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Pondi!!! - (Part 1)

The quaint French town of Pondicherry sounded rather enigmatic and romantic…making it the perfect destination for Kaybee and my vacation. This was our first officially planned trip together.
Hence, we were excited.
Hence, there was a countdown.

When to go:
October to March would be the usual tourist season here, when temperatures are a little lower. We of course chose to go in May, when 40 degrees of the unforgivable sun beats down on you, along with enough humidity to make you feel like moss growing on planet Earth. Oh well. Adventure.  :D

How to get there:
Well we took a flight to Chennai and landed up in this new city at midnight, without too much of a clue of how to reach Pondicherry. Cabs quote up to Rs. 2500, and we were feeling rather adventurous. So we literally hit the road.
On the road we realized that there were no Volvos on this route. But there were government buses, which stopped right outside the airport. We found a place next to a window. Ticket: Rs. 52 per head wonly.
After the initial stoppages every 2 minutes, the bus was finally on its way. The roads are good, the weather at midnight cool, and the view…well…dark. But we were at the Pondicherry new bus stop in 2.5 hours. And with our pockets not yet empty.

Where to stay:
Or perhaps where not to stay. Our booking was with the Hotel Mass. It’s an old premier hotel located right next to the new bus stand in Pondicherry. Location wise it suited us perfectly, as all that we had to do was walk half a minute in the middle of the night to reach the place. We had requested an early check in from months in advance, and our room was ready for us when we reached. But I think that’s where our happiness stopped at Hotel Mass.
Well, the hotel is old, with a tiny lift just enough to fit in three persons comfortably. The rooms were decently clean so we were happy. But the toiletries were never changed and the moisturizing lotion bottle was half empty, clearly left that way by the person before us.
Not wanting to let silly things get to us, we happily headed down for the complimentary breakfast buffet the next day. Ok, so the buffet may have been an assumption on our part. What you do have is an empty restaurant and a highly inattentive waiter. Who doesn’t really wait on you. Or bother taking orders. Or want to serve you anything apart from idli/dosa.
But awesome French Food was on its way…so we paid no heed and set off in our happy touristy mood!

What all to see:
We had a simple POA: cover most touristy places on day 1, chill on day 2. So here are the places to see:

Auroville - A little township built around 10 kilometers outside Pondicherry, based on the religion of there is no religion. A spiritual place meant to find your true self, away from the meaningless life you and I live. Well, it’s a pretty ride, with some nice greenery and a lot of foreigner-aiming shops, bakeries and restaurants inside Auroville. Enthu tourists like us did enjoy it. Even if we were dehydrated and a shade darker by the end of it. Okay, two shades darker.

The Matri Mandir - A 1km walk in the sun

Auroville Beach - Follow a tiny little path between walls and trees which suddenly breaks out on a massive Beach. It’s big enough for privacy, small enough to not be creepy. There were quite a few other crazy people there, in the middle of summers at noon, along with a few not-so-hot French women (much to Kaybee’s disappointment), but it beat the crap out of Juhu beach anyday.

Auroville Beach - Oh so Pretty!

The Promenade - A 1.5km stretch along a rocky beach where you can just stroll along, enjoy the shrieking kids, or sit in tiny little hut benches. Nice and breezy, it’s peaceful and quiet on weekdays. It’s Juhu beach on Sunday. One can also use the promenade to say, learn how to ride an Activa…or….well…scare the shit out of Kaybee and injure oneself.

Boat House - Now, by the time we were going to the Boat House, we were badly dehydrated, and in a state to fall dead. But for the sake of tourism, and our ticks on our list, we got onto our cute lil Activa and headed off to the Boat House. Something funny about Pondi: everyone en route always knows exactly how many kilometers away a place is. So when you stop to ask for directions, you’re pointed ‘so many kilometers’ in a particular direction. Another thing to note about Pondi: it seems to follow a metric system of some completely different universe altogether. 3 kilometers ahead, isn’t necessarily that close.

Boat House - Oh so Blah!
The boat house was a disappointment. A slightly frothy dirty lake, with huge crowds, and a ferry packed with said crowd for a ride. When Kaybee asked for a Speedboat ticket, he was outright refused. And then some VIPs kids got onto the speedboat.
So then I decided to ask for the speedboat. I tossed my hair slightly, took off my sunglasses and smiled. Same unfriendly shake of head.
Another VIP family on the speedboat.
Hmph.

Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Ok, so we didn’t really know what we were getting into. It’s the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and Mother. So you walk in, and you’re hushed and sent to the Samadhi, where people are praying on their knees and flat on the ground. Now you feel all uncomfortable and don’t really know what to do, and after looking all uncomfortable and trapped for a minute you walk on out. Must for followers, just a tick mark for others.

Pondicherry Museum - The place we started with actually, because I was all excited about knowing about the history of the place before I start exploring it. No, it doesn’t give you the interesting French history of Pondicherry. It doesn’t even give you descriptions. Or anything in chronological order. Or any thing at all. It’s just artifacts and things from old homes stocked up in a room. With no information whatsoever. What was worse, some statues were just stocked in the backyard in the open. It was like, “Oh they’re broken anyway…”

Churches - Small, peaceful and pretty. Worth a look.


JN Street - The Lajpat Nagar/Linking road of Pondi. Had all street shops as well as showrooms. And-was-shit-crowded. What you might want to look out for is the Hidesign factory outlet in the market, if you’re a Hidesign leather freak. 

And that's where our sightseeing ended. We did actually spend quite a few hours trying to find a particular fort outside Pondi, but once again, the metric system stumped us, and that Activa, and frankly my ass, could only take so much.

Up next: the part of the trip that we truly lived up to... all that yummy french food!!!


This post first appeared on All That We Love, please read the originial post: here

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Pondi!!! - (Part 1)

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