Painting I see many people painting their houses, fences, etc. Most houses are brick so there isn't much to paint. But people seem to keep things very tidy and nice looking here. So they don't seem to like any trim on the houses to look as if they aren't well maintained. But on the other side of things there is a ton of great graffiti. It is illegal to do graffiti but there are special legal places to paint. I've really been impressed with the street art and it so cool that is changes everyday. Sometimes really great art gets painted [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Mumbai with only two full days left in India. After the standard process of bargaining with a cab driver and having to force him to take us to the hotel we requested, we stepped out onto the amazingly clean streets of Mumbai. We had heard horror stories about the extreme amount of people in the city, but we were quite suprised to find that it wasn't very crowded. The traffic almost seemed to have some sense of order to it. I think one reason it was like this is because the city has laws that prevent rickshaws within [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Solapur, a city of about a million southeast of Mumbai, early yesterday morning. Raju, the sister of my friend Mahesh, and his father picked us up at the bus station. They immediately put us up in a nice hotel, probably the nicest one we've stayed at in India and took us out for breakfast. Mahesh's cousin, Rani, also joined us for breakfast, too. Raju and Rani were our main hosts and the showed us around the city and introduced us to many of their friends and family. They treated us to some wonderful home cooked meals and we [View Full Entry]

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Bean and I wanted to spend a few days relaxing at the beach before we came back to the cold winter in the US, so we decided to go to a little town on the northern coast of Karnataka that was rumored to have some spectacular beaches with little thatch huts to sleep in. We booked one of the most expensive buses that are available in India for the night journey, hoping that we could actually sleep. Even full size heavily cushioned beds weren't enough to keep the Indian roads from keeping us awake all night. We shared this bus with [View Full Entry]

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The night bus rides always seem to be a blur between states of consciousness. It is impossible to fall completely asleep because every 15 minutes your body is launched completely in the air from hitting a big bump. Amazingly though, the Indians on the bus sleep like they were in a comfortable bed. The early morning sun revealed an amazing landscape as we approached the small town called Hampi. Boulder ridden hills surrounded us in every direction. It was as if an earthquake rattled the mountains apart ages ago. The small village sat by the river and reminded us a lot [View Full Entry]

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The bus ride from Mysore to Bangalore was much better than our previous one. We got a deluxe bus (more comfortable) and traveled during the day. All of the villages and towns we passed through were packed full of people. I believe the Karnataka election results were being broadcast over loudspeakers on the main streets and everyone was out to hear the results. As soon as we got back to Padmanabh's house we were whisked off visit Mahesh's family. They were very kind and stuffed us full of home cooking. His father is a rice merchant and the rice pancakes we [View Full Entry]

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We were dropped of in Mysore two nights ago just in time to catch the Mysore Palace illumination that happens every Sunday evening. It was very much like a fair or carnival. The surrounding gardens were packed full of people: locals, Indian tourists, and westerners. I am glad we decided to come see this city, the palace is definitely a must see. I can't imagine how much electricity is used to light all of the lights for one hour or how long it took to string all of them. Prashanth treated us to a delicious dinner at a nearby hotel and [View Full Entry]

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We've spent the past two days in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. After leaving the farm in Palahalli we traveled several more hours by car to our current destination. We drove through a wildlife sanctuary where we saw wild peacocks, foxes, deer, and fowl. Prashanth drives extremely fast, like he is in race or something, he finally hit a bump hard enough that his front bumper fell off. We tied it back on with some string and continued on our way through blooming coffee estates. The smell of the coffee flowers filled the air. We [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday we arrived in Bangalore after a very uncomfortable 8 hour bus ride from Pondicherry. Padmanabh and Prashanth, two of our Bangalore contacts, picked us up at the bus depot as soon as we got there. This was quite relieving, it is the first time we didn't have to figure what to do and where to go. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at his home and recovering from the sleepless night. Anitha, one of my friend Mahesh's good freinds, came by and greeted us both with a bouquet of flowers. Everyone was extremely nice and helpful. All five [View Full Entry]

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Well, we've spent the past couple of days hanging out with our new german friend, L.S., and trying to get a sense of what The Mother's experimental city is all about. We have definitely realized that we need much more time to really understand how Auroville works. The main goal of the experiment is to create a place where humans beings from all over the world can live together in unity. After spending a couple of days there, we can see that they are far from doing that, but on the other hand they are much closer than many other communities [View Full Entry]

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