If you have read my previous blog “AT THE ISLANDS OF
ANDAMAN” I had mentioned about our plans to travel to Ladakh in the month of
June 2012. Well forget Ladakh. I didn’t even cross the boundaries of Karnataka
in the last one year or so. But I did climb peaks much tougher than the ones at
Ladakh. I got MARRIED!!!!!!(If you know what I am talking about)
So like everyone else I thought after marriage all my BAG
PACKING DREAMS would die a natural death, but my wife and Deepak’s sister Divya
who became the “best friends” in their first meeting decided that we all should
visit some place. Now this was the first time we were visiting some place with
women in our company, we didn’t want to take any risk of going too far off
places. And with a group of eight people taking leaves on the same day is
always an issue.
Nevertheless we decided that Pondicherry would be a good
weekend getaway destination. And thus our planning started with Google. Also I
had couple of colleagues from Pondicherry at my office who told that there are
not many places to visit in Pondi...Everywhere I searched the only
recommendations I saw was a visit to Auroville ashram and some beach.
So the first question was how do we travel to Pondicherry? Our
options were train, bus, hire a vehicle or drive down there. Train was not an
option because we planned to travel on Saturday and the train was on Friday.
Among the remaining options driving to Pondi was the least expensive according
to our calculations. So we decided to go by two cars. We booked room in a house
converted to hotel called Coromandal heritage since we would be arriving in Pondi
late Saturday night.
We planned to leave on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 and reach
Pondi by 11 in the night, so that we would be fresh the next day to go around
the city. But of course “we propose and Shivu disposes”. He announced that he
would be in a meeting till 4:30 in the office. Deepu who had imagined this had
already booked a bus ticket for him. But it didn’t feel good to leave him
behind and ask him to come by bus. So we all decided to wait for him. By the
time he arrived and we started off it was 6 in the evening, already 3 hrs
behind our schedule. Add to our woes was the traffic jams at silk board and
electronic city road.
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| Vehicle pooja in Progress |
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And then started Pramod’s list of endless woes. The first
was a Scorpio touching our car from behind near EC flyover. The damage was not
worse enough for us to pick a fight with that Scorpio guy but it was enough to
create a dent in Pramod’s heart.
Nevertheless our journey continued. The road till
Krishnagiri was pretty fine with couple of diversions in between due to road
work going on. At Krishnagiri we stopped near a hotel called “ARS” and enjoyed some
dosas and coffee. The nightmare started from Krishnagiri as the roads were
literally in pieces. One can’t make out if there are potholes in the road or
the road was in the potholes. Some of the potholes were deep enough to store
water and solve Cauvery water issue. And add to that the girls wanted to go
restrooms every half hour. So we had to stop at every petrol bunks and check if
they had ladies restrooms and also if they were good enough to be used.
When we reached Thiruvanamalai it was swarming with devotees from Tamilnadu and Karnataka. The town had
witnessed heavy rains may be in the evening and hence the roads were water
clogged. The main highway was blocked and everyone was diverted through the
town. It took us almost one hour to negotiate amidst the traffic, keep asking
for directions since most of the sign boards are in Tamil and finally to get
out of the town and reach the highway. So now we were almost 4 to 5 hrs behind
our schedule. The road from Thiruvanamalai to Pondicherry was pretty good and
we drove at good speed to make up for the lost time.
The temperature kept increasing as we were nearing our
destination. Midway we had a tea break and by the time we reached Pondicherry
it was 3 o clock in the morning. We had called the hotel guy 30 minutes prior
to reaching Pondi to inform him that we would be arriving late. The moment we
entered Pondi the only thought everyone had in their mind was to reach the
hotel and hit the sack ASAP.
But that was not to happen. We were supposed to go to “RUE
NIDARAJAPAYER STREET” as per the hotel address on their website. There was
couple of people on the roads at that time and whoever we asked for the address
kept telling us “NERRA PONO”(Go straight) and take 3rd or the 4th
left. We kept asking for directions and kept going round and round but never
found this street. Nidarajapayer must have been a guy hard to find. Finally we
started to use our Google maps. The only difference between those people (Whom
we asked for directions) and this Google map was instead of saying neera pono,
it kept saying go straight and take left or right. This kept on going for an
hour until Deepak got frustrated and took the phone from us and said that he
will now follow the map. Looking at his confidence I and Pramod felt it was
better to stay back and search some other place rather than go behind him. So
they followed the Google map where as we started asking some more people we
found on the roads. After 10 minutes Shivu called on my cell and asked if we
had found the hotel to which I said no. When I asked if they got the address he
said “Sir, following this Google map we drove straight for around 4 to 5 kms.
