We reach Auroville in the evening. It's a town where many foreigners live and it’s known for its spirituality. It turns out to be the strangest place that we have seen in India so far. We drive through a forest, see a house here and there and a large golden golf ball kind of thing in the centre.

The Golden Golf Ball

There are no real guesthouses over here but you can stay in some kind of community. This is something we don’t favour so we 'flee' to Auroville Beach. The accommodations all turn out to be no good value for money. Eventually we end up with a German Indian woman, Padmini, who is wintering here and rents out a few rooms. Since there is currently no one staying and she finds it incredibly tough that we have come so far with the bike, we are allowed to stay in the best room for only 500 rupees. A little later she knocks on our door and says she has a surprise for us. A friend of her, named Raju, is here on a visit and he brought dinner and whiskey, and we are invited to join the party.

An Indian Party

We have a pleasant evening and, in between drinks, Raju tells us he has an apartment here. He comes here for business but lives elsewhere. Within a few days he will return home, and he mentions that we can stay in his retreat while he is back home. With Christmas and New Year on the way, we think it would be nice to have our own place for a while. We can already see our Christmas tree standing on our rooftop! A few days later he returns home and we can move into our abode.

Our Living Room

Since it is quite hot on the rooftop, we prefer to sit on our balcony and here we also set up our Indian Christmas tree. On the beach we cut a couple of palm branches and adorned it with some lights and garlands.

Our Christmas Tree

For Christmas Eve we are invited at Padmini’s house. There are a few people, but almost no one speaks the same language. We miss our friend Raju, fun guaranteed.
For Christmas Day we prepare a real Christmas dinner: steak with hash brown potatoes. This is our reward for three months of eating rice and chicken on a daily base. The next morning, we are very happy that we’re not sick, because the butchers here...
Meanwhile there’s a whole soap opera going on with DHL. We are expecting our new chain, mailed from Belgium by our parents and it should take just a few days to get here. There’s much to tell you about this but we will save you the details. The chain arrives after two weeks, normally it would take only four days. We also have to pay import duty, around 100 euro. This isn’t correct, due to the Carnet, but after two weeks of calling and e-mailing, we decide to pay the duty so we can finally leave.
On New Year's eve, we spoil ourselves with good food, whiskey and we buy a chocolate cake as dessert.

New Year's Dinner

At midnight we go to the beach and watch fireworks being fired from many cities located along the coastline which is really nice to see. All parties in India have to close at 12.30am so we couldn’t party as we would do at home. On New Year's day, we take a New Year's dive in the ocean.

New Year's Dive

When the chain finally is replaced, we take the bike for a test-drive and we also rent a motorbike for Kitty so she can drive herself for once.

Going for a Spin

After almost three weeks, we are glad to finally be able to continue our journey.

This is One Tree!

Auroville Beach

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