found out we couldn't go in. Or visit any of the people of Auroville. So after 2 stale pieces of cake at their cafe we left.

Back at Pondicherry, we hit up a place that promised wood-fired pizza. We got two delicious wood-fired pizzas and then headed to the rooftop bar nearby for a couple of drinks. There we met a Canadian and a Swiss girl. Both were travelling in India by themselves, for which I have the utmost respect. This is not a country that can be very friendly to single female travellers. Both were there to study yoga. It's no surprise people come to India looking for spirituality or yoga and just come away confused. Both girls came to India looking for Hatha Yoga - Human-Pretzel-Yoga as I call it, and popularized in the West - and were surprised to find that most of India doesn't really take Hatha Yoga all that seriously. They were very interested in finding a proper yoga ashram to study hatha yoga, but weren't having much luck. Also no surprise - only in the west can you START with Hatha Yoga. The Ashrams here were telling them to master meditation for 15 minutes before even thinking about hatha yoga.

You mean I came all the way to India and now you're telling me I just have to sit still?! Hehe.