I was traveling and staying in Auroville recently, during a vacation, so I had some free days to see what kind of weird stuff I could do with my time. Auroville is an “experiment” community too, so it has a few things that you can’t do in just any place.
What are the offbeat things to do in Auroville? You could: Build a treehouse, build an earthbag house, make bamboo furniture, make handmade paper, make epic salads, learn permaculture, find your true calling, eat squid pizza, ride a gyroscope, eat a meal cooked with 11,000 mirrors, see a gold dome and an optically perfect glass globe, and more…
There were a bunch of the weird activities in Auroville that caught my eye! Not all of them are on-going. Some of them are workshops available at certain times throughout the year. But if you want to try out-of-the-norm things in Auroville, here are some details for your next trip…
1) Build a Treehouse
The Tree House Community in Auroville is aiming to build 500 treehouses across the world. They already have 80 so far.
If you want to learn to build one for yourself, they offer a 4-week construction course that will take you through the entire process.
- Week 1 – Choosing a tree
- Week 2 – Choosing good tools and materials
- Week 3 – Designing and building the house
- Week 4 – Completing your treehouse
Cost = 160,000 RS (including 18% tax). ~$2,223 USD
Check out their workshops here.
They also offer beginner courses that last 6 days and teach you the basics of woodworking and treehouses.
Or if you just want to rent a treehouse and chill out in the branches, you can do that as well.
Rent a treehouse here.
When I was a kid, I had epic plans to build a Swiss Family Robinson-esque treehouse. I designed it. I gathered wood from around the house. I built a rope latter. Then… I nailed one board in the tree, and called it good. Haha.
I’m interested in building my own home so this is one course I’m considering.
2) Build a Home Out of Earth
The Auroville Earth Institute has a wide range of natural building training.
One of the primary ways they build homes in Auroville is: Compressed Stabilised Earth Blocks (CSEB).
They’re like a brick you’re used to seeing except they’re… only 5% cement then a mix of water, sand and soil. They use a hydraulic press to squeeze them into brick form.
There’s more to it than just that though so they have courses on:
- CSEB Production
- CSEB Masonry
- CSEB Design
- CSEB Intensive
Or maybe you thought the Duomo in Italy was the cat’s pajamas… there are also courses on Arched Vaults and Domes (AVD).
- AVD Theory
- AVD Masonry
- AVD Intensive
Ferrocement is cement with chicken wire inside adding extra reinforcement and strength. You can take a course on using this to make: Interlocking channels, round tables, rectangular tables, planters, doors, shelves, gutters, and more.
They have other training in:
- Wind Generators
- Bamboo
- Building for Disaster Relief
3) Make Bamboo Furniture
I’m sitting in a custom-made bamboo chair as I write this. I also have a bamboo couch. It’s one of the most common materials for furniture where I live in India.
You could take a course on Bamboo Product Design, so you could build your own handmade furniture. It’s mostly for students, artists and other professionals, however, anyone is welcome.
Bamboo grows in so many places, even in Virginia and Texas where I’ve lived before, there is bamboo. It’s cheap, light, strong and better for the environment than using plastic or steel. It could be a very useful skill to make your own furniture someday.
In the course, you can learn things like:
- How to select good bamboo
- Designing bamboo
- The theory of using bamboo
- Cutting bamboo
- Bamboo joints
- Splitting bamboo
- Bending and straightening bamboo
There’s also a more basic course about Bamboo and Earth. Check out the details here.
Cost = 18,500 RS for accommodation and meals. 14,700 RS for lunch and transportation only.
Check out the current workshops here.
4) Make Handmade Paper
You’ll see it everywhere in Auroville… it’s sold in stalls by the Visitor’s Parking Lot and in the gift shops of the Visitor’s Centre.
They make handmade paper from dried banana fiber, cotton clothes pieces, and fallen leaves. They dye it in a number of colors, then shape it like paper mache into a wide range of products:
- Journals
- Stationary
- Cards
- Postcards
- Ornaments
- Earrings
- Necklaces
- Paper sculptures
- Fake flowers
- Picture frames
- Lampshades
You can try a workshop, and would make great gifts for family and friends.
5) Cook with Local Foods
It’s tough to find high-quality organic vegetables that don’t cost an entire paycheck… that’s why I’m curious about finding local vegetables in my area.
