We found a good (by Indian standards) park in the Government Place and Ellie & Luke enjoyed themselves while attracting alot of friendly attention from all the Indian Pongal visitors. However, if we had thought that Pondicherry was busy on this day then we were totally unprepared for Friday. In my previous Pongal post I referred to Friday as the day that families have days out and visit one another...they also it seems come to Pondicherry...thousands upon thousands of them! We were mobbed wherever we went, us and the children must be in photos on hundreds of mobile phones and cameras. In defeat we retreated to the Promenade Hotel and pool and watched the throngs from a safer and quieter distance.
We did attempt to visit Auroville, the City of Dawn www.auroville.org (if this link doesn't work click on the title)but the visitor centre was closed for Pongal. We were able to walk through the grounds to view the golden dome, however the children attracted more attention from the hordes of visitors than the place itself, so we didn't stay as long as we'd have liked. In a nutshell Auroville is probably the most New Age place anywhere in India where around 2000 people of all nationalities live in communes in a forested area of some 50 square kilometres. We planned to visit again on our way home but then heard that in preparation for a visit by the Dalai Lama this week, security was being tightened and visitors have to book a day in advance. Next time.
We managed to find one of the temple elephants and were all blessed by him. You give him a coin and then he touches your head with his trunk. Neither Luke or Ellie were amused at all though!!
 |
 |
| Make a Smilebox slideshow |
No comments:
Post a Comment