Jun 29, 2006 04:02 PM
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I left to pondy all of a sudden since I wanted a change from my hectic life in chennai. I was hoping that I get a good and a safe hotel(since I was going with my family).We packed all the clothes in the night itself.In the morning we woke up by 4 o clock and got ready by 6 o clock and caught the bus in koyambedu by around 7 