Bus comes to pick us up at around 16 to take us to the historical centre of pondicherry, its a short but loud ride, people are excited, full of energy after lunch (everybody except ralph that stay at the hotel sick..) We park the bus and is fast made aware of a totally different "age", it is quiet althoug full of people, we are taken to one of the more "commercialized" temples, where you pay for both "parking" your sandals and for the prayers.. It is very nice but I have to admit I did expect a lot more, the temple we saw in chennai was much more impressive..I have to admit one thing though and that is the fact that I did feel like a child again, at least for 5 min. There was a full-blown elephant on the street that would collect money from the people and give the blessings and of course I wanted to try that, so out with my coins and received my blessing.. It was so fun.. After this fun we moved on to the "aurobindo ashram" what an impressive place.. As any other ashram you need to take of your sandals, and specific for this place is that everything is done in complete silence, this is due to the many people that come here to meditate, I have to admit that this place is vibrating with emotions, passion, concentration and peace - I am taken by the this total sourrending your mind and soul to finding your highest purpose, this level of mind over body, not to feel stressed, not to feel tired, not to feel confused, but to have an absolute clear mind, I now start to see and feel the strong power of yoga, not only is it about "working out" and breathing, stretchhing and so on, more important it is to find that state of mind where everything just flows like a pure stream of energy, and with this feeling inside of myself, I have to admit I do feel a bit more happy...I feel a bit more happy because the dots are finally coming together, the mentality of people, their understand and behaviour, their take on life, on relationships, and what really happiness is.. Wow what an impression this ashram has made on me, and I hope on the whole team...
So leaving the main street we walk some 5 min down to the beach, wonderfulto smell the see from the the Bengal ocean, and it streches as a long as the eye can see - the sky is amazing, the variety of blue and grey makes this moment incredible, I wish I could share this with all m friends and family - this is a must see if you ever go to pondicherry..truly amazing..we get some pictures taken of the team and then it happens again, people comes to take photos of us, by now I'm use to it so I put on my "gameface" and smile for the camera..we walk a bit and then all of a sudden a couple of drops of rain, then a bit more, and then india shows its rain-season side, for 45 min its pouring down, like really pouring..we seek shelter at a shop, that fast gets full of people, funny enoug people are starting conversations with each, a street seller is talk to us about life, work and other interesting stuff, the time passes fast, and then its over..
Okay before I go on, I need share one thing, there are a lot of sellers on the street here selling wooden things, bongo etc, now if you like to buy great - remember to negotiate, if your like me that doesn't want to buy, the worse thing you can say to a person try to sell you something is "no" because means maybe, maybe after sometime means yes, here is what I have learned, ask what material it is made out of, they will say "coconut three" then tell them "I need out of palme three" that will keep them things what to say, and off you go.. The same thing with bongos -they are everywhere, so instead of answering "no" I tell them I play the flute...and - they leave me, now some of the guys (thanks Mike and Fred) actually surprised me a bit - by.....yes you guessed it, buying me a flute.. - it was sooo funny...
The rain has stopped and I got a flute and now of to the "le club" which is really not my favoured type of restaurant, sure it is nice, sure the food was great, and sure it was a nice evening, but to be honest I didn't travel 6000 km or more to have french food, so I end up with Tony and Rajesh to order indian food - which was ok, not the best I have had, and if you ask me about value for money it was not very good..(Maybe it is only me, but I want to see the "real" india while I'm here and upper-class hotels and fancy restaurants just isn't what I'm looking for..) So after dinner a couple of us decide to go for a couple of beers (kingfisher of course, my prefered choice by now) we end up in, what will be the surprise of the day, a bar where the ratio of men and women are 97 to 3 and friends not in my favour, in the whole bar there are maybe 4 girls, the rest are men dancing with men, at first I think I went to the wrong place but then I get it - this is a normal saturday evening out, we have a couple of drinks and then we get some "fist pumps" by a young india that introduces himself as a "hip hop" artist that just came back from Hollywood where he just made some films, and he asks us we're from and he finds out we stay in chennai all of a sudden he's from chennai, but when Mike asks him about bars in chennai, its because obvious that this guy is full of it, and maybe that is the final signal to go to the hotel - call it a night and sleep, tomorrow is
another day...
All in all a great day with the tradional highs and lows, oh forgot to mention, I did my first souvenir shopping - its not a strong side of mine, but I believe I have been successful..
So leaving the main street we walk some 5 min down to the beach, wonderfulto smell the see from the the Bengal ocean, and it streches as a long as the eye can see - the sky is amazing, the variety of blue and grey makes this moment incredible, I wish I could share this with all m friends and family - this is a must see if you ever go to pondicherry..truly amazing..we get some pictures taken of the team and then it happens again, people comes to take photos of us, by now I'm use to it so I put on my "gameface" and smile for the camera..we walk a bit and then all of a sudden a couple of drops of rain, then a bit more, and then india shows its rain-season side, for 45 min its pouring down, like really pouring..we seek shelter at a shop, that fast gets full of people, funny enoug people are starting conversations with each, a street seller is talk to us about life, work and other interesting stuff, the time passes fast, and then its over..
Okay before I go on, I need share one thing, there are a lot of sellers on the street here selling wooden things, bongo etc, now if you like to buy great - remember to negotiate, if your like me that doesn't want to buy, the worse thing you can say to a person try to sell you something is "no" because means maybe, maybe after sometime means yes, here is what I have learned, ask what material it is made out of, they will say "coconut three" then tell them "I need out of palme three" that will keep them things what to say, and off you go.. The same thing with bongos -they are everywhere, so instead of answering "no" I tell them I play the flute...and - they leave me, now some of the guys (thanks Mike and Fred) actually surprised me a bit - by.....yes you guessed it, buying me a flute.. - it was sooo funny...
The rain has stopped and I got a flute and now of to the "le club" which is really not my favoured type of restaurant, sure it is nice, sure the food was great, and sure it was a nice evening, but to be honest I didn't travel 6000 km or more to have french food, so I end up with Tony and Rajesh to order indian food - which was ok, not the best I have had, and if you ask me about value for money it was not very good..(Maybe it is only me, but I want to see the "real" india while I'm here and upper-class hotels and fancy restaurants just isn't what I'm looking for..) So after dinner a couple of us decide to go for a couple of beers (kingfisher of course, my prefered choice by now) we end up in, what will be the surprise of the day, a bar where the ratio of men and women are 97 to 3 and friends not in my favour, in the whole bar there are maybe 4 girls, the rest are men dancing with men, at first I think I went to the wrong place but then I get it - this is a normal saturday evening out, we have a couple of drinks and then we get some "fist pumps" by a young india that introduces himself as a "hip hop" artist that just came back from Hollywood where he just made some films, and he asks us we're from and he finds out we stay in chennai all of a sudden he's from chennai, but when Mike asks him about bars in chennai, its because obvious that this guy is full of it, and maybe that is the final signal to go to the hotel - call it a night and sleep, tomorrow is
another day...
All in all a great day with the tradional highs and lows, oh forgot to mention, I did my first souvenir shopping - its not a strong side of mine, but I believe I have been successful..
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