Category Archives: _Asia_

Pondicherry

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From Auroville we continued to Pondicherry, a nice coastal town, which used to be – from the mid 17th century – a French colony and still shows it today. Some streets have the feel of a French town close to the Atlantic ocean, also this is probably one of the few places throughout my India trip with decent croissants readily available 😉

We made it into Pondicherry around mid-day and – after a great thali lunch – had some time for a self-guided / google-maps supported walk around town … a more proper tour was given in the evening … before we made it to a pre-dinner drink and a fairly French influenced dinner.

Auroville

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On the way to Pondicherry we had a stop at Auroville – and probably one of the odder places on the whole trip.

The community of Auroville was originally founded by the Mother back in the late 1960s, the community is dedicated to peace, equality, generosity, goodness, courage, progress, receptivity, aspiration, persistence, gratitude, humility and sincerity – plus above all the ‘divine consciousness’.

All is supposedly non-religious and even free of religion – to me however it felt pretty much like a religion in itself – with its own value- and belief system.

Check wikipedia and auroville.org for more information.

On the Kaveri Express

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We left Mysore in the evening – after dinner with a local family. Chennai, at the East coast was our destination … a mere 500 kilometers (at least when following rail tracks) or an almost twelve hour night train journey away.

The train journey was uneventful, the train not overly comfortable – with the experience being similar to an old-style Chinese hard sleeper.

Kashmiri Chillies anyone?

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After our return to town and a quick lunch we headed our for Devaraja market for some good photo opportunities – and (for some) serious shopping – from white lentils, Kashmiri chillies to an idli maker.

Leaving Ooty …

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We left Ooty, now continuing to our jungle retreat near Mudumalai National Park.

With Ooty well beyond 2000 meters above sea level, the drive was downhill most of the time – following a dangerous ghat road with plenty of serpentines and switchbacks – and dramatic views.