I see the local holy men and other locals gathering plants. My gardener will sometimes show me plants to eat. But I’d be scared of dying a terrible poisonous death if I chose the wrong one 😬
That’s why this workshop looks interesting: Cooking with Local Foods
It’s run at Solitude Farms which is a well-known community in Auroville and inspired by the popular sustainable farming book One Straw Revolution.
They have one-day and three-day workshops to learn about:
- How to find edible local foods
- The nutritional values of local foods
- The ayurvedic principles of some local foods
- Seasonal foods
- How to prepare and harvest the ingredients
- How to create a zero-carbon footprint diet
You can learn about the workshops here and check the cost.
6) Learn Permaculture
If you want to make a sustainable garden, Solitude Farm runs another workshop that could interest you.
Secrets of our Salads – An Introduction to Permaculture is one popular workshop.
It covers local foods but also focuses on how to grow them in a way that’s good for the environment.
They’ll show you the almost 30 local fruits and vegetables they’re growing and how they do it.
You can also eat a delicious healthy salad with juice.
Cost = 800 RS (~$11 USD) per person including lunch. 400 per person for kids, including lunch.
7) Find Your True Calling
I went through a long period of looking for what I wanted to do in life. What was my purpose? What would make me feel fulfilled? How can I make money, yet not feel terrible about it?
If you’re asking yourself these questions, you’ll find a receptive community in Auroville.
If you’re serious about finding your true calling and want help, you can apply for the Swadharma 5-week program.
You must be between 18 and 28 years old.
Cost is 65,000 RS (add 18% tax) for foreigners. For Indian students it’s 38,000 RS (add 18% tax). Including all costs like accommodation, food, bike, and more. You will need to pay for your own dinners though.
8) Reboot with Juice
Ever just always feel tired? Maybe it’s just me… Working online I can sometimes get so tired, especially if I’m not eating healthy or making time to get out and exercise.
Recently I’ve been looking for ways to improve my diet which is why the course, Reboot with Juice looks interesting.
It’s a guided juice cleanse run by Auroville Retreat.
Sounds like it could cure anything, whether you:
- Have pain often
- Can’t sleep
- Have stomach troubles
- Are stressed
- Are always tired like I was.
They use all organic vegetable and fruit juices.
Cost = 6500 RS (~$90 USD) for a 3-day retreat. 2000 RS (~$28 USD) for each additional day.
9) Discover Your Genius
Auroville Retreats will also help your fulfill your dreams by figuring out what you’re amazing at.
In three sessions, you’ll go from:
- Figuring out what makes you unique and awesome
- Figuring out what you want
- Planning how to get it
They’ll help you recover a sense of identity and purpose. They’ll use guided visualizations to picture your dreams and what your life could look like. Then they’ll give you a toolbox of techniques you can use to get there.
Cost = 8250 RS (~$115 USD) for 3 sessions. 2500 RS (~$35 USD) for additional sessions.
Here’s how you can reach out to them.
10) Build a World to Discover Yourself
If you’re into quirky psychology games like I am and want to learn more about your personality, this one might be for you.
You’ll play in the sand with toys, and built a world for yourself and tell the story of your dream world.
It sounds like something only a kid would do this but it’s a legit psychology practice. I had a friend with a master’s degree, who practiced it with troubled kids.
But you don’t have to be troubled to feel rewarded from this. The story you create could help inform your work and your relationships.
You can learn more here by check in the Individual Retreats.
11) Ride a Gyroscope
In the Auroville Youth Centre, you can strap yourself in and swirl or gyro or whatever you call pivoting around in a gyroscope.
One of the local kids built it using steel rings and ball bearings.
It could be a lot of fun, and you’ll also work muscles you’ve probably never used all that much. Even a 15-minute ride will be a good workout.
Not everyone is allowed to just hop on and take the gyroscope for a spin though, check out the details of how to join the Youth Centre here.
12) Eat a Squid Pizza
Tanto is the restaurant everyone will recommend you go, because of one word we all drool when hearing… pizza 🍕
They cook them on an open wood-fired oven. They also have a selection of toppings that would make even the most hardened Papa John’s addict jealous.
The Sea Global pizza is one you won’t find very often though. It has tomato, cheese, garlic, parsley, and… squid, fish and shrimp. The cost is 370 / 450 RS, so for less than $7 USD, you can have seafood pizza.
13) Eat Fried Chicken Sushi
Sakura Sushi has a super cool tall mural of a local Indian woman eating sushi that you won’t miss.
