Pondicherry Trip !

The pondicherry trip was very quickly planned one and almost got finalised in the last 4 days. The choices were places besides something in Cauvery basin because of the ongoing cauvery water issue and we did not want to be innocent victims during these times.

Pondicherry or Puducherry as it is called locally is on the east coast and wakes up with the Sunrise everyday. The city has a clear demarkation of a french type town and a normal indian town. The last 5 avenues/streets that are near the sea are the french areas and one can almost get the feeling that one is in France..with all the streets having french names and buildings have a french touch too..It also is a Sleepy town and you find people generally relaxed and not in a great hurry to complete things...Well, going from Bangalore and after seeing the
daily hustle, pondicherry is surely relaxing and aptly a tourist destination. While some people were asking me if we could spend 4 days in pondicherry, and I was uncertain on the same; However, it is a place one can spend four days if vacation is what one is thinking !

We drove down to Pondicherry from Bangalore and reached within 6 hours to be there in Pondicherry for lunch. One of the issues that we faced was the lack of restaurants on the way..Almost impossible to find a decent joint/ restaurant/hotel in the whole 300 Km stretch. Bangalore and Karnataka leads the way in the eateries. Finding a hotel and getting to eat is much easier in Karnataka than any other places that I have visited so far. We, infact, had to skip the breakfast while going. After checking into the Ajanta sea view, for which we paid 1400/- per night, we had a sumptuous lunch at the same restaurant.

Ajanta sea view is one of the places which is right on the beach..Fabulous view from the balcony ! This was one of my best experiences of staying besides a sea, unmindful of a heavy price. The beach road, without any contest, like the nariman point of Mumbai. Many people frequent this place in the morning and the evening for walks, exercises, Yoga and romancing..Lovely place to spend time in the evening with the breeze taking away all the humidity/heat away from the air. The beach road is
not a typical beach that one can play in water and waves. One can only watch the waves hit the stones that are laid besides the sea..



The Adyar Anand Bhavan ( A2B ) and the A2B bakery at the beginning of the J N Street are the places I recommend for breakfasts and lunches for vegetarians. Though its a struggle to get food in ever busy A2B. I felt the logistic processes not as matured as the Bangalore darshinis..Even with crowd, it is within minutes, one can get the Idlis/Dosas or any other order. I had to almost consistently wait close to 10-15 mins before getting a normal food order.We found the ghee pongal to be extremely tasty; However, it was also a difficult time to have the food while managing Diya who is becoming notoriuosly naughty at the restaurants, while wanting to eat everything herself and in the meantime creating a embarassing mess !

I felt that Diya did not eat much during the vacation but played and enjoyed a lot during all the four days..The only other places for veggie tourists may be Surguru restaurant, Ananda Bhavan, which are on the east coast road. The service is Surguru on our anniversary day left much to be desired. The exteriors indicate it to be a 4 star hotel but the interiors/service can hardly
meet the criteria of a ( Bangalore ) Shanti Sagar !




One of old trees..You can see the roots of the tree all across and they touch the ground at all the places..


The first day after the arrival, we went to Auroville, which is a town formed by the Mata - a disciple of Aurobindo and which has the famous Matri Mandir. Auroville is a lovely place and one can easily spend half a day going to the Matri Mandir, doing shopping and eating out in the small cafeteria.






The Auroville Matri Mandir below..We could not go inside the matri mandir because of the renovation that is happening currently. Apparently, there is a huge crystal at the center , where all the sunlight/sunrays converge and is a huge space for meditation..


The handicrafts are great buys and I recommend to purchase for those interested; Found many interesting things that one can procure to adorn their drawing rooms. On the way to Auroville, we missed a left because of which we had to drive extra 5-6 kms to
come back; It is always recommened to ask always when in doubt on these stretches..The road directions/boards are not tourist friendly and most of the times, the road signs, boards are in Tamil, which makes it difficult..


I also recommend a trip to Chunambur Boat house, run by the Pondicherry state Govt, that takes one in boats to a island where one can enjoy the sea, beach and can be really fun in a group. One can rent out volleyballs, footballs etc and it can be fun. we spent around 1.5 hours on the beach enjoying the sea/waves/sand..Diya was fascinated by the sea and the sand..She wanted to have a bath in the sea !







We also did some shopping on J N Street and picked up some handicraft items. I'am not sure what one should be looking to buy but it is always exciting to do some shopping in new cities/touris cities. I picked up a leather Saarang that I was looking for apart from the various handicrafts


Before I end this post, we celebrated our fifth marriage anniversary at Pondicherry, which was memorable !!!