Ehm... no toilet paper

After a long stop in Dubai I finally arrived in Chennai. A
long wait for the baggage reclaim, it appears that Indians bring a
lot of stuff with them, of which around 10 television sets which
appeared to be cheaper in Dubai. Customs went quite smoothly and
Nikhil and his father were awaiting my arrival. From the airport we
travelled to Puducherry by car. Quite an experience, the Indian
traffic, everyone honks all the time to be seen and people pass you
in the smallest free gaps. People simply cross or enter the road by
driving into the traffic, surprisingly this all works pretty well,
haven't seen any accident till now. Next to the streets you see a
lot of small shops, homeless dogs and on the smaller streets a cow
or goat might be there to pass.

Nikhil's parents welcomed me at their home and showed me around. I had my first poori here. The Indian beds are more stiff then the ones in the Netherlands, laying aside is not so comfortable, and when I visited the bathroom I noticed that the toilet paper was missing. Apparently toilet paper is not used but people was their but with a hand and water. Luckily there was some old toilet paper in the house, since the hand wiping did not really comfort me.

The next morning a taxi was arranged for seeing Auroville and the beach south to Puducherry. After we sorted out the local SIM card (tariff to Europe would otherwise be almost 5 euro per minute) we left for Auroville. Auroville is an international community where people live together ignoring creed, colour and nationality and realize interconnected ness, love and oneness. The visitor center tells about the community and it's spiritual heart, the Matrimandir. The Matrimandir is an impressive golden ball shaped building. In the afternoon we have been visiting the southern beaches. These beaches were filled with colorful fisherman boats but also lots of trash.

Furthermore we have been visiting a Danish Fort.