Sunday, June 25, 2006

Pondicherry - Mahabalipuram trip

One fine Sunday (about 2 weeks back) over a cup of coffee me and some of my friends suddenly decided to visit Pondicherry. We wanted to go the coming weekend, so on Monday we hunted all the travels to get tickets and finally managed to get tickets in a sleeper bus. Before this trip, I had never gone anywhere in a sleeper bus, so was kind of curious what sort of a bus it will be. Finally on Friday evening we all went to the Bomanhalli bus stand for the 10.00 PM bus which came at 11.30PM :-)

Waiting at Bomanhalli bus stand

Finally the bus came and we settled in our sleeper berths. It was cold inside the bus. Soon most of us were asleep. Finally at about 5.30 in the morning I was informed that we had reached Pondicherry. One of my friends was from Pondicherry and we would be staying at her place.


We reached her home and were greeted by her parents and we got or schedule. We would be visiting Mahabalipuram and a theme park on the East Coast Road. So we all got ready for our visit to Mahabalipuram. We had yummy breakfast, poori sabzi, idli, vada and the most tasty coconut chutney I had ever had. Finally after breakfast we left and reached Mahabalipuram shore temple at about 11.30 AM.

Shore Temple - Mahabalipuram

Five chariots - Mahabalipuram

Self balanced rock - Mahabalipuram

It was very hot and humid and being so accustomed to the cool and pleasant Banaglore weather we were already feeling the effects of the SUN. We roamed around in Mahabalipuram and saw some more ruins and then headed for a restaurant to have lunch with idea being we could spend some time in a cool air conditioned restaurant.

VGP Golden Beach Resorts

After lunch, we went to VGP Golden Beach resort. Its a theme park with lots of rides. Since it was so hot, no one was interested in the rides. But we took our favorite ride - Dashing Cars and watched Indiana Jones play.

Dashing Cars

Indiana Jones Play


Finally we headed for the golden beach, which was not too bad. Actually the water was a welcome relief. We had great fun splashing in the sea.

Sea Gang

Splashing in Bay of Bengal

Finally it was time to go home. Once at home we cleaned ourselves and had yummy dinner and watched a movie on HBO. Next day was our actual Pondicherry trip. We would be visiting various places in Pondicherry.

We woke up next day and went to a big temple in Pondicherry where my friend did some Puja and then we had breakfast with the temple elephant .... ok what I meant was we were having the prasad when the temple elephant came and blessed all of us and had his breakfast - prasadam :)

Then we visited Aurobindo Ashram. Photography was not allowed and hence no pics. Its was a quiet place. The stillness of the place kind of unnerved me ... I am too used to noise ... I actually can get disturbed if there is no noise :)

Then we took a walk along Pondicherry's marine drive to reach the Pondicherry tourism office. We were taking a Pondicherry city tour. Again we had to wait for some time for the bus to come. Finally we were off and our first visit was a huge temple which was still being constructed.

Banyan Tree - The geographical center of Auroville

Matri Mandir

Then next stop was Auroville. It was a nice and beautiful place. First we had to listen to a small film on the history of Auroville and then we took the 1 1/2 km walk to the Matri Mandir only to be disappointed to know that we will not be allowed to enter it. It seemed like the walk was useless. Anyways we had fun watching the crowd :D and finally came back.


Chunnambar backwaters

Botanical Garden, Pondicherry

Sacred Heart Church, Pondicherry

We had lunch at a restaurant. Two of my friends left for home as one was not feeling well. The rest 4 of us continued. We saw a botanical garden, church, the Chunnabar back water. Did boating and finally came to the Pondicherry museum.

Lighthouse - Pondicherry

Promenade Hotel

Customs House



French Embassy, Pondicherry

Then our host came and we roamed around on Marine Drive thinking that we would get to see some French babes. We weren't so lucky :) but we saw some French buildings and generally roamed around.

Reaching home we had dinner and set out for the bus stand. This time bus was on time. 6 hours later we were in Bangalore .