18. Sri Lanka. The end of the world. Tour.

My delay in posting updates has caught up with me. As I write this, I've actually just returned to Canada, with the blog about a month behind! But I'm still "processing" what I've seen and what I learned. In the meantime, following are photos and captions of my time in Sri Lanka after closing out India in Pondicherry and Auroville.

Kandy and Newara Eliya

The requisite flight to Sri Lanka lands outside of Columbo, the capital. I stayed at a backpackers hostel in town. I had a general plan to go to the south to find scuba diving and/or ocean windsurfing. Later I would go into the mountains and visit Kandy and the surrounding countryside. But at the hostel, I met Laura who had arranged a car, guide, and tour into the mountains starting the next day. She was kind enough to offer to share the way with me, so off I went (travel flexibility is wonderful :)

On the first day, we visited the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. Here, the elephants are brought down to the river for their daily bath.

In the orphanage, making friends with a young orphan. Turns out elephants love a (very hard) scratch behind the ears just as much as cats and dogs. :)

Me and Laura beside the herd.

We made it to the hill station of Kandy, where we saw fire eaters and other traditional cultural events like this spinning plates performance.

In Kandy at night, we visited the Sri Dalada Maligawa, the "Temple of the Tooth", where the tooth of Gautama Buddha is stored as a relic. Many Sri Lankan Buddhists (the primary 'religion of southern Sri Lanka) come to the temple for the nightly ceremony. Here musicians guard the entrance to the chamber where the tooth is kept.

Also in Kandy we visited the beautiful, expansive botanical gardens. In this photo are Giant Bamboo, an incredibly versatile and useful plant.

We went south of Kandy to Nuwara Eliya with the intention of climbing Adam's Peak, but the 2 AM wake up to reach the peak in time for sunrise was too much. As it turned out, it was cloudy that day, but the views were still spectacular.

A Christian church on the way back from Nuwara Eliya.

Having a fantastic Sri Lankan meal at a small, roadside restaurant.

Laura was on the most whirlwind trip of anyone I encountered on my travels: after 4 days in Sri Lanka, she was off to Sydney for 4 days in Australia, then Bali for a week! Thanks Laura!!

The Coast

After the mountains, I headed to the southwest coast which was coming into season for clear scuba diving. I came to Unawatuna and stayed at a small hostel run by Bunchy, a super social guy who grew up in Colombo racing cars and bikes and boats. 

Bunchy was always offering to make us a local breakfast. I preferred my standard cereal and powdered milk, but the meals were delicious. At night we would have a barbecue, which was fun, but too much meat and ambient smoking for my taste.

In this unrelated photo, I'm cutting fresh coconut. This isn't very interesting, but I just love coconut and it's a big part of Sri Lankan cuisine. Normally it's shredded, soaked and pressed in water to make two thicknesses of coconut juice for cooking.

Bunchy arranged for his housekeeper to give a couple of us staying at the hostel a cooking lesson! Here is what we were preparing. The tool to grate coconut was unusual, like a dremel + can opener. 

Here is a beautiful beach near Unawatuna. You can see the poles where the fishermen sit and catch fish in the local custom, but unfortunately there were none when I was there.

Cribbed photo (not mine) of what it looks like when the fishermen are actually on the poles. 

One day I took my rented scooter on an inland trip around Koggala Lake.

5 foot monitor on the side of the road. It stayed there in the sun several minutes before slowly moving off into the bushes. 

Sri Lankan maple syrup! Tapped rubber trees at Kanneliya Forest. :)

Friends by a tea plantation.

Old walking bridge inland from Unawatuna.

While in Unawatuna, a world-renown diving spot, I signed up for 4 dives with Pearl Divers. Here I am before my first dive, with my Dive Master. 

Ready to dive!

Another guy at the hostel was an experienced diver and joined me. He proposed a night dive, which Carl and Faye at the dive shop got excited about. It was really exciting - not only do you have to be careful about diving, now you are diving in water you can't see. Everyone gets a flashlight. You're supposed to stay extra close to your "buddy" because you can actually get lost in the dark. If you turn off your light, and wave you arm, the plankton light up momentarily like a kaleidoscope of fireflies.

One day I just snorkeled around the reef near the beach and saw two large sea turtles in about 3 m of water. Fantastic.

