Periya Mudaliarchavadi or village by Auroville turnoff

I have been too busy to update anything the last week. I will make a quick summary of the main events. Before I went up to Kodaikanal we spendt one night in Madurai, where we saw the temple. Next morning we took the bus up to Kodai. Stayed there only 2 nights, because it was raining so heavily all the time that on the third day I was bored out of my mind and also all my clothes was wet and it was pretty freezing, so I asked Ravin if he agreed that we should leave and I didn't have to convince him. I think he was a it bored too. It was bad luck that we had such a crappie weather, because there are supposed to be some lovely trekking there.

We caught an early morning local bus down to some obscure town where all buses apparently connected (don't remember the name of it). From there we caught another bus to Trichy. We were hoping to catch a train from there to Pondecherry, but there were no places and we couldn't face another 4-5 hours on a bus after already spending around 7 hours to reach Trichy. So we got rooms in a quite nice place "Ashby Hotel". Trichy is also a temple town, but I didn't feel like seeing more temples at the time and Ravin had already seen enough previous times I think:)

One funny episode from the bus: I really really had to pee when it was still at least 3 hours to Tricy and the bus had no planned stops. In the end I was desperate and Ravin managed to beg the ticket guy to again beg the driver to stop the bus. It took quite some convincing to get him to do that. After a while he did though and I was allowed out. It was in the middle of a road strech with only bushes on the sides. So I had to stoop down behing a small bush to do my busness. I felt a bit silly, the whole bus looking at me. Ha ha, but luckily some more people needed to pee, so I was not all alone.

The next morning we had to catch a bus again. This time it was about 5 hours to Pondecherry!
We reached in the early afternoon. It was a bit difficult finding any rooms, but after a while we settled for some prison like rooms in 'New Palace Hotel' (hehe..even though they were prison like, they were totally ok and very cheap)

We celebrated Christmas with a budget blowing meal in a nice restaurant close to the sea. Didn't do too much else, just walked around for a while in the market area. The next day we rented a scooter and Ravin took me to Auroville and to see the Matrimandir (the soul of Auroville). From the visitor centre I got some info on different kind of accommodation in Auroville. We went and looked at a few of the beach places and found a nice hut which I booked for the next day.

Next morning Ravin left to go back to Chennai and I took an auto to the beach hut. Today is my second day here:) It is very nice. Yesterday I rented myself a bikecycle (hm...some old relic from the 50's), but it does get me around!! I went for a ride into Auroville, but it was so incredibly hot, so after a while I turned back and went to the beach. I was a bit scared of the waves and current since I was totally on my own there, so I didn't dare go very far into the water, however I talked to some Indian guy who lives next door and he said it was completely ok. So this morning I splashed about in the sea as much as I could:)

Its very relaxing here by the way, it is soooooooo nice after all the hassle one usually gets exposed to in most Indian cities. I even have a hammock on a small porch in front of my hut, which is perfect for reading during the midday when the sun is too hot to do much else.
Well that is all in a very brief summary, now I will go and have myself a lassi (very good yoghurt drink - for those who don't know !)