Adventures in Alleppey

This is a photo of me with our friend Lars who we met during our stay at Auroville. Lars is from Northern Germany. We had a lovely last evening with Lars at the Solar Kitchen and Cafe and we look forward to meeting-up with him again in the future. Just after this photo was taken a strange thing happened. A gheko fell from the ceiling and landed in Lars' empty plate. After a second or two it came round and scuried off..

Our travels from Auroville to Chennai and then from Chennai to Alleppey were remarkably straight forward. We treated ourselves to an air conditioned bus ride from Pondicherry to Chennai which took three and a half hours. It was lovely sitting looking at the scenery around us. The bus had a very loud air horn which was great for the cars, auto rickshaws, motorbikes, scooters, bicycles, cows and goats and humans as they knew the bus was coming giving themselves plenty of time to get out of the way. If for some reason they did not get out the way then happily the bus had very good brakes.

When we arrived in Chennai we had to get an auto rickshaw (tooc tooc) to the station. This was a great experience as the tooc toocs in chennai are much more powerful than the ones we were used to. This is important as the traffic is of the same density as London but instead of cars consists of scooters and motorbikes and TVS'. Oh, yep, and there are also cows and goats here and there too. The serentity with which people drive around amidst the chaos is amazing. Actually its more than this, it is awesome. Rae made the saliant comment that all London cabbies should come to India to learn the art of serenity whilst driving in stressfull and adverse circumstances. We still have not seen any road rage or any anger of any sort. Wonderful!

We arrived at Chennai station which was also extremely busy. We had a while to wait, well several hours actually but this was fine as it was a wonderful experience being at the station. Happily there are no KFC or McDonald's outlets just fresh cooked fast food Indian style, dosa, various dahls, currys and chappatis etc... delicious and cheap. Also there was a chap selling water from a container so you could just re-use your water bottle. The cost of the water Rs3 (less than a penny)!!!

As you can see each of the carriages has a passenger list stuck on it which states your name and your age. This is in case of a crash so that rescuers know who is in each carriage. Top idea!

The train we were on was so long! The photo of it was taken near our carriage which was over half way along its length and still you could not see the front!! The train journey was wonderful and we met some very interesting people. Our carriage was air conditioned and the train was full of all sorts of people, business people, families etc... Rae was amazed at how everyone just got on and sorted out the beds and then slept all in the same carriage. Vendors came round selling food and coffee etc... it was great. We woke in the morning to a beautiful dawn and at each stop more and more people left the train until all who left in our carriage were us and chap called Cherian who was off to visit his family in Alleppey. Cherian had worked all over the world as an IT consultant and we chatted about which countries were his favourites.

We saw these guys loading this barge and were surprised at how low the vessel sat in the water. Apparently this is normal practise here to fill the boat litterally to the brim. All fine as long as there are no waves and no wash from the houseboats or ferries. One wave and I think this boat would be gone in under a couple of minutes!

A house boat. These are tourist boats and were originally rice barges. Now they have bamboo superstructures which are airconditioned with blooming satalite dishes and we saw one with an extremly large plasma screen. Umh, whatever floats your boat I guess!

The sleek and very fast Snake boat. This is a racing thoroughbred, 130 ft long and  a crew of 120.

Our skipper and guide. Lovely chap, but not much English so we could not chat much.

The vast expanse of rice fields can be seen behind the palm tree. Coconuts drying in the sun in order to extract coconut oil.

Unloading a barge.It was great to see these boats working as they have done for centuries.

It must have been wash day yesterday beacuse every where we went women were washing clothes. Slapping of wet clothes on wash stones could be heard everywhere.

Workers off to their lunch break, we think.

We stopped for lunch at a resturant which like so many places on the backwaters are only accessable by boat. This was our lunch, my oh my it was so delicious!! The guys that run the place where we ate spoke good English and were like all people round here into boats. One of the guys sails an Enterprise dinghy and the other chap is a well known Snake boat helmsman and owns the yard where the boat below is being repaired. I will write about the Kerala boat building on my blog for boat building geeks like me when I get back to the UK.

