Last friday I along with my flatmates planned to go for a pondicherry trip. We were 6 of us so we booked a Qualis(ac) from chennai, which costs us around 5100/- including toll taxes, fuel charges and 400 km coverage. Pondicherry is almost 160 km from Chennai.
If you guys are planning to visit pondicherry with your family it is always better to visit Chennai first and then hire a car. Well, if you are bachelors better hire bikes which are available at very affordable price at almost every nukkads in pondicherry and may cost you around 200/- to 400/- per day (petrol cost is yours, ofcourse) according to the bike you hire.
When we started out journey first we visited Mahabalipuram temple which is almost 60 km from chennai. Mahabalipuram temple is all rock temple and the beach is quite fine. Don’t watse your energy, money and time in more sight seeing around Mahabalipuram because there is nothing much. It is a religious(historical) place, thats it.
The same day that is Saturday our next destination was auroville beach ( am not sure about the spellings, spare me). Oooh, lots of foreigner beauties were there, moving in lingeries. Frankly speaking I think most of them were french. Many cottages(more like huts) were there but price was too high.(And this beach was the most dirtiest beach I have ever seen, oh yes I have visited all the beaches in south india). If you have brought beer, you can drink it here! :D
Then we had lunch in a nearby restaurant and headed towards the main market. It was saturday evening so yeah rush was there, we hunted for a decent Hotel until we got one. Its name was Hotel Aditya. Rs 850/- fora 3 bedded ac room( with tv, fridge, bath tub) was decent enough so we took 2 rooms.( if you are all boys group, you can go for much cheaper hotels with 6 beds or 4 beds, ac, tv) Now guess what Pondicherry is most famous for? Cheap liquors, Yes! We wanted to drink in a decent bar which can serve good non-veg items too. Hot and Cold was the name of that roof-top bar. It was really nice. Taquilla shots were just 35/- per shot. Johnnywalker scotch was 250/- ( it is 1000+ in chennai bars). We drank till few of us vomitted and then we headed towards a rocky beach(pondy main road beach) which was nearby. It was a fantastic beach. Moonlight was making it more adorable. Sea waves were striking those big rocks as they want to crush it each time though with unsucessful attempts. We stayed there till 10 pm then we returned to our hotel and died till 8 am next morning.
Sunday morning 9:30 am( we were actually running late according to schedule) we headed towards MATRI MANDIR (Auroville) temple( which we left yesterday, due to shortage of time). That temple is much like a globe all covered with Golden petals and is known as centre of power for the Auroville township. Before entering the township the system there will make you see a 10 min video( its interesting) which will tell you the history about the Auroville. In the small market you will get all sorts of beautiful handicraft items, I purchased one kurta there.
Next we headed towards the most famous beach of Pondicherry that was Paradise beach. After taking the tickets we were suppose to go by boat on an island where the actual beach is. That 25 minute boat trip was really a wonderful one with all Coconut trees on the shore and fresh breeze touching your body all over, ( don’t worry if the boat is overloaded and water is just few cms away from you, you are still safe, i don’t why I wrote this).
At Paradise we beach we had enjoyed a lot and had bath until we got exhausted, then we had some snacks from a nearby shop( located on island itself). Returned back to hotel and our last destination was Aurobindo ashram( thats what I wondered why every name here and there starts with "Auro"). I entered the Ashram and felt the divine peace, peace and peace.... Nearby there was a Vinayak temple visted that too.
Time to return back to chennai. We puchased few bottles( of water? no!!!) and made innocent faces when the police asked us that whether we are carrying any liquor. Thanks God he didn’t checked our Car.
Pondicherry trip was overall fun. Guys 1 day is just not enough for Pondicherry and 2 days is just sufficient. HAVE FUN AND DONT DRINK AND DRIVE THERE!
Cheers.
:-)
Datz.