Hello Pondicherry and farewell India

We didn't have the finest introduction to Pondicherry and unfortunately it seemed to set the tone for the trip.

We arrived at the bus station feeling tired and stringy after a flight from Goa and a four-hour bus from Chennai, and as we stepped off the bus there was an overwhelming smell of wee. We went in search of a tuk-tuk and saw a tramp asleep in a pile of wee (presumably his own, although you never know in India).

Pondicherry, affectionately known as "Pondy"and officially called Puducherry, was under French control, with the odd interruption from the British and Dutch, from 1674 to until 1954. Wandering through the old part of town it would be easy to believe you were in France if it weren't for the regular "HONK, HONK!" from mopeds and tuk-tuks.

The French-style old town in Pondy.

This part of town is very pretty but after an hour or two wandering about the tree-lined streets there isn't much more to see or do. So we went in search of the Botanical Gardens from 1826 which sounded lovely in the guide book: "...an oasis on the south-west side of town."

When we arrived the distinct smell of wee returned and we were greeted by a unkempt park with hardly any plants or flowers. Unfinished water fountains were rotting into the ground and empty patches of lands housed welded bits of metal and a broken children's play area. It was very bizarre and a bit sad.

There was a "Joy Train" that did a circuit around the park but the park didn't have much joy to view.

The not so joyful Botanical Gardens in Pondicherry.

I felt even more sad about the gardens when I heard that they were the basis of the zoological gardens in Yann Martel's best-selling novel Life of Pi (2001). When reading this book (like many people, I'm sure), I conjured up images of what the zoo in Pondicherry might look like and it certainly wasn't what I saw at the Botanical Gardens! If you're a Life of Pi enthusiast then please don't make a special visit to Pondicherry to see this park - you will only be disappointed.

After the park we then had the strange experience that is Pondicherry Museum. This houses a random collection of items including old currency, furniture, finds from archaeological digs and historical horse carts. It's all presented really badly in no logical order and everything looks like it needs a good dust. The staff just sit there while the exhibitions rot around them.

There was one room dedicated to types of granite (thrilling, I know!) and the cabinets had obviously been moved at some point and the pieces of granite had all moved around and just been left in disarray in the cabinets for what looked like years.

Luke in Pondicherry Museum with part of the exhibition, or is it an abandoned bit of furniture? Who knows.

It's not all bad in Pondy - it is home to a grand promenade. Although very quiet in the day due to the crippling heat, the promenade on the sea front was an interesting and bustling place at sunset. Lots of families and even the odd couple came out to take a walk in the cooling air and eat from the little stalls which had popped up. It's also worth visiting to see the Gandhi statue (seen with Luke at the top of this blog) which is said to be the largest in the world.

Pondicherry promenade as the suns starting to set.

To get around in Pondy we hired a moped which became a complicated process due to our request for helmets. Basically no one in Pondy wears a helmet - not even the police. It's hard to explain to Indians why we want helmets because they just laugh and say: "It's not law!" To which we reply we value our heads too much not to wear one - said while miming our heads hitting the pavement - which just makes them laugh more.

India's so dangerous I took to wearing my helmet while just walking around.

While in Pondy people kept mentioning a mysterious place called "Auroville" but we couldn't seem to get a definitive answer from people as to what it was. It's only 10km out of town so we decided to hop on the moped and see for ourselves.

Having now been to Auroville twice myself, I'm still not sure what it is. As far as I can tell, Auroville is a commune founded in the 1960s which aims to be a place where "no nation can claim as its own", "all humans are of goodwill" and of "peace, concord and harmony". There's a lot of literature around trying to explain what they are and what they do but after reading it I was still none the wiser.

What is Auroville? I really don't know.

I'm sad I missed this party.

It claims not to be religious but there's a religious feel to a lot of the literature, especially when it talks of Auroville's founder "The Mother" who seems to be a God-like figure to the people who live there.

It's a vast place which is home to 2,305 people who are selected to live in Auroville (they don't just let anyone move in) and presumably bring a fair whack of money with them as the place looks like it would have cost a fortune to build.

One of many expensive looking buildings in Auroville.

Part of their mantra is that "Auroville belongs to nobody" but unfortunately for them it does - in fact half of the land it sits on belongs to the Indian government and presumably its inhabitants are at the mercy of the Indian government in order to obtain their visas (which can be, at best, bureaucratic to get).

At the centre of it all is Matrimandir which was a vision of The Mother as a "symbol of the Divine's answer to man's aspiration for perfection". We had to watch a video in order to be allowed to look at it which got my expectations high but I think it looks just like a giant gold golf ball - and the countryside surrounding it would make a nice golf course!

The Matrimandir at Auroville. A shrine for golf lovers from all over the world!

So there you have it, I didn't go to Auroville and get tempted to join a commune for wealthy hippies... but I think we all knew I'm too cynical for that anyway. One good thing I will say about Auroville is that it has a lovely cafe - really healthy and cheap. It was so good we went back twice.

Pondicherry was the last proper location of our 10-week trip across India which ended with a very brief stay in Chennai to catch our flight to Sri Lanka. No matter how brief, it meant there was still time for one last con...

The man in reception at the airport hotel explicitly told us to only pay our taxi driver 200rps to get us the short distance to the airport and no more (they'd obviously had problems with him before). But lo and behold, as we approached the airport he told us he needed 100rps for a toll road on top of the fair. I said no and was so exasperated that I told him to let us out there and then. He pulled over and Luke paid him but despite having a wallet full of cash, the driver somehow didn't have enough change.

Feeling annoyed, I just walked off and then turned round and said: "You are a liar. Goodbye India, goodbye liars!"

And those were my last words to an Indian in India.

It's a shame but things like this happened to us on a daily basis and I was more than ready to leave it behind. We met some amazing people and will never forget the generosity from the young man who gave up his bed the night we boarded a train without a ticket, but there were just too many cons and it was making me angry having to deal with it.

India, it was relentless. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always relentless.

USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT PONDICHERRY:
Accommodation: We stayed at Full Moon Guest House which is around 5km away from the old town. It was 800rps (£8) a night and the cheapest we could find at the last minute. It was clean and quite homely but we got woken up at 5.30am every day by the call to prayer at a nearby mosque. I would advise booking ahead if you want to stay in the old town as it seems to get booked up. If you stay at Full Moon then you will need to hire a moped or risk spending a lot of money on tuk-tuks.
Eating and drinking: There are loads of samey restaurants in the old town selling multi-continental food at inflated prices. People seemed to be getting excited by all of the beef on the menu but as a vegetarian this didn't do anything for me! After much searching the best food we found was at Hotel Surguru, 104 Sardar Vallabhal Patel Road (0413) 23390222227290. They had really tasty Indian food at reasonable prices - the palak paneer dosa was particularly good.
Luke also said he had the best cup of coffee in India at the Indian Kaffe Express Cafe on Rue Dumas in the old town.
Getting there and away: We got the bus from Chennai bus station directly to Pondicherry which took 3 1/2 hours. On the way there it was an air conditioned bus and cost 150rps, while on the way back it was government bus with no a/c and cost 100rps. The tuk-tuk from Pondicherry bus station to Full Moon Guest House cost 250rps but it was after midnight.