Yep, this is an eagle and it is indigenous to this area. Today at the beach we saw lots of Eagles.

 

White Heron

Water snake which was swallowing a fish when Rae took this pic.

We are staying in the same guest house as Becca and Carys stayed when they were here. We have met their friend Sachu. Sachu is a lovely guy and he just could not beleive that Rae is Becca's mum. He was so pleased to meet us and told us about what a great time he had had when Becca and Carys were here.

Yesterday we went on a back waters canoe trip. It is true the backwaters of Kerala are stunningly beautiful and unspoilt. People live here as they have done for centuries and it was a real privialge to be able to travel these waters. The back waters are enormous so we did not even scratch the surface even after our five hour trip!  The boats are lovely too and are stitched together using coir (rope made from coconut husks). This is a very simple but extremely effective way of fastening planks together. Today we saw guys actually doing this and I was seriously impressed, It is a totally environmentally friendly way to build, makes repair work dead easy.

The thing that struck us most yesterday was the peace of the backwaters. apart from the odd boat diesel engine it was tranquil. No sounds of cars, just people chatting, children learning in their schools which we paddled by. Also it was so much cooler. In Alleppey it is very hot and humid, and so to be on the cooling water was a real treat for us.

Love

Rae and Marc

XX

A Day Out to the Sunday Market in Pondy

 

Yesterday morning we went to the Savitiri Bahavn Centre to see an exhibition entitled: Sri Aurobindo and Mother, Finding the Psychic Being. The show consisted of a collection of photos of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother with writings and poems on the subject of the Psychic being (which I think is kind of a guide for the soul which exists on another dimensional plane, forgive me if I have got this a bit wrong).

The show was thought provoking and the writings beautiful as was the exhibition space itself.

On a less serious note we went and saw a Hitchcock movie at the Auditorium last night called Suspicion. It starred Cary Grant and was made in about 1940. Seemed mad being in India watching an old black and white movie set in Sussex!

Today was market day in Pondy. We drove our little scooter down to the main Chennai - Pondicherry Road and parked it near the beach. We then caught the bus into Pondy which is about 6KM away. The cost each was Rs3/ which is less than 2p! Anway we only waited about five minutes for a bus, buses are very frequent here in India. The journey in was unventful and was fun, loud music palying and lots of hooting and fast driving. The journey home was very cosy, you could not have squeezed another person on the bus! People were hanging from the doors! But everyone was smiling and chatting. I think we eraned respect from the locals using the bus and enjoying the crush, the loud music, fast driving an dvery, very friendly people who told us when we had reached our stop.

The photos I think are pretty self- explanatory, though check out the guy with the big fish!! Rae and I enjoyed fresh coconut milk to cool us down in the heat. The market bustled and you could buy so much stuff!

The temple was a highlight. Seeing the sacred elephant blessing Hindu's and going inside the temple was a real privalege. Ganesh images are evrywhere in Southern India as the cermaics indicate.

Must go now as the Internet shop is clsoing for the night.

Much love

Marc and Rae
XX

 

So, on Wednesday we went back to help at Solitude Farm. We were all put to work pretty much straight  away. The mornings task was to clear a field about one acre in size of weeds. The weeding is done by hand, defiantly no ploughing!! The reason that the weeding is done by hand is to preserve as much as possible the soil matrix and not unduly disturb the mico organism ecology of the soil. As far as I understand the principle of permaculture is to work with nature and grow mixed crops. This reduces pest attck and also ensures vigorous and strong growth of crops with minimal human intervention. Mulching is used widely to ensure water remains in the ground and does not evaporate. The temperature at the moment is only 26C and in summer this rises to 40C so, water is a precious commodity not to be squandered! 

Often bananas and papaya will be grown amongst things like squashes and cucumbers and pinapples etc.... This provides shade to these other crops in what can be harsh conditions. 

The soil was rock hard and so to make the weeding easier the field is first flooded and then we lined-up and set to work removing the weeds. There were about 15 of us volunteers and within an hour and a half the job was done. It was lovely feeling the warm squishy mud between your toes. The volunteers were made up of People from USA, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Spain, England and Holland. 