I had exhausted my desire for partying in Goa, but when in Unawatuna, the club at "Jungle Beach" is the place for techno and raves late into the night. I never came at night, but even in the day the beach pounded with a beat. Not very relaxing for me.

The beach had many beautiful restaurants where you could pick your seafood from a table (at left) and eat by candlelight, the sound of the surf right beside you. 

This was a common sight in both Sri Lanka and India: the local boys playing cricket.

Me with cucumber - a final, ridiculously open beach at Bentota. 

From here I flew back via Italy for a few weeks of still being a tourist that did not stand-out. From exotic Asian food, I was surrounded by wonderful Italian fare and plenty of dry red wine - fantastic!

I'm still thinking about my overall impressions of my trip. I don't feel compelled to summarize in project-fashion, but I hope to add one more epilogue that closes out the trip and provides some final thoughts.

17. Utopian community - Kerala or Auroville?

(Map of destinations - updated)

After the busy and emotional experiences at Goa and Hampi (see Journey Story 16), I felt I needed some peace and tranquility. Kerala is purported to be just the thing:  

"India's most advanced society: With hundred percent literacy. World-class health care systems. India's lowest infant mortality and highest life expectancy rates. The highest physical quality of life in India. Peaceful and pristine, Kerala is India's cleanest state." 

So off I went. First, I stopped in Mysore to visit the brother of an old friend of mine. No particular reason, but visiting someone I only know indirectly, who's lived in India for almost 20 years, and is an craftsman-slash-artist seemed like just the sort of coincidental experience I love so much - it's why I travel (as I keep saying).

Mysore

In Mysore, I visited Eric Sakellaropoulos. Eric grew up my age in Ottawa and I found out even went to my primary school, but we don't remember each other! Strange. Eric soon left to go to boarding school in the US, and later lived for periods in Greece, France and Canada before moving to Mysore in 1996.  Here he found the Indian centre for the ancient art of intarsia (wood inlay) or marquetry. 

Example of intarsia (wood inlay)

We go out and have a nice dinner and a beer and talk about some of the things we have in common, and Eric tells me a bit about what it's been like living and running a business in India. He's a bit distracted because he's flying to Mumbai at midnight to meet some of his very rich clients. Eric tells me he stopped worrying about selling in NYC and the US when he found out the top tier in India would pay the same or more for custom, intarsia furniture. He also has a number of artworks on the wall which he's collaborated with to produce. They are gothic, dream-like (LSD?), and incredibly well crafted.

Eric Sakellaropoulos

Kerala (brochure)

I booked an 11:30 PM overnight bus from Mysore, but at 11:20, a man comes by to tell us the bus broke down. I'm standing with another gentleman (turns out he's an HR manager for Radisson Hotels) with nowhere to go. We rush over to the public bus stand and manage to get a seat on a semi-sleeper which is going halfway to Kerala. I'm told I can grab a bus or train from there. The bus is fast but the ride very bumpy so I don't get much sleep. When we get to Kozhikode, it turns out there's a train heading most of where I'm going. The train ride is uneventful until we reach Kochi. We stop at Kochi Town and I ask another passenger if it also stops at Kochi Junction, nearer the bus stand that I believe will get me to my final destination, Alluppe. The young man says yes, but he's wrong, and the train starts heading inland towards the interior of Kerala. After asking several people, my best recourse is apparently to go all the way to Kayamkulam, get off, and then take a train that goes back up the shore to Alluppe. I finally make it to Alluppe at 2 PM, 15 hours after starting. But it's a nice day and I have lots of time to find a guest house.

When I get to Alluppe, I find a guest house on another incredible beach. On the second night, our group of 13 hostelers arrange for a dinner delivery, and I pay one of the staff to find some firewood. We enjoy a great meal by a big campfire.

The thing is, at least from what I'd seen so far, the only beach activity is swimming. There's no scuba or snorkling to speak of, nor sailing, or even boat-sports that others might like. Others relish such "chill" atmosphere accompanied by a nightly drinking session. So I don't feel like staying long.

Three of us join together to arrange for a canoe ride into the famous backwaters of Kerala. This includes a stop for coconut juice, one for lunch, and visiting a small village. The people here actually live behind dykes right next to the canals that keep the water from flooding their rice fields. The water seemed high, and several houses were surrounded if not slightly under water. I like living by water, but this was extreme.

Most tourists choose to go around the backwaters on these large "houseboats". Ours was a small gondola-style canoe, with comfortable seats for 4 passengers.

