Dear Tourists to Pondicherry,
I just returned from Pondicherry, my overall experience is very bad and I will narrate the whole tour experience. PONDICHERRY UNSAFE FOR COUPLE and small Family Group vacation.
We were very excited to visit Pondicherry after my husband booked three days trip from Bangalore. We planned well and drove to Pondicherry and reached around noon on 25-Mar-2018, we took Chittoor, Vellore route which is long route as many said the roads were good. The drive was not hectic only from Vellore to Tindavanam was bit of slow drive.
As we had planned everything in advanced, we checked in the hotel and after fresh-up we hit the much hyped Kamatchi restaurant had sea food, the food is average nothing to say more about it. Later we drove to Rock Beach and had small walk.
Later from Rock Beach we went to Aurobindo Ashram, it is good & peaceful, from here we drove to Auro Beach around 4:30pm. We all three(my daughter, wife and self) started to enter the beach to play in the water, few local guys came and started making nuisance, taking photos, so we moved away from this place and went 200 meters away and got into the water. they appeared here too and started taking photos as if they were taking some other photos. This behavior of the locals made us feel bad and the expectation became very low. We packed from here, and about to leave they followed us, luckily there were cops there, seeing them they dispersed. Then we thought of taking evening walk at the Rock beach, we came back here and spend time then we hit back to our hotel and called for the day…
Next day morning we enjoyed and relaxed in hotel pool till 2pm, then we drove to Paradise Beach(there are two Paradise beaches, one near Windflower resort and the other 4 km from there), as per the Google maps we reached the windflower Paradise beach. There was not much crowd, as it was Monday. We walked for a km to reach the beach, on the way we packed few fried fished from the local stall and enjoying the fish at the shore watching the beautiful sea. Suddenly two guys came near and started taking pictures of my daughter and wife as if they were taking selfies. I objected them, they said ok will not take, but they keep on staring and taking photos. We moved to a nearby family enjoying in the beach waters. They followed us, taking pictures… as we had bad experience the first day, we packed from there and about to leave, these two guys came and asked if we can give some pose for photos. We said no and started walking back to the car parking; they started to follow-us. To avoid any incidents, we went to fish stall and narrated them the story. They were good and told us not to worry, nothing will happen here. When we were having the fish fry, the two guys appeared inside the stall and spoke to the stall lady. The lady came and told that I told them, if they bother them we will call the police. But they handed over the phone # and asked them to call if not there will be some consequences. We were frightened; we rushed from the stall so that we can getaways from this place. But these guys had gather about 5-6 other guys and came in front of our car couple of times and stopped. After about 200 mts, they stopped us and few guys had tied hand kerchiefs around the face, the two guys came to my car door banning the door and asking us to get down. Luckily my wife and daughter asked me to say inside and lock all the windows and doors. I immediately called police control room and narrated the story. Seeing these guys dispersed. The police control room sent two police person to the spot, it was a great relief for us. We narrated the same to these police and shared the bike no(Last 4 digit were 4353). they were helpful. We requested them to accompany us till the main road, to which they agreed. OUR SINCERE THANKS TO THE POLICE OFFICERS.
On reaching hotel, we did not go out anywhere… next day we were suppose to go to Paradise boat house and Auro Villa. We cancelled our stay and returned to Bangalore.
This is the worst experience of our lifetime, we have done domestic and international vacations. Each and every vacation was beautiful… This is the worst.
Piece of advice to all tourists
There is nothing much WOW in Pondicherry, in just one day we can cover all picnic spots.
Beaware of the local goons, who are wandering in all picnic spots especially the beaches. If they see some modern girls they create problems.
If who are just couples or small family, I request you to stay away from Pondicherry it is not worth it
Local goons will just stare at the girls and ladies, if we question they will created problems
If at all we still want to visit Pondicherry, I suggest you to visit in large groups
I rate negative for Pondicherry as a vacation spot, I casually talking to other guest in the hotel, they to narrate the same stories.
IF THE PONDICHEERY GOVERNMENT WANTS TO PROMOTE TOURISIM THEN THEY HAVE TO CONTROL THESE GOONS and BRING IN STRICT LAW.
I Will never visit Pondicherry again.