Mom and Lauren in India: Southern India

We flew from Jaipur to Chennai, India which is the fourth largest city in India. From there we were in the car for a three hour drive to Pondicherry which is located on the Bay of Bengal. Although the Bay is beautiful with large sandy beaches, there is no swimming because of the currents and it is difficult to even get to the water. After the last tsunami they built up the beach with big rocks to protect the city in case it ever happens again.

Pondicherry is home to an unbelievable ashram and totally changed our idea of what an ashram is.
This one is totally self sufficient with a school that educates it's students in everything from the highest classes of math, science and languages to carpentry, stone cutting and laundry. They want every level of student to be able to find a job when they leave school. Most of the students graduate speaking at least three languages - Tamil, which is their native language (as opposed to Hindi which is spoken in other parts of India) English and French.

There is also a French area in Pondicherry and you can go from the craziness of Pondicherry's Indian streets to the quiet streets of this section in one block. There are many French restaurants and bakeries and the most amazing Catholic church.

Pondicherry is also the home of Auroville which is a free living town. To us it was what our idea of a commune would be. Anyone can live there - they welcome every race and religion to live in peace with no judgement. Everyone must contribute in some way with work. There is a beautiful meditation space which you have to apply to get into. Unfortunately, it takes three days to get this so we didn't get to go inside.

Two days Pondicherry and off to the beach area of Mahabalipurum. On the two hour drive we passed women working in the rice paddies and also in the salt mines. Very interesting that most of the workers in both places were women!

Looking forward to a little beach time but first some sightseeing. Beautiful temples here, one of which is under water. One area is carved out of one piece of granite and all of these withstood the tsunami.

Our hotel here has a real Ayurvedic doctor so time for more research. It was very interesting to learn about Ayurvedic medicine - using mostly plants, but also minerals and animals to treat illnesses. Lauren suffers from migraines so that is what she discussed with him. He, of course, prescribed some Ayurvedic treatments at the hotel, one of which is called shirodhara - a treatment where special oil is slowly dripped on your forehead for a half an hour - it was incredibly relaxing. I had a massage with special Ayurvedic pain oil to help my knee which actually felt great while in India. Everything felt amazing and was very relaxing but the bottom line is that I am now more sure than ever that our "ayurvedic treatment" with "Ayurvedic oil" in Varanasi was indeed some kind of cooking oil - just as I suspected!!
The Dr. Also prescribed some medication for her migraines which we brought home. It is all plant based so she plans on giving it a try when her next migraine comes around. Amazing that we spent two hours with this man and it cost $7.00.

The beach at our hotel was beautiful and the water so warm. Temperatures in the south are much warmer than where we previously were and we thought that was great weather. Lots of currents and big waves but so much fun. A great way to end our time in India!!

Bay of Bengal in Pondicherry

Catholic Church

Cute girl!! We were trying street food again!

Selling prawns and fish caught that morning

Shopping in Auroville

Half man - half woman

Meditation Hall

This is one tree

Lauren met this girl while we were waiting to visit "The Mother's" house in Pondicherry. She spent about three hours with her and is now invited to her wedding in Jaipur!!