If you go to Auroville for a prolonged period (anything above two days) there are a couple of recommended steps to take:
1) Book your accommodation well in advance. There are quite a few guest houses in Auroville, but there are also a huge number of tourists. At the moment, there are around 1800 people living in Auroville, but in high season at least the same number of tourists will be staying there. Consequently, it can be hard to find somewhere to stay. We had booked a cottage in Atithi Griha guest house, which happens to be the official Auroville guesthouse . It is relatively cheap, compared to other guest houses in Auroville, at around Rs. 700, and it is an excellent place for meeting other people; be it other tourists or Aurovillian newcomers who are waiting for permanent accommodation.
2) Go to the Visitor's Centre to get a map. Without a map you are destined to get lost; even with a map any adventurousness will see you lost at some point.
3) Go to the Guest Service (on top of Solar Kitchen in E3 in the map above) and get a guest account. Auroville is, in theory, a moneyless community making the "purchase" of food etc. complicated without a guest account. Unfortunately, you are only likely to get an account if you are planning to stay for at least two weeks. The account can be recharged with real money at the Town Hall (in E3 in the map above).
4) Rent a moped or another two wheeled motorised vehicle. We did, being environmentally conscious, do the right thing, which is to rent a pedal bike. However, we soon were alerted to the fact that distances in Auroville are huge; getting from one end to the other is a 10 kilometre ride. Add to this that the bikes that are for rent are prehistoric (one gear and saddle sticks that are way too short for any male of average height) and that the road quality is exceptionally poor, and you have a recipe for constant pain in every fibre of your body. The reason for the poor roads is a degree of delusion amongst the leaders of Auroville (yes, there are leaders in this place even though it pretends to uphold distinguished principles of democracy etc.). Auroville was created because the Mother had a vision. Her closest ally, the French architect Roger Anger, had his own visions which included a particular road layout. Unfortunately, this road layout was never created and roads developed organically. After all, people need roads in order to be able to travel from A to B. As these roads weren't in accordance with "the Plan" the authorities haven't been willing to maintain and repair them. So, today, almost forty years after the creation of Auroville, people have to travel on gravel roads full of holes and bumps. In the Monsoon the roads are, more or less, unusable because the gravel turns into a thick clay like sludge. Rumour has it that any real improvement of the Auroville infrastructure (read: the application of tarmac) won't happen until the old Mother lovers have died off. The photo below should give an indication of the road quality.
We were able to rent a moped for less than Rs. 100 a day from Atithi Griha, but there are plenty of places advertising their moped rental services on message boards around Auroville.
5) Find one or more eating places. For the first two weeks, where we stayed at Atithi Griha, which included breakfast and dinner, we didn't have to use the other eating places in Auroville. For the last two weeks, where we stayed at Needam Guest House, which has a small kitchen attached to every room, we were able to cook most of our meals. However, we found three places where reasonable food can be had. First, there is the Solar Kitchen (in E3) where you can get a comprehensive daily lunch (booking recommended). Second, there is a small café next to Pour Tous supermarket (in H5) which serves thalis at lunch time. Finally, the café at Repos Beach (in I5) has quite a few good dishes and sandwiches. In addition it is blessed with a view of the Bay of Bengal.The main problem will actually be to find dinner. Ideally, you should stay in a guest house that either includes dinner or has a kitchen attached, because, as we will return to, it is not recommended to go out at night in Auroville; unbelievably, taking into account that this is meant to be a haven where people of all nationalities can live together in peaceful cooperation, there are significant problems in the relationship between Auroville and local Tamils living outside Auroville. This has resulted in a number of alleged rapes and even murder. There have been suggestions to make Auroville into an American style gated community, but that idea has luckily been shot down by the sensible people of Auroville. If you are willing to travel on the hopeless roads in the pitch black darkness of night amongst mosquitoes and other potential dangers, it is possible to find dinner at Solar Kitchen, Repos or at the Visitor's Centre.
So, why exactly would anyone want to go to Auroville? We'll look at that in the next post.
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