Annexe Room at Dancers Cottage

The Dancers Cottage is set at the end of a beautiful garden with a large fish pond. A small bedroom in the Annexe has two beds. Cottage has a sitting room and a basic kitchen/pantry. Outdoor benches and dining table, recreational platform under trees, open to sky toilets and shower. Ideal for quiet pursuits and enjoying nature. A tranquil, rejuvenating getaway from busy city life. Please note if you leave your bedroom door open too long, you may have frogs and geccos pop in. This is a small ground floor bedroom with two joined beds. The Dancers Cottage comprises self standing earth buildings in Skandavan's garden. The Annexe rooms (with water storage above), are built to be naturally as cool as possible. The Cottage has a common sitting room, kitchen/pantry with basic cooking facilities, an outdoor dinning table and an open-to-sky bathroom with shower, and two semi-open toilets. Skandavan's micro climate is always a few degrees cooler than Pondicherry. All Cottage garden areas and the dance platform are quiet and available for your use. One-on-one yoga classes and consultation on your existing practice, is available in my home dance studio on request. Please feel free to contact us if you need anything at all. Michael and I both live and work on the premises, so we are very much here. We also have three very nice helpers Mala, Kamala and Thatha who come for the day, during the week. Sundays they are on leave. Krishna is the watchman, and can let you in easily when you are having a late night out. Please keep his phone number with you. His wife Kalpana will cook lunch/dinner for you on request. If you need to be picked up from anywhere in Pondicherry, Chennai or Villipuram, it is easily arranged, so do let us know of your requirement. Auroville's Visitors Centre is approximately 4 kms from Skandavan and the nearest general provision shops in the Edayanchavadi Village are less than 2 kms from us. Auroville's Welcome Cafe with wi-fi internet is 2.3 kms away and about a 30 min walk. The Aroma Gardens opposite the Welcome Cafe gate has a sports facility with a swimming pool open to the public. (It is inset in the complex so you need some transport to find it.) Auroville's Botanical Garden is a little over half a kilometer away and well worth visiting. Pondicherry airport (with direct flights from Bangalore) is 2 kms away. The route to the airport from us is also a shortcut to Pondicherry ( White Town is app. 7 kms away by this road). We have two bicycles available on the premises on a first come first serve basis, but more can be hired from the Visitors Centre. We have a maintenance charge of Rs 20 per day for their use, which you can pay the watchman when he gives you the key. Motor cycle hires and taxis for local travel and short trips outside Pondicherry can also be easily organised. If you would like a motorcycle or scooter arranged before your arrival, let us know in advance. If you need to be picked up from anywhere in Pondicherry, Chennai or Villipuram, it is easily arranged, so do let us know of your requirement. We can put you in touch with Auroville taxi services to pick you up from Chennai airport or Pondicherry bus/railway stations on arrival. The Dancers Cottage is electrified on the general grid only. In case of power cuts (and this is not a common occurrence), you will have to use a torch or solar lantern which we can provide. Please ring our doorbell or contact the watchman Rakesh and we will sort you out. Check in on the day of your arrival anytime after 12.00 hours. Please avoid arriving after dark the first time you come as roads here are not signposted. Breakfast the next day is included with the night's booking but please let us know on arrival if you want this. It will be available in the Dancers' Cottage by 8.00 when our staff arrive, please help yourself. The kitchen has drinking water and is a shared facility you are welcome to use with a fridge, toaster, gas and electric kettle. We will will wash up at 10.30. If you are self-catering for other meals please wash up afterwards. Remember not to leave food open or utensils unwashed as it will invite squirrels, ants and other wildlife. Please note that if you are arriving on an early morning train/bus and want breakfast on the day of arrival, let us know in advance. This can be organised but will be charged separately. Please check out by 10.30 am on the day of your departure. If you require the room for longer, please let us know in advance. If we have no other booking that day, we can be flexible with this timing. For discounted bookings (stays over a week where you are self catering) we will not be providing breakfast but can assist with fresh milk delivery. Whenever there is garden surplus of fruits etc., this is available for you. We do not have wi-fi available currently, though this is freely available in several cafes in the neighbourhood. In case of emergency, please let us know and you are welcome to come home and use our internet. If you need an ashtray, let us know and please smoke in the garden and not indoors. (Thanks!) Kamala is available to clean your bedroom from 9 to 10 am. If your room is unoccupied, she has instructions to enter and sweep your floor. If you do not want her to do this let us know. Incase you want to do this yourself at another time, there is a broom in the electric room. Please dry laundry only on designated washing lines and racks. We would be very grateful if you would help conserve energy by switching off electric lights when not in use. If you would like to use the Dancer's Cottage platform or any garden space for a private event/workshop, please discuss full details in advance. Lastly, as per Govt. of India rules, all non-Indian nationals are requested to give us photocopies of their travel documents (passport & visa) for our records.