We have reached some slum and now this Google map keeps saying that you have
reached your destination. It’s on your left. On to my left is only slum. We
asked a guy here for that address and he said that we have come 5 kms away from
our address” Everyone burst out laughing. Yes I know you must be wondering why couldn’t
we just called up the hotel guy and ask for directions. Even I am wondering
till now. Anyways now it was 4:30 in the morning and finally better sense
prevailed on us and we called up the hotel guy. He just gave us instructions
over the phone and we realized we were just 3 to 4 minutes away from the hotel.
Finally we reached the hotel and went off to sleep immediately in our rooms.
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| Hotel Coromandal Heritage |
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| Interiors of the hotel |
September 30th:
Auroville
Next morning we got ready around 11 and went to a bakery
called BON BAKES. It’s a French style bakery which served bakery item as well
as stuffs like omelet, egg fry etc. The ambience was quite good with very few
people inside at that time. The service was quite late and we ended up wasting
lot of time there. My wife wasn’t very happy with the breakfast served there as
she wanted typical south Indian breakfast. (My wife will be reading this. So I
am not going write anything more about it). With the ladies around the photo
session never stopped.
After breakfast we headed towards Auroville since we had to
take prior permission at least a day in advance to get entry into the globe
like ashram. We were disappointed at the booking centre since the booking was
full for the next 3 days. Deepak was the only one who was happy since he wasn’t
keen on seeing any ashram. He was just waiting to get into a bar and he openly
voiced his opinion. And Shivu had gifted him a full bottle JACK DANIELS from
Dubai which was lying in the room. So going to ashram at that point of time
seemed too stupid for him. So we walked up to the ashram view point from where
we could see the globe and took some photographs.
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| Auroville |
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| A closer view of the globe |
And a complete photo session near the parking lot. Ravi was
a dedicated photographer for Lollen. He took so many photos of her that even a marriage
photographer would be tired by then.
It was almost 4 in the evening and everyone was hungry. While
driving back it started to rain cats and dogs. We had to stop midway since the
visibilty became very low .
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| Pondicherry streets flooded with water after the heavy showers |
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| Bad visibility |
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| Stuck in the pool of water |
Once
we came back to Pondicherry city we settled down in a restaurant called “Asian
house”. It was an excellent restaurant with good ambiance, good food and drink.
I somehow forced my wife to gulp down a glass of wine to prove her love for me.
She took it very seriously and finished that glass and started to feel dizzy. I
had to take her for a walk along the beach to relax her and then we both came
back to the restaurant since it started raining.
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| Asian house |
After our food fest we had a long walk along the beach with
sugar candy, coffee and ice cream for company. One can see statues of Gandhi,
Nehru and some French dude. Finally we came to our hotel and Deepak and co. had
a peg or two of whisky in their rooms before going off to sleep.
October 1st:
At the Beach
Around 9 in the morning we all set out to Chinambur boat
house from where we would be taken to an island in boats. We reached there a
bit early and the ticket counter was not yet open. So we drove back at least a
kilometer since we could not find any good place to eat near the boat house. We
had pongal and dosa for breakfast and by the time we came back there was a
small crowd near the ticket counter. We took the tickets and went near the
boats. We were given life jackets and the boat ride was about 10 minutes before
we reached the island.
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| Boat ride to the island |
I wasn’t very impressed with the beach as I compare every
beach with the ones in Andaman and none come close to it.
Deepak bought couple of beer bottles as everyone was pretty
“Thirsty”. It was extremely hot and we decided to get into the water right
away. The girls preferred to stay on the shores while we kept playing in the
waves. Suddenly a large wave hit us and Pramod lost his sunglasses in the
water. The water was muddy and there was no way we could even try to find it.
