Pondicherry Trip

Just came back from a weekend trip to Pondicherry. Will post everything here. It may be long. Hence it will come out in installments :-)



Journey to Pondicherry
We took the KSRTC (Karnataka Road Transport Corporation) bus from Bangalore. The bus takes around 6-7 hours to reach Pondicherry. We did the online reservation for the bus at http://ksrtc.in. Fortunately we got the reservation for the onward journey but did not get the reservation for the return. So the journey was kind of open ended. KSRTC bus volvo bus is kind of cluttered with less leg space. The bus left at around 2230 hours and reached Pondy at 5:30 in the morning. On the way the bus stopped at a coffee, restroom place where people could take whatever kind of break they need to. But most passengers prefer to continue sleeping. Right at 5:00 a.m, the bus driver started playing morning hymns at loud noise. And everyone jumped out of sleep. This was to alert the passengers that we are here at Pondy.

From Pondicherry bus stand to Place of stay
This was quite a drama. I am really waiting to see a place where the auto-rickshaw guys are calm, soft-spoken and charge the right amount. Well, you wont find them in Pondicherry. And if you are from bangalore, get ready to autos without meters. And in the absence of meters, get ready to be confused and shell out money. Soon after we landed, the auto guys surrounded us. When we said we want to go to Park Guest house, one of them said, ok it will Rs. 70. And we were clueless on what is the right amount. We said Rs. 50 and immediately one of them said ok fine. And there you go. We clearly made ourselves fools. It was hardly 3 kms to beach. It should not have been more than Rs. 25. Well we all learn. Park Guest House is on the beach and is run by Aurobindo Ashram it seems. We wanted to try a room there. Unfortunately they refused to do advanced reservation. And the reception office would not open before 7;00 a.m. So we decided to sit on the beach and watch the waves and wait for sun rise. The good thing was we could see the sun rise. We already had a booking done at French Villa but decided to try our luck. So when the Park Guest House office opened at 7:00 a.m, we went in and asked if there is room available. The person at reception said that we will have to wait till 10:00. Then we decided that there is no way we can wait for 3 more hours with bags on our back. So we went to French Villa.
And our dream to stay at Park Guest House on the beach remained unfulfilled.

Place of Stay in Pondicherry
There are several places to stay in Pondicherry. And all are pretty close to beach. All may not have beach view though. We stay at French Villa. But I would not recommend. Because it is very expensive and it does not deserve to be that expensive with the amenities it provides. The room rent was Rs. 1700 for a double bedded AC room. And I felt it should not be more than Rs. 500. Well, the only reason for its high price may be it location on a heritage walk street and proximity to beach. But so are other places. So it is worth checking prices of other places of stay. We couldnt since it was our first visit. May be in the next visit we will try some other place to stay. French Villa is 3 streets away from beach and neat street called Suffren Street. By the way, French Villa can give a 10% discount if you ask for it.

First Day Roming around
Sitting on the beach in the early morning and waiting for sun rise is a heavenly feeling. The roads are wide, clean and you can feel a fresh air. Thats how our stay at Pondicherry began. After freshening up at French Villa we decided to explore the city. But man, it is a hot city. At 8:00 a.m it was damn hot. Unimaginable. Good that we had our umbrella. Not to protect from rain but from sun. First, we went to Tourism office on Goubert Avenue. Gourbert Avenue is road adjoining the sea. The streets are so well planned that it is a fun walking on the streets of Pondicherry. From the tourism office, we got a map of the city and some information on landmark places. Then we decided to get some food since we were getting really hungry. The tourism office guy told us that there will be south india restaurant near Vinagar Kovil. So we decided to start our day by a visit to Shree Vinayagar kovil. Soon after the temple visit, as we came out, we saw Anand Adyar Bhavan right opposite the road. We enjoyed nice idli, dosa and coffee. But the restaurant was extremely crowded. And they take forever to serve your dish. But you cant help. Its a business at peak. It would be a great business to start another restraurant right there. :-) It was so hot outside that sitting inside the Anand Adyar Bhavan was bliss. After eating as we came out, we felt the furnace outside. Then we decided to go to Auroville and visit Matri Mandir. Auroville was around 10 km from Pondicherry beach area.

