Sunday, February 06, 2011

Pondicherry

Recently I did a trip to Pondicherry that I had been thinking for quite some time. As a typical techie, I did a lot of research on the internet before heading there to make my trip smoother. However, I found many new things that I think might be useful to people planning a trip. This is not a travelogue, just things I did not find by googling, but learnt first hand. I was planning to have a leisurely vacation, so I did not make an attempt to maximize my sight seeing there.

While there are good bus services from Bangalore to Pondicherry, I chose to drive my Santro because of a few reasons. Having a car makes it easy to get around Pondicherry. I didn't want to mess with the autorickshaws there. You can rent 2-wheelers in Pondicherry, but that is not suitable for families. Lastly, the distance to Pondicherry is around 310Kms, which is well within what I can drive in a day.

I took this route, which is by far the shortest at just 310 Kms. The alternative is this, but it takes the distance up by another 110 Kms. The road was smooth till Krishnagiri as expected, because it is the Chennai highway. However, from Krishnagiri to Tiruvannamalai I hit one of the worst National Highways I have ever driven on. It was 110 Kms of pure misery, with not even a single Km of stretch in a decent shape. I took more than 3 hours to cover this distance. I had high hopes on the roads of Tamilnadu, which this road totally destroyed. The road from Tiruvannamalai to Tindivanam (67 Km) was in a decent, though not great shape. From Tindivanam to Pondicherry (40Km) it is the Chennai-Pondicherry road, which is an excellent 4 lane road. Total drive time: 7 hours. While returning, I wanted to avoid the Tiruvannamalai-Krishnagiri stretch like I would avoid Plague. I took the advice of taxi drivers: I knew these guys would know best. They advised me to take the state highways from Tiruvannamalai-Dharmapuri through Tanipadi, Naripalli, Harur, Morappur and then drive on the NH from Dharmapuri towards Krishnagiri. Google maps doesn't know about this road! This added 50-60 Kms to my journey, but the roads are very very nice. Just 2 lanes, but very little traffic and a scenic road. Recommended.


I stayed at Kailash Beach Hotel. There are many "beach resorts" in Pondicherry and some of them are just lodges, calling themselves resorts. Kailash turned out to be a good place. You get whatever they claim on their website. Their swimming pool is pretty good. Rooms don't face the beach, but it is just a 2 min walk away. This place is 10 Kms south of Pondicherry.

Pondicherry beaches have apparently become very hostile since the Tsunami. The slope of beach is very drastic, so you can hardly go 10-20 feet into the water. The water brings tonnes of sand with it. Hence it is not a great place to play in the beach. I listed 3 famous public beaches in Pondicherry, but it was possible to play in the water in only 1 of them: Auroville beach.

Do not under-estimate the traffic of Pondicherry. The traffic generally remains low throughout the day, but during morning and evening busy hours it can get very crowded. Traffic moves at snail's pace along the main arteries of the city (Cuddalore road, roads leading to ECR in the north, etc). it took me 30+ minutes to drive 10Kms at 6:30PM. Drivers are better behaved than in Bangalore (probably any other big city). Most signals have free left turn and the drivers are decent enough to leave the left turning lane clear. Bicycle riders seemed to be on a suicide mission though. The roads in the core of the city (shopping areas and french quarters) become very busy during evening shopping hours. The police cut off 4-wheeler entry on many of the roads to avoid traffic jams. Parking can still be found in the smaller lanes. Watch out for 1-way roads.

The people were very helpful. Whenever I asked for directions, the people were willing to stop what they were doing, walk up to me, give clear directions and make sure I understood the directions. They would realize that I do not speak Tamil and try to explain in English. I had seen such people in Paris long back... may be it is the French culture thing!

Language wasn't a big hurdle because I realized that I could understand more Tamil than I thought I did. However, I realized that I could barely talk even a couple of words in Tamil. I started asking them to talk in Tamil, but I would reply in English. At least one road-side seller in Promenade beach, (who was probably a Muslim), was more comfortable with Hindi than with English.

Promenade beach is the show piece of the city. However, there is no sandy beach here... the water directly hits the embankment rocks. It is a beautiful place to sit in a roof-top restaurant on a full-moon night (which was the case when I went) and enjoy the beauty of the ocean while having your food. There are many hotels and 'guest houses' on this piece of road.


I visited the Chunnambar water resort. This is a highly advertised and recommended place. However, there are some drawbacks. The main (only?) attraction of the place is boat ride in the backwaters, leading up to Paradise Beach. This was one of the most beautiful and clean beaches I had seen. However, they were not even letting us touch the waters in Paradise beach. This killed most of the fun for us. We took a speed boat ride in the river, which was worthwhile.


Everyone talks about Auroville, which is 15Kms from the city. The place is peaceful and nice and is filled with westerners. You will see pictures of a spherical building in golden color in many websites: It took a 1.5 Km hike to reach that place from Auroville parking lot. They were not allowing us into that structure, so we only got to see it from quite a distance. I put the zoom on my new Canon to full use to take some pics. I couldn't associate myself much with Auroville or even Aurobindo Ashram, which is in the heart of the city.


Visited the Arulmigu Manakula Vinayagar temple. Air conditioned, which I guess will be very useful in summers. Tamil was essential to understand anything the guy at the counter says.

Sacred Heart Church is a good place to visit. 110 year old. Right in the city next to Railway Station. Good architecture. Belgian glass that looks so good. Also visited the church at Villianur, which is 10Kms from Pondicherry. Though older, the building was not all that great.


I ate at Hotel Surguru, Adyar Ananda Bhavan, Hotel Ajantha Sea View (nice terrace restaurant facing sea), Sri Krishna Sweets (restaurant attached), Auroville cafeteria. All good, nothing to write home about. Being a vegetarian, wasn't too interested in trying out French cuisines.

There is a memorial for French soldiers who died in the First World War on the Promenade Beach.


I went there in the 3rd week of January. The weather was nice: 30 degrees and a bit sticky at noon, but comfortable in morning and evening. I suppose December and January are best months to visit.

7 comments:

  1. Great help of people planning the Pondy trip! How much time you took in your return journey through Dharmapuri?

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