After the weeding I helped with the composting and by the end of this the sun was high in the sky and we were feeling a bit worse for ware and so ducked out of the next job of raising the planting beds by digging shallow irrigation furrows. Instead we went and helped weed between the pineapples, lemon grass and spinnach which were growing in the shade of the bananas and papyas. This job was actually very prickly! Pinapple plants have thorns on the edges of their leaves, similar to that of aloevera plants. Rae had been seconded to help prepare lunch. Krishna was showing a party round the farm and they also stayed for lunch. The food again was amazing, flavours were wonderful.

  

Also on Wednesday we went to the Sri Arobindu theatre again at Bhart Nivas to see Ramil Ibrahim and the Sutra Troupe. The theatre was packed. The dancing truley wonderfully amazing!

  

Yesterday morning we went to Repos beach. The sea was very, very warm and refreshing. By 11.00 though it was getting very hot and so we headed top the cafe for a drink. The cafe is run by a  lady who comes from Bridgwater. There were some other english people their and she introduced us to them. Its a small world because it turns out that Mike runs a fetsival stage called the Bimble Inn and used to go to Millfield and so knows Butleigh and Glasto really well. 

Later we met up with our Greman friend Lars and he took us to lunch at a resturant on the main Pondy Chennai road called Coco. Unless you knew it was there you would walk passed it without giving it a second glance. The food was delicious and so cheap! 

Lars' friend Antonia who is also German was sitting at a table when we walked in so we had lunch and chatted and laughed lots. Rae and I are becoming increasingly embarrased by our inability to speak even one foreign language! We are determined to become at least fluent in French this year!

Next Tuesday we leave Auroville. We are going to Alleppey in Kerala by overnight train from Chennai. We are looking forward to moving on.

Much love

Rae and Marc XX

Working on Sloitude Farm

This photo is really for Matt and Tom. Boys, we were walking yesterday and came across this wonderous ant scene. These ants are quite big and are devouring a butterfly I think. Its hard to tell because there were so many ants!

 

This morning we were up bright and early and on the scooter heading for Solitude Farm which is about a 10 minute scooter ride from Creativity. We arrived and met Krishna and the team and we were put to work harvesting tomatoes. Later that morning Rae and I stripped Rosela plants of their flowers which inside contain a seed pod the shape of an acorn which is jammed packed full of seeds. The next job is to chop the end off the flower bud discard the seed pod and put the Rosela petals, Which are quite rubbery into a pot. They are then dried and after this they make the most wonderful tea. 

 

Rae helped in the kitchen making lunch for the twenty five of us volunteers. Lunch was delicous by the way. Truely wonderful eating food that a couple of hours before was still growing. Life is good!!!

We had a great time and will be going back on Wednesday.

Happy Bithday Lyn

Just want to wish you a very Happy Birthday mum, missing you lots. I will try and ring you tomorrow morning.

Lots of love from us both.

XXXXXX

These times are frustrating, amazing and fun!

This photo is particularly for Tom and Matt. There is another animal picture later in this posting. This lizard we saw as we left the Solar kitchen after lunch the other day. Question: is this a lizard or a gheko? Does anyone know?

So, as the title says it has been a bit frustrating at times, but hey, this is good because when things go well we really appreciate them. Being in India is the biggest lesson in being patient and always smiling no matter what is thrown at you. This is a very salutary lesson for us Westerner's and one which is being repeated to us on a daily basis.

We liked the blackboard proverb to the entrance of the Solar Kitchen the other lunchtime: all things come to he who waits patiently.

 

This is a photo of a typical lunchtime at the solar kitchen, sandals and shoes of the diners. The bikes all lined up is a typical sight here in India.

So, we are very happy living in Creativity. Its  a warm and very friendly environment. Our fellow apartment dwellers are great, we like them all very much.We have been given lots of top India survival tips and Geraldine and Andrea are helping us improve our very poor French. It is a sad fact that us Brits generally are so poor at languages, it makes me feel pretty embarrassed to be honest. The children here in Auroville and its catchment villages all learn, Tamil, San script, French and English which is taught from when they start Kindergarten.

