I got to Pondi in the morning, and more by accident than for wanting the experience, I got a cycle rickshaw. On our way to my first choice of a guest house it started raining. I was getting wet, and my bags were getting wet. I told the skinny driver dressed up only with a longui and a wrinkled t-shirt to stop. before I could get my stuff out, he was crying, wait, wait, while extending a broken rag over the passengers sit. Whatever. So I decided to hang on there with the desperate fellow, even though it didn't help much to keep me dry.
My first choice of a guest house, seemed far away from the tourist area. Cheap, but boring, plus, there was a curfew at 10:30 p.m. Had to keep looking. After a couple of tries I decided to get another rickshaw, this time a motorized one, to get closer to the desired new area, the french quarters, where I would check out the Park Guest House. An Ashram. And as in the other guest houses, there was also a curfew at 10:30 p.m. and smoking was prohibited. Not that I like smoking in my room, but fucking aye, I didn't like it to be prohibited either. However, I tried luck, prizes were too expensive on the area, and this was reasonably cheap. After a swift look at my wet person, the receptionist told me there was no room available, it was all full. And of course, same reaction at the New Park Guest House, a newer version of the old one.
So on my search of a cheap place to stay with no curfews or other prohibitions, I ran up into 2 French students living in Chennai, and I joined in their search of a place to crash. And finally, after a few turns in different directions, we got to the Hotel Continental, probably the cheapest reasonable place in town.
My room wasn't ready on arrival. I had to wait for other people to leave, or so they said. I think they were just painting or something like that and had to wait till they finished. Anyway, I had to wait, so I looked for a restaurant to get a bite, maybe, and get a beer.
After 4 hours of waiting, I went back hoping the room would be ready. On seeing it, I liked it. Simple bed, with TV and a bathroom with hot water. All I needed to recover from my earache. And though it was overpriced, 250 Rupees, I rather that than a spiritual prison.
I wasn't up to much on arrival, I was tired, my ear ached and there was no hurry. So it wasn't until the following day I started discovering the town and discovered the differences with the rest of India and the differences within the same town.
First I made it up to Coffee.com my morning bar, where Desiree would always serve me with a smile while practising her Spanish. Later on, I would arrive to L'Space with an Australian guy I had met on the street while looking for a place to get a beer. He was up for doing the same thing. As I get in, I hear "Madam?, Madam?". I turn around to see an Indian fellow with the name Anil. "You said Madam?" Oh, his apologies were fast and almost interrupted me. But I was on the joking mood and wanted to fool around him a bit. "You like my bud, is that it? You like my bud?" I was saying this while slapping my bud. We both started laughing into a good relationship that would last as long as I kept going there and he worked there. He turned to be a good guy, always happy to see me, as I was to see him. He even invited me to mojito one night.
That first night at L'Space I had discovered a good place to eat and drink and meet a whole bunch of new people. Those I met the first night, left the following day, except Johanna. A Portuguese girl staying there for one more night when we would go to an R&B, techno concert with no alcohol for 100 Rupees. Despite the price, we had a good time.
It had been a good start, a good start that didn't bring a good afterwards. On the following days I went back to loneliness, with my TV and the Shantaram book as my best friends. Until the second to last day I was to spend in Pondi. That day, I met Peter, an Indian-Sri Lankan young handsome guy working as a tourist guide and hooking up with as many girls as possible. And he hooked up with many. First day I met him at L'Space he offered me a 12 hour job in a shooting in Chennai during a cricket match. A shooting that never happened. But we had a good time the following day.
We spent our time with Phoebe, Pier, Ally, Ron, Megan and others, first at L'Space and later on at Pier's house in Auroville, were other people joined in. The night kept on until the morning, when we had an early swim in the ocean. Sebastian, our faithful rickshaw driver joined us until the end, and even went for beers in the middle of the night when we had run out of it. Of course, he would have one for himself.
Thing of all this is, I had a morning bar to go to for coffee, and a night bar to go to for beers and meet new people. Though it's true I wasn't always lucky with that, now I knew people that knew more people, and certainly that would lead to meeting more people. Though wanting to stay more and enjoy the new feelings, I was about to leave Pondi. My purpose in India called me and I had to follow it. I had been postponing it for too long already. And though I didn't know it yet, I was starting to feel good in Pondi, I was starting to feel cozy, just like home.
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