Paddling the backwaters of Kerala (Alluppe).

Three canoes worth of tourists having lunch at a riverside homestay.

This was the most "natural" serving I've received on my trip. Almost zero dishes!

Canoeing was nice because, unlike the houseboats, we could go down the small backwater "lanes" that led to village houses. We could also see the wildlife better.

Walking through fields protected by dykes towards a local village for lunch.

After I finally convinced the canoe-man to let me paddle our boat of 5 people navigating the backwaters of Kerala. Can't blame him if he hadn't met an outdoors-y Canadian before! This is somuch better for me than being chauffeured and pandered. :)

After all this, did I find Kerala to be "one of the most sought after tourist destinations in Asia"? For me, by this time, no. This was as much to do with my state of mind as anything. For relaxing on the beach, Kerala does it as well as anywhere. But after Ladakh and Maghalaya, and a spirit eager for personal connections, I did not need a beach or isolation or even serenity. It was on to Pondicherry for me. Am I exhausted of India??

Pondicherry and Auroville

Pondicherry and Chennai (formerly Madras), the fourth of India's big cities, are the major centres of southern Tamil Nadu state. Here they speak the classical, dravidian language of Tamil, which is 2,500 years old and has different roots than the Indo-Aryan languages to the north. Because of their independent cultural evolution, Tamils feel a breed apart from Hindus and Muslims. While other Indians speaking one of 1,500+ native languages may speak Hindu as a second language, Tamils typically don't. PM Modi's current practice to only talk publicly in Hindu, and not the English he also knows, must not be going over well with the people of the South (and Northeast for that matter). He does not have many Tamils in his cabinet.

I was interested to go because a) Pondicherry is meant to maintain some French colonial charm and culture; b) it's where Life of Pi was set, and c) I briefly met a couple in Darjeeling who, when they heard I was a Canadian who spoke French, invited me to visit them when I reached Pondicherry.

Sure enough, I spent one afternoon in the garden of the Alliance Française building drinking café-au-lait and reading Le Monde. :)

Pondi at night. The main, seaside boulevard is shut down to vehicles from 6 PM to 8 AM. Pondi locals come out in droves to walk, talk, enjoy the sea air, and (in the morning) even exercise! something I had not seen anywhere else in India.

Another beautiful beach, this one facing towards the Bay of Bengal and Thailand.

A new level in Indian road culture: family of three crusing along the highway, no helmets, and mother carrying a baby cradled in both her arms (which would mean she's holding on with nothing).  Incidentally, I had to join the folly by snapping this picture with my cell phone while on my own scooter (Pondi to Auroville highway) - my bad.

Auroville

I'd heard of Auroville via Ines and Raquel in Goa. They had volunteered here for the first few weeks of their trip to India. I didn't think much of it from what they described, but it turns out the farm I was invited to visit is part of the Auroville community. Seems I was going to get a first hand look after all!

"Auroville is meant to be a universal town where men and women of all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity."

Auroville is a fascinating social experiment. It was established in 1968 by Mirra Alfassa, since passed away in 1973, who came to be known as "The Mother". Since then, it has grown to a community of 2,400 ex-architects, ex-scientists, ex-farmers, ex-everything. About 1,000 of its members are Indian and the rest ex-pats, with French and German being prevalent.

Now before you go jumping to the conclusion this is a "religious cult", I think it's not. For example, people who join Auroville can leave freely, and in fact, there are 4,000 locals who come to work in Auroville every day. Also, you don't have to give all your money to them (it fact, it was founded on the principle of non-capitalism with no currency, although this ideal has been impossible to completely abide by - scooters, cell phones and washing machines are common). There is no religion, although there's a spiritual side to Auroville that co-exists in apparent harmony with its other scientific progress ideals. So no government, no capitalism, no religion - kinda interesting, eh?

You can read more on Wikipedia, but the Charter is comprised of just these four principles:

1. Auroville belongs to nobody in particular. Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live in Auroville, one must be the willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness.
2. Auroville will be the place of an unending education, of constant progress, and a youth that never ages.
3. Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future. Taking advantage of all discoveries from without and from within, Auroville will boldly spring towards future realisations.
4. Auroville will be a site of material and spiritual researches for a living embodiment of an actual Human Unity.

The Auroville mandate.

Not sure if you can read this, but unlike many other communes and religious sects, Auroville is very progressive and not afraid of technology or development. They are leaders in India for the development of solar water heating systems, water purification, and women empowerment programs, among others, all of which they are open to (and need, to survive) exporting to the rest of India and the world. So they are not insular or Luddite-ish.

Flore and Christian run a large farm on the outskirts of the community. They came 4 years ago after becoming disenchanted with frantic and consumerist French culture. It was so bad, their marriage was on the brink of collapse. She was a professor, he an engineer. 

They took a trip to India, visited Auroville, and returned to Paris in winter to see everyone dressed in black and angry. Their 10-year-old daughter said "was there a funeral?!?". "'The south Indian culture is so much more peaceful than in the west', said Flore, 'people's eyes are alive with the joy of life'". 10 days after returning, Flore said "I'm moving to Auroville". Christian said "well, I'm coming too". And their marriage was saved :)

It took them 2 years to make the transition, putting money aside for their kids university education. One of her 2 grown-up children from a previous marriage was livid with their decision. She said "it's a well and fine for a child to leave home, but it's not OK for the parents to run off and abandon me!!" They took with them their own 10-year-old daughter who has become very happy with the new life - she is friends at school with kids from all over the world, and life, she says, is focused on living and being, "not make-up and stress".

The bamboo house on stilts that Christian built for the two of them soon after they arrived to run the farm.

There is conflict in Auroville, says Flore, even here. With so many trained professionals, but not the demand for their training (degrees have no currency here), most members are amateurs at what they do in Auroville. Everyone has an opinion, informed or not. There is a general split between traditionalists who feel "The Mother"'s original principles need to be followed exactly, and progressives who want more focus on environmentalism and sustainability. Debate in the community council is common. That said, all the interactions I witnessed were civil, friendly and constructive.

Flore showing me around all the fruit trees and vegetables they grow.

At the centre of the community they built the Matrimandir, the "Temple of the Mother". It took 37 years to complete. This is a photo of me from the viewing area. At first, I found the idea of the temple a little creepy to be honest, but in fact, like the Lotus Temple in Delhi, it's not too cultish. If you make a reservation, you can go inside. I was interested enough to make one and return the next day. Inside, all is quiet, pristine, white, like some Star Trek set. The "inner chamber" is a round room for absolutely silent meditation and which contains "the largest optically-perfect glass globe in the world". Light from a hole in the roof shines down through the globe to a pool under the structure. 
Like other things in Auroville, it's an interesting mix of science, technology and spirit that I hadn't seen anywhere else. Here for example are the documented technical details on the structure.

http://old.auroville.org/thecity/matrimandir/meditation_rooms.htm

There are also twelve small meditation rooms, one in each of the surrounding, Lotus-like flower petals. Each room is of a different colour theme and dedicated to one of 12 "virtues", such as Sincerity, Perseverance and Progress. I chose Courage and shared an hour's silent meditation with 3 others.

Huge banyan tree which was the instrumental in choosing the location to build the Matrimandir. The poles supporting the wide branches are not artificial - banyan trees naturally drop special branches down to the ground to extend the reach of the plant.

So what to make of Auroville? I admit, I found it fascinating, but you'll be relieved Mum I didn't think seriously of moving here. Not very seriously anyway ;)  I found it to be a fascinating, only semi-unrealistic, idealistic experiment. It's been around for 50 years and growing, so it's not a flash in the pan. Can the lessons learned here be of benefit to other communities, countries and the globe suffering from increasing consumerism and de-humanization? I think they can, but this approach takes a commitment and dedication to a common cause most people aren't accustomed to making.

In the end, I find it's not where you live that ultimately determines your ideal place. It's how you live, what you appreciate, and especially, who you share with that matter the most. For me, those people are at home. I have enjoyed my trip tremendously, and I'm glad I have a new boatload of experiences, friends and memories to draw on for the rest of my life, but I am looking forward to being home in time for the holidays.

From Pondicherry, I bused to Chennai for a few days. I realized after a lot of thought that I was not appreciating new things in India any more. I'd heard from several other travelers Sri Lanka is naturally beautiful and interesting, so I decided to go to Sri Lanka for the rest of my trip! Unfortunately there is no boat service here since the Tamil war in the north, so I had to take an inexpensive flight from Chennai. Sri Lanka will be the 36th country I've been to in my life!