Travel to Pondicherry

(click on the picture to know little more detail)

Finally went to Pondicherry this weekend with Sachin. We departed from my place at about 7.30 on Saturday morning and got hold of the ECR(East Coast Road) expressway bus. The view is very scenic along this route as the road runs along the stretch which has direct visibility to the ocean. We reached within 3 hrs to Pondicherry where a rickshaw man guided us to the guest house. The first one he showed was quite expensive, so we went around looking for something cheap as the room was to be used mostly for sleeping at night only. We managed to find a decent guest house for Rs.360/day pretty soon. We had done some research on the travel part and had already decided few places to visit and renting out a 2 wheeler for the same. After checking in we washed our faces, tried to play around with the number of TV channels and then left to have our breakfast. Rented out a Kinetic and left for Auroville….which was our first destination. Had a tough time finding the place with many U turns, but finally managed to get through. Auroville happens to be quite place where you can see lot of non Indians living peacefully in good ambient surroundings. The details can be found here. The property in Auroville belongs to the community as such and no one owns it personally, it’s a small city in itself. The motto is to signify human unity. The foundation happened in Feb 28, 1968 with collection of native soil of around 174 different countries bought by the representatives of those countries. The whole concept was the idea of Sri Aurbindo, whose pictures one can find throughout Pondicherry in Hotels, Guest houses and other places. We traveled around some places including Matrimandir. The place also has guest houses where people usually come to stay for a week. The whole atmosphere is very calm and relaxed. We headed back around 4.30 pm towards the Pondicherry city again, got our shots from the room and went out to the beach. Rested and gazed at the ocean for a while, felt very calm and relaxing to rest at the beach in sand. Sachin didn’t sit on sand for long, he was pondering or doing don’t know what starring at the ocean. The crowd at the beach was mostly young 24-29 mostly. By the time we were leaving it was already dark. Spotted a children’s park with French architecture buildings on way back, stopped for a while and then left for guest house for some cleaning after traveling all day. Went to a nice posh restaurant for dinner, where all things didn’t did not turn out that well as the way we thought…. There were no seats available at the start, so they asked us to wiat at the bar area…where Sachin happen to suggested to have some drink while waiting…we decided to have a Martini….did not asked for the price and it cost us a bomb…though it was good. Next we managed to get a table but to our amazement there wasn’t a single waiter or waitresses looking at us in case we need anything. We had planned for a buffet so started after waiting if any of the waiters would turn up. Then dal and chapattis were to be served at the table as written in the menu, we got all stuff but didn’t seem to find anyone coming with the chapattis after waiting for quite awhile. Finally had to call a waiter, who managed to look at us , and then got the rotis in next 15 minutes….I think we being placed at a corner area , were in advantage with respect to having the outside view clearly…but at clear disadvantage when it came to servicing by the waiters….Anyways we were quite upset with the same…finally after finishing off with dinner when I went to have dessert , a cook came and offered his services…as to help me out in picking up the same…I asked him about few dishes and he explained it with complete knowledge of the same….well the frustration cooled down a lot for me…though we were waiting for a feedback form if they would provide with the bill…but they didn’t ….anyways went out and strolled along the shoreline for a while…..Both were extremely tired with full days traveling and were off to sleep by 11 pm. The next morning started at 6 am, and we headed to the beach again and landed there by 6.30 am. Ah an amazing view in the morning…we missed the sunrise though…..throughout the journey period the weather was excellent so didn’t feel any heat….and no rain as well. Packed off the stuff by 8.30 am, had traditional south Indian breakfast (idli-vada) , returned the kinetic and left off for the bus stand…cool trip…though quite exhausting….and for me it was not yet over as I had to catch a train just after reaching Chennai to Nellore…to attend Anil’s (roomie Srivatsav’s friend) wedding reception. Going with Sachin to Pondicherry proved to be very beneficial as most places, people were much comfortable in speaking Tamil, though English was also acceptable but not well understood.