On Thursday we have after a very exhausting and intensely frustrating day secured a scooter. This was also the first time I have ridden as the second pillion passenger on anything with two wheels. There was Kumar the driver, a young grease monkey in the middle and me. This is how I was taken to collect the scooter, I felt very, very nervous but all was fine and we arrived unscathed. Hiring the bike however took the whole morning!! Talking of things we have seen on bikes (Becca and Carys I am sure can add to the list) are:

1. whole familes; dad drives, child sits behind and mum on the back. Small children sit cross legged in front of the driver on the fuel tank;

2. calor gas bottles, largish ones too;

3. solar panels;

4. wood and or scrap metal;

5. computer stacks;

6. and lots of shopping.

Yep, Kumar first of all showed me a scooter with no headlight then he showed me a scooter which seemed to be almost ok which we ended up having, it was either that or nothing!!

This scooter though was not in good nick. No horn for a start, you cannot drive around in India without a horn. You use this bit of kit every time you overtake anything to warn them that you are about to pass. At night you also flash and beep! And always drive with full beam! Interestingly in the mad chaos which is driving in India everyone seems courteous and calm. We have not seen anyone at all anywhere get angry, early days I know, lets hope the tranquil peace continues.

 

Our old scooter!

Anyway, to cut a long story short we now have swapped our pile of junk for a very good scooter yesterday morning, and hey everything works, well apart from the speedometer which is normal apparently.

The scooter is good and our first major excursion was going to a Brazillian night last night at a place called Sadhana Forest. We wanted to be there at 4.30PM for the tour and talk on their current projects. Unfortunately we got confused and drove to a place called Sedartha Forest and surprised the Anna a guest living there. Happily she was going to Sadhana and she showed us on the map how to get there. It was quite a way from where we were and we would need to travel on the main Pondy road. The small roads were busy enough. packed with school buses and taxis and scooters, motor bikes and cycles.

We decided to drive back home and walk the short distance to the Solar Kitchen and get the coaches which were leaving at 6PM. We were glad we did this because that Pondy road looked treacherous to me a novice and nervous scooter driver.

The Brazillian night was brilliant and the whole night was themed on Capperio, this is a black dance/martial art that at first looks like break dancing. It is closely linked with Salsa. Actually it is totally different and is a spiritual and real way that black enslaved people practised ways to fight and rebel against their slave masters. Capperio is huge in Brazil and is taught in schools and various Academies.

So on arrival we heard drums and there were people doing Capperio outside. The buildings at Sadhana are massive thatched bamboo structures. There must have been about 300 plus people. We all sat down and watched a film on Capperio and then we were all fed. The whole night was free! The community at Sedahna is comprised of mainly young people all late teens and early - late twenties. There are about 150 people living and working there from all over the world.

To continue this culotural theme we went to the theatre on Wednesday night. The Auditorium is called the Sri Arobindo, Bharat Nivas. It is truely stunning!! It was built in the 90's and is a triumph architecturally. It holds up to 850 people is air conditioned with amazingly comforatble adjustable seats. It is the largest Auditorium in Southern India. We saw a dance troupe led by Aditi Mangaldas. It was a stunningly beautiful combination of classical and contemporary Indian dance. The place was packed. Again the age range was 2/3- 80 years plus. Again it was all free!!

At the end of the evening we all left and it was kinda crazy cos old and young all got on their motor bikes and headed off up the dusty drift road that leads to this wonderful modern building.

Auroville is pretty much a hidden township. magnificent buildings are tucked away down dirt tracks surrounded by lush forest, wonderful!

 

A frog amongst the strewn petals on the steps to the Sri Aribindo theatre.

Yesterday we went to Solitude Farm and were shown round by a lovely guy whose name we forget. Solitude is 12 acres in size and provides food which is grown organically using permaculture principles for Auroville. This time of the year Solitude is 70-80% self sufficient and is a self sustaining business! We were so impressed that next Monday we are going to work there, our payment a delicious lunch!

