Note: I have to tell you so I’ll tell you - Drinking and Smoking are hazardous to health.
Pondicherry alias Pondy
Friday night and we were partying at one of the parties at ECR road, it was a nice party called Rising South organized by a number of amateur Rock bands who were also showing us how good they were. We were (a group of 4 bachelors) partying delightedly after a stressful week of work.
It was 3:00am and the party was getting dull - the bands were already too drunk to sing, the DJ was constantly playing what his girlfriend wanted to hear (and she for sure didn’t have good taste) We on the other hand were in a groovy mood and just could not convince ourselves to return home. We then realized that we were just 100 Km from Pondy. That was all the inspiration we needed. So, by 4:00 am (after having lots of tea and smokes) we packed ourselves in my friends 10 yr old Maruti 800 with completely bald tyres and were on our way to Pondy. The road is very well illuminated and clearly marked so it was a pretty comfortable ride.
Pondicherry is about 120km from Chennai. I would personally recommend having your own car, so maybe you could reach Chennai and then rent a car or motorcycles. The toll road between Chennai and Pondy - a part of the east coast road - is very scenic and also has some of the cleanest beaches. You would miss a lot if you could not stop and spend some time in all the places your heart wishes to stop - and believe me there are a million such places around Pondy
We reached Pondy at around 6:00 and got ourselves cozy in one of the community centres. It was a nice place with just 5 tree huts and 50 feet from the sea. The tree huts were placed atop four poles, clean and built with an excellent ventilation system, straw mats for flooring, soft mattresses, hammocks, a view of the ocean and bliss - free of cost.
...And so began our holiday…
Life is bliss in this place called Pondy. The nature of this place, the attitude of the people around you and the whole atmosphere is different. We spent our day doing nothing but swimming, lazing around, taking naps in the hammock (being so close to the beach it was constantly breezy), smoking and reading. I always had a feeling that even time was running slow just for us, so we could relish every single moment we spent here. After all that hustle and bustle in Chennai, everything around us seemed to be slow and sluggish - it was marvellous, harmonious and peaceful. We would get dressed only when it was time to have food and sluggishly drive down to some nice restaurant. Have lunch or dinner with some beer and come back to our good old huts to again start the course of action - swim, nap, eat and smoke.
There are a lot of community centres near and around Pondy - they are normally a coconut farm right on the beach with 5-10 tree huts. The better ones are just outside Pondy - but the farther from Pondy the cleaner the beaches become. Take a left (any left – and never take a pucca road) just before entering the city, travel through the fisherman colonies and once you get close to the beach check for small wooden handwritten boards in front of the coconut farms. No valet parking, no room service but definitely the finest place to stay in. The rent could vary from 100 to 400 a hut. Remember it’s not a hotel so bargain for better prices.
We occupied two of the five huts, there was a French guy in one (he was here to learn Kalaripayattu), a old German couple (guests of the Auroville) and our crazy Italian Giovanni – he was a very animated character as such and spoke broken English – his wife had left to party three nights back and still had not returned. So, he was dynamically explaining to us the whole situation. The funniest part was that he was talking about his lost wife as if he had lost a pen or pencil and each time he went in search of her he came back sloshed or doped. He was entertainment packed in a human body – each time we returned after a swim or something he would be there sitting, waiting for us in the lounge (a shed with a round thatched roof with chairs and a table) to tell us his escapades of his recent search. How close he came to finding his wife, but then how she had already left to a different party. He even made us some ginger tea all the time – he thought we loved it but it was pretty dreadful. We didn’t want to hurt his feelings so we just drank it every time he made it for us.
Pondy is not just a stress breaker, you can also come here to visit the Auroville which is very spiritually rich. Do not try to combine both though. To relieve stress our way or the Auroville way – you’ll have to forget the real world and live this new life as long as you are here. You have to make sure you feel time slowing down just for you. If you are someone who prefers a packaged bus tour that’ll just stop in front of every monument - Pondicherry is not the place for you. The versatility in the cultures around you makes this place great. The city is made up of an international crowd, each living life his own way in his own niche and nobody bothers the other and everybody smile at each other. That’s what Pondy is all about.
We normally spent the time in the city searching for restaurants run by a foreign national (there are an umpteen number of such restaurants) All restaurants serve alcohol through out the day, so you can enjoy a nice meal with a cocktail or just a can of good beer. It’s also culturally normal to do this here and you will not get the looks from people sitting at the table next to yours. The restaurant I liked best was a place called ‘Le Café’ in the first street from the Pondy beach. It’s in the courtyard of a colonial building with a plush garden. (Just like Mocha or Anouki in Chennai) Do not miss the steak here - it’s one of the best steaks you could ever get your mouth on. The place is a bit expensive but worth all the money. The colony right next to the Pondy beach is the most exquisite. All the buildings are colonial and the streets are by and large empty and unruffled with old trees on both sides. It’s a great place to take a walk. All the buildings in this part of the town are exquisite. You’ll also find a lot of such good restaurants hidden in these buildings. There are no neon boards here – always look out for small wooden boards. Another fine restaurant worth a visit is ‘Rendezvous’. Ask any passing foreigner and he’ll show you the way. You can either choose to sit in the dining room decorated with Ravi Varma style paintings or on the roof with chill breeze.
Pondy is also famous for it’s cheap alcohol. A good can of beer would cost you not more than Rs.35 – so do your math yourself. (Unfortunately you cannot carry alcohol bougt in Pondy out of the union territory)
Pondy does not have a law against piracy yet. A good ripped dvd of the latest movies would cost you just Rs.40. and there are shops all around the city. There’s also a flea market on Sundays where you can surprisingly find a lot of first-quality stuff to decorate your house
- continued in the comments section...