You should also try the fried chicken sushi roll with marinated vegetables for 250 RS as well. If you’re feeling super adventurous, they have a dried tomato, pesto and spring onion maki sushi roll too for 190 RS.
14) Eat Smoked Ham
Haha, can you tell I’ve been in India for a bit? In the US, this would NOT be offbeat at all, especially in Texas where I lived before flying to India.
But I have not eaten ham since I’ve been here, so Marc’s Coffee serves what looks like a delicious breakfast…
The Big Ben: Eggs to order, baked beans, two pieces of taost, butter and jam. It comes with coffee or tea and juice. Plus, it has smoked ham.
15) Drink Locally-Sourced Vacuum Siphon Coffee
Marc’s Coffee is highly recommended by this guy, their coffee is the bomb.
They have cappuccinos and espressos that are sourced in India, AND they would rival anything you would find in a hipster coffee shop in the States.
If you want something weird though, try the vacuum siphon coffee.
It’s a very scientific-looking way to make a pot of coffee that all the coffee nerds around worldwide. Some people say that siphoning coffee tastes better, since boiling the coffee takes away some of that delicious flavor, while siphoning coffee stays a few degrees below the boiling point.
The cost is 300 RS and you must have a friend to join you, if you want to try some for yourself.
16) Eat a Meal Cooked with 11,000 Bathroom Mirrors
The Solar Kitchen is the most popular lunch spot in Auroville. Check it out in the Visitor’s Centre if you’re visiting.
What’s unique about the Solar Kitchen is NOT that it can make 1000 meals a day with healthy organic ingredients… nope, what’s unique is that all those 1000 meals are cooked with the Solar Bowl.
The Solar Bowl is a gigantic solar concentrator that uses energy from the sun and steam power to make all the meals.
Fun fact: The Solar Bowl was built with 11,000 bathroom mirrors.
17) Drink Chocolate
I may be getting a little fast and loose with my description of “offbeat” things, since hot chocolate is pretty common.
However, drinking the Chill Out Chocolate at Bread & Chocolate is not common.
Check out these ingredients:
- Coconut milk
- Cacao powder
- Vegan chocolate ice cream
- Topped with chocolate shavings and cacao nibs
You’re welcome, haha.
18) See the Gold Dome and the Largest Optically Perfect Glass Globe
Last but not least, you have probably heard of the Matrimandir, so I’ll just briefly cover it with some offbeat facts you may not know:
- It took 37 years to build. That’s longer than the Taj Mahal and the Pyramids of Giza.
- There are 1415 gold-covered steel discs.
- There are 28 grams of real gold in 1000 of those discs.
In the meditation chamber, you can view the largest optically perfect glass globe in the world.
It’s so quiet. It’s all white. The design is straight out of a surreal sci-film from the 1970s (Holy Mountain anyone?).
The globe probably cost 230,000 German Marks too, which is almost $500,000 USD.
So go get your meditation on, and know that that’s one of the most offbeat places I’ve ever seen in the world.
To go inside the Matrimandir, you need to schedule a viewing in advance. You can do so at the Visitor’s Centre. It will probably be 1 to 3 days in the future.
If an Aurovillian takes you as a guest, then you can view the inside of the Matrimandir without scheduling a visit
Related Questions:
Things To Do in Pondicherry?
- See The Mother’s Tomb at Sri Aurobindo Ashram
- Walk along Promenade Beach at Sunset
- Get crepes in the French Quarter
- Get a cheap drink at a nice rooftop restaurant overlooking the ocean
- Learn to surf at the surf school
- Go scuba diving at one of the best places in India
- Take a cycle tour
- See beautiful Christian churches like the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Conception Cathedral
- See one of the tallest sculptures of Gandhi along the beach
Can You Stay in Auroville?
Yes. You can book one of these guesthouses or ask for help at Guest Accommodation Services in the Visitor’s Centre. You can also find guesthouses just outside the township limit on Booking.com and the Oyo app.
Is Alcohol Allowed in Auroville?
It’s prohibited most everywhere. The guesthouses wouldn’t let you drink in sight of anyone. Some people drink but they do it privately.
Pondicherry is known for having low taxes on alcohol, so head to a rooftop restaurant overlooking the ocean to have a cocktail.
What Should You Wear in Auroville?
Dress modestly as you would in any rural community in India. I wore shorts and a t-shirt without any trouble. If you’re a woman, covering your knees and shoulders would be playing it safe.
I did some foreigners wearing yoga pants or tank tops, more so than I have seen in other small towns.