We couldn’t get a volley ball or a disc to play in the sea. But after sometime
we started to throw sand balls on each other. After sometime it became fierce
and we started chasing each other throwing sand to the point when all of us
were dead tired.
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| Pondi beach |
We were hungry and decided to go back to the main island and
stood in the queue for the boat. Deepak got some snacks as we all were hungry.
We reached the main island and drove back to our rooms for a quick bath.
After bath Pramod suggested a place called”Pizzeria” for
lunch in Auroville. The service was very late and as usual my wife didn’t like
the food as she wanted some south Indian dish. Deepak ordered chicken pasta for
himself and we ordered pizzas and steak. Deepak got his pasta but before he
could taste it he dropped some pasta on his white shorts and went to the rest
room to clean up. By the time he came back Lollen shared his pasta with
everyone and there was little left. I was just waiting to see Deepak’s reaction
to this. He came back and saw everyone eating it and gave an expression which
was a combination of “what the hell+ fuck you all” kind of.
Divya announced that she would eat only vegetarian food, but
upon seeing chicken steak could not control and took a large piece saying that
she just wanted to “taste it”. By the time we finished eating it was quite
dark. The cashier missed couple of items in the bill and Deepak was quite happy
with that (Of course everyone was). While driving back to the city Pramod car
was hit by a cow which was pushed by another cow on the road. The side portion
of the car above the left front wheel took a severe dent such that it became
difficult to open the front door. But still Pramod as always had a smile on his
face and didn’t show he was upset. If I was in his place I would have killed
that cow and roasted it on the road itself. We came back to the city and went
around the French colony. It was two days in Pondicherry and we had almost seen
nothing here apart from a beach. Actually this blog is more of “what you should
not be doing in Pondicherry”.
So that night we had a
discussion on whether we should be travelling to Mahabalipuram the next day or
stay back in Pondi and go around the city. All of us decided that staying back
in pondi was a good idea. It was around 10 o clock in the night when we decided
to have dinner. We went to a restaurent called “Anjappar” since it was late
many item on the menu was unavailable. The waiter was in a angry mood and
served the food like we were beggars in front of a temple asking for free food.
My wife kept complaning to me that we should give back properly to the waiter
but I was in no mood for that.
Finally we came back to our
hotel, gulped down couple of beer bottles and went off to sleep.
October 2nd:
As usual we all got up late and went to “Manakula vinayagar
temple” and then had breakfast at Anand bhavan. Then we visited Aurobindo
ashram which is very famous in Pondi. It is the place where Sri Aurobindo and
mother have been cremated. The place is
quite small compared to the number of visitors it has in a day. It has a library
attached to it with books related to the mother and Sri Aurobindo preaching’s.
The environment is very quiet and peaceful inside the ashram with people
meditating inside it.
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| Aurobindo ashram |
Then we went around the French colony taking as many
pictures we could.
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| Colorful hangings |
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| French consulate building |
And
then we went to a church. All of a sudden Divya started murmuring some English
prayer and my wife and Lollen started repeating it and finally they went inside
the church. God.. There is a limit for being crazy.
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| The Church |
Deepak was completely pissed off with our monument visits.
But there wasn’t anything else to do there. Finally we decided to have lunch
and bid goodbye to Pondi. We went back to our hotel, checked out and headed to
a French restaurant “Baker street”. We had some good French delicacies and took
some pictures there.
Then we started our journey back to Bangalore. This time we
were prepared for those pothole roads so the journey was better.
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| View along Krishnagiri route |
It was about 10 o clock when we reached our house in
Bangalore. I saw the newspaper lying in front of my door. The headline was that
KSRTC and BMTC has decided to hike the bus fare. I switched on the TV and saw
that India had won the match but was out of the T20 world cup tournament.
We finished our trip accounts at my place and were
discussing about our next trip.
To be frank this trip was average as we never indulged in
any kind of adventure activities. We just wanted to see if the ladies could
adjust with us and they all seemed very happy with this experience. So now we
can plan for further more trips with some adventure thrown in as well.
Looking forward to the next travel plan ….!!!!
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| "The CLAN" From left standing(Pramod, Roshni, Ponnappa, Shivu), From left seated(Ravi, Lollen, Deepak, Divya) |
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