 

Photos of Solitude (Becca and Carys we thought you would like these.

Bye for now 

Love Marc and Rae XX

Our first day out from Auroville and we have moved accom.

Ok, these two photos are for my two children Tom and Matt and possibly also Adam who I know will like this kinda creepy crawly stuff. Double click on the images to get a close-up view and enjoy!

Whilst on the subject of unusual animals; yesterday whilst in Pondicherry Botanical Gardens we saw a very large grey monkey. It looked similar to a Baboon but it was not. Unfortunately it moved too quick to photo. Shortly after this also in the gardens we saw a white rabbit nibbling the grass. What a strange combination we thought.

Each day the hindu households draw a hindu symbol on the threshold of their home using white sand or tarditionally rice flour on the ground. Each symbol means something and the symbol in the picture above means unity. We watched the woman draw this symbol. Basically they start with dots and then join these dots up with the swirls. It was amazing and took no time to do.

 

On our arrival yesterday in Pondicherry as we stepped out of the taxi we were pounced on by these two girls who were determined to sell Rae a cloth bag. They followed and hounded us all the way from the post office to the beach. They eventually spotted some more white women and went to sell to them. Talking of white people we were surprised at how few white people were around in town in general.

After the children stopped pestering us we walked along the sea front in search of a map of Pondi (as the locals call it). This took a while and we eventually tracked down a government tourist building and they happily gave us a map. The picture above is of Rae with guides and scouts and cubs on a day out. We assume it is leaders as there were no young people or children to be seen anyway. There must have been a hundred of these guys walking around Ghandi's monument and they were keen to be photographed with Rae in particular. 

On a sad note if you double click on this picture you will notice that Rae's necklace is undone and hanging. It must of fallen off shortly after. Rae did not realise it was missing until we arrived back at Verite in the evening.

Pondi is quite an amazing place. It is mega busy and crossing the road requires careful timing as motor vehciles mainly bikes come at you from every direction. The general state of the pavements and roads is very, very poor. We will never ever complain about potholes and uneven pavements again. Seriously the UK roads are amazing by comparison!

We have never ever seen so many motor bikes, mainly small CC as in India. In pondi that is all you see parked. Hundreds lined up along the edge of the road or track, curb would be too generous a term to use.

Our favourite part of Pondi is the Bazar, the locals market. This is truely amazing. We were the only white people there and the produce was absolutely stunning. The smells of spices, flowers and fish from the fish bit which we missed. The flowers stalls run it seems for ever. These flowers come from other parts of India and are then hand tied onto thread and made into garlands. The colours are wonderful. I bought Rae a jasmine garland for her hair. Each peice is made of four flowers carefully tied on, the dexterity to do this is amazing. The smell intoxicating! In the market we also bought some fantstic Indian sweets which we enjoyed last night!!

In the pictures above you will see a photo of one of the many Hindu temples which are everywhere there must be at least twenty in Pondi. We also came across a Mosque. I was surprised at how many muslims are also here and importantly everyone seems to rub along together just fine.

We completed our day by visiting the Siri Arobindou Ashram area of Pondi. This is a special place and was very tranquil. We are not Hindi so much of what was going on is a mystery but quite a marvellous mystery.

We have moved to another community this morning called Creativity which is near the Solar Kitchen. As you can see we at present have walls and windows with mosuito proof mesh! This small shared self catering apartment feels like five star luxury to us. We will miss the capsule and particularly the palm squirrels who live in it. Thank you Mr and Mrs squirrel for letting us share your capsule.

Please feel free to comment on our blog. We are keen to hear what you are up to, and tell us what is going on in the world. We have no clue as to what is happening, so keep us posted. Oh, yep, Lyn and Adz, Rae is reading a book, The Life of Pi, which is set in Pondi. Thanks you Emma for this fab recommendation. We sit and read each evening so we are relaxing, honest.

Love


Rae and Marc XX