After waiting for bus and shared tempo services, we decided to take an auto. After a brief bargaining, we could get an auto for Rs. 110. But the journey to Auroville was like through a furnace. I almost felt roasted.

At Auroville
It took almost an hour to reach Auroville, while going through hot air. We asked for pass to visit Matri Mandir. Before getting a pass one has to watch a video. After watching the video we got the pass to visit Matri Mandir. But Matri Mandir can be viewed only from a distance of 200 meters. No one is allowed inside. One is allowed inside only to do meditation and one has to take permission couple of days in advance. After viewing from outside, we came back and had a simple meal at Auroville. There were exhibition shops etc. which were kind of expensive.



At Paradise Beach










From Auroville we went to paradise beach. The auto cost us around Rs. 220. They may charge higher but it could be bargained. At paradise beach, there were entry tickets and tickets as well if you want to use your camera. Once you are in, you have to purchase tickets for boats rides. Different kinds of boat rides are available. We took the "Beach Ride" that would take us via backwaters to the paradise beach where you see the sea. It was extremely hot there. After spending some time, we took a boat that would return back to where we boarded the boat.

Back to French Villa
The auto would charge around Rs. 150 but after bargaining it came at Rs. 120. It was time to take a small afternoon break from the hot sun.

Evening
After a short afternoon break, we spent the evening in walk around the beach. We sat for some time at Bharathi Park. In the evening it started drizzling. May be the rain gods got sympathetic to our condition of gettting roasted :-) In the night it rained heavily in Pondicherry. Since we were so tired by afternoon, we put the Aurobindo Ashram visit and museum visits to next morning.

Next Day
After a nice breakfast at Anand Adyar Bhavan, we first spent time at Aurobindo Ashram and then at Pondicherry Museum. It was a sunday. So, then we spent some time at market sicne sunday market is kind of special in Pondicherry. Then visited the Botanical Garden. But I was not impressed by Botanical garden. It did not seem to be maintained at all. Evening we spent time on the beach and visiting some handicrafts shops. The beach gets very crowded on sundays.

Pudumai
Pudumai is a beautiful and inexpensive handicrafts shop on the beach that is, on Goubert avenue. It is right next to Hotel Promenade. The stuff there seemed really reasonable. Other handicraft shops were closed since it was sunday. So that is another importan point. Surprisingly some shops in Pondicherry are closed on sundays. That is amusing to me.

Return to Bangalore
We were kind of tired and decided to find a bus directly to Bangalore rather that trying our original plan which was to come to Chennai via scenic East Coast Route and then try a bus from Chennai to Bangalore. There were no tickets available on KSRTC or PRTC (Pondicherry Road Transport Corporation). We tried some private travels as well. Finally we found 2 tickets on non-AC bus of S.R.S travels. It turned out that non-AC bus of S.R.S was much more spacious than the AC bus of KSRTC. I would not mind recommending S.R.S to people. But the only problem with these private travels is that you never where they will stop. But still the bus ride was fun enough. The S.R.S office is very close to the new bus stand of Pondicherry. The bus left at 10:30 p.m from S.R.S office and it reached Bangalore around 5:00 a.m.

Next time I visit Pondicherry, it will be not for tourism now but for Yoga or meditation.
Overall, a fun trip.

Key Points :

• Go with comfortable footwear. Otherwise your legs will hurt badly. Spongy and thick bathroom slippers are the best.
  
• Auto guys are notorious in the sense of overcharging. So keep bargaining.
  
• Most of the beautiful part of Pondicherry is walkable. The streets are beautiful and well planned so you know where exactly you are.
  
• Take sun screen with you.
  
• Take Odomos if you are going to sit on the Beach.
• There is a friday night train from Yeshwantpur to Pondicherry.
  
• There is a saturday night train from Pondicherry to Yeshwantpur.

Will add more if I remember anything.