India?

Hot. Sweaty. Mustaches. Cows. Saris.

That's what I've got so far. Landed in Mumbai. Took a cab to the domestic airport. Slept in the airport. Took a 5am plane to Chennai, waited in that airport for Stacy. Met Stacy. Took a 2 hour taxi ride to Auroville. The roads here are crazy. Good thing Bangkok was a little bit of a warm up. Cows and beautiful women in saris and kids and families on motorbikes and loud music playing buses with people piled on the roof and rickshaws wizzing in and out all over the place. And the mustaches. OMG the Indian men all have these hillarious 1970's mustaches and they just crack me up, every single one. Even in the airport women are cleaning the floors while they are dressed in beautiful sky blue saris. Its unreal. We found a cafe in the Mumbai airport and got samosas and watched the news on the comfy couches till we got kicked out at 1130 pm and had to sleep in chairs clutching all our belongings until we could check in for our flight. So luckily Stacy emerged at the Chennai airport and we had booked a taxi that took us FOREVER out of Chennai to Auroville, this crazy community that i really do not know much about so just google it. And drove through crazy dirt roads until we didn't and I guess we're here? We get out and stumble into this crazy community. There are houses built of bamboo and straw and tons of gringos around and we just kinda walk in. If you've seen the movie the beach it pretty much paralleled the scene when they walk through the first day and everyone stares at them amidst their tasks. So we walk into the main hut. No idea what the fuck is going on, and everyone is really welcoming but all i can think is this sure doesn't look like Buddha Garden to me. First off- no garden or signs of a farm anywhere, and there are tons of people here. Stacy found her friend from college and luckily he showed us around a bit and gave us the gist of things. And turns out by a slight misunderstanding, I thought we were going to a different farm than Stacy did and turns out it isn't even a farm, its just a community. And you volunteer in the mornings and the rest of the day is yours to read or do yoga or motorbike into town or swim in the mud pools. And at first it was weird but they had this awesome no talent show the first night followed by some Indian guys doing some awesome drumming and the next night an eco film projection. I spent the first day making these bunds to divert the water during monsoon season and then helping cook lunch for eh 50 people and dinner for 150. It was crazy long and sweaty but a good day all in all. And I'm sweating and dirty and took a bucket shower today which was awesome.I'm sure there's more but I'm sweating in this Indian Internet cubicle and need to bust out!