I arrived at Amritapuri the day before Christmas Eve. I was feeling a tiny bit homesick and also very excited about this place and curious about what it would be like. I ended up spending ten days here. India is full of ashrams and going to one is just a part of the experience,and I meet four familiar faces from my travels in India thus far. When I first arrived I had to find the international office and sign in. It turned out that the ashram is very big, with...

Pam and I find a taxi that takes us to Allapey. We finally find our accommodation, Johnson's Nest, and it's a great place - the rooms a big and bright - and we meet Hazel there as well. That evening we go for some food and then to find a houseboat that can take us around the canals - to experience the backwaters of Kerela is one of the highlights of India. It's busy this time if year and the Tourist Office can't help us. On the streets there are several people t...

It's slowly getting closer to Christmas, which means that accommodation in Auroville is scarce. Every day I'm debating wheter or not I should stay or go to Amma's ashram (The Huggin Saint as she is sometimes called). Both is appeling, and when I meet people every day that talks about her and find a book about her life in the Sharanga library (and read it), I decide to take the hint and go. Kim and Pam are also going to Kerela which is a state in the south west of...

In the center of Auroville is a gigantic structure - the Matrimandir. It's a golden sphere, and inside are several meditation chambers and a room that holds a crystal. When you come upon it the first time it's a thing you have never seen before, and it does kind of remind me of some space-age structure. Andrea (from Italy) and me take the walk together, none of us has seen it before. He is a gardener, and the banyan trees are bellissimo. We take some pictures the...

The cyclone well over, and life returned to normalcy. So now the hammocks are out, and we can all enjoy the garden and the view of the ocean. The beech is just beyond the fence at the end of the garden, but as a lot of houses don't have toilets, people go outside - on the roadside, in a field, and the beach is a favoured place. If they need to go while they're out and about, they just sit down and cover themselves. So it's quite convenient with the floor length ...