Two cars full of people from different genres, a family of 3 from Bangalore, 2 close friends again from Bangalore, one girl doing her first solo trip from Delhi and 1 guy who is new to Bangalore and working in the IT sector, started the drive towards Pondicherry from Bangalore on Friday night at 11pm.
The highways welcomed us with less traffic and good breeze.
The overnight drive to Pondicherry was covered in 6hr and 30mins with two breaks.
On the way, we crossed the temple was Tindivanam, it was majestic!
Reaching our stay by 6am, everyone got their rooms and we slept like babies till 10.30am.
Everyone woke up to local South Indian breakfast meals served in their rooms and were all relaxed enough to start the day’s events.
First stop was Chunnambar Boat House.
To add to the excitement, not included in the itinerary, we boarded the boat to Paradise Island.
It was spectacular. Littering was illegal.
There was something for everyone, rain dance, water activities, play area, jumping castle, harnessed jump, restaurants, natural waves, shacks etc.
We made preparations for lunch and decided to enter the water first.
Everyone was having their own time, clicking pictures, fighting the waves, sipping coconut water and relaxing in the shacks.
Post the activities, we had veg and non veg meals respectively for lunch and then headed to the boat house again.
By 4pm we made our way to the other sight seeing points. Promenade Rocky beach was the next stop.
We parked the cars on the side, and sat by the beach on the rocks for about an hour.
Walking down the beach front, we crossed the old light house and halted in front of the Gandhi Statue, biggest in Asia made of granite.
Driving around the French Colony on a pleasant Saturday evening, we tried from every side to get access to Raj Nivas. Due to high security we unable to get close to it.
By 6.30pm we wrapped up from the town and headed back towards the room.
On the way, we tried making our way to the Auroville beach, which was also out of bounds and guarded by the police.
Dinner was ordered at a local restaurant, to try the Tamil cuisine. We had different kinds of dosas and something like parothas, torn into pieces, cooked with egg and vegetables served with Kurma, it was delicious!
By 08.30pm, we reached the hotel and rested.
Few of us had an unofficial celebration at the roof top of the hotel and clicked away the stars in the cosmos above ! What a night!
Next morning, we checked out of the hotel by 9am and headed straight to Auroville.
Eating light breakfast there, we saw a short video on the meaning and purpose of Auroville, and made our way to Maitri Mandir.
The 20mins walk to the view point was a pleasant stroll through Auroville’s natural botanical landscape.
We passed by the by the big banyan tree which was quite overwhelming.
Spending about 30mins in the area, our next stop was lunch.
Sitting on the floor, eating under the thatch roofed structure, we were served with freshly made home cooked food. The red rice dosa was simply cooked and felt quite exotic!
Heading to our final sightseeing point for the trip, we reached Serenity Beach by 2.30pm.
The beach had quite a bit of local population, Auroville’s residents and some tourists.
There were huts, villas and restaurants with guest houses just off the shore. They had a very chic feeling as flowering creepers crawled along their walls, they were painted mostly white, blue and yellow.
The availability of surfing classes was quite impressive. The fishing boats parked on the shore added to the native charm.
As we got off the cars, some went to the sandy shore, some to find out about surfing the waves, some to check out the preparation of fish while the rest of us went towards the rocky terrain.
Sitting by the rocks, overlooking the waves, we spotted crabs on the black rocks.
Relaxing and enjoying the breeze, after an hour, everyone gathered on the rocks.
We walked towards the stores and the eateries and the non vegetarians got super tempted by the live preparation of the fish.
The vegetarians, did shopping, spent some more quality time on the beach and rejoined the rest once they were done with their delicacy.
Leaving from Serenity Beach by 05.00pm, we started for Bangalore.
The sunset drive was mind blowing. Both the cars kept catching up to each other at intervals.
With four stops on the way, coffee, ATM, toilet and dinner, we reached Bangalore city by 12.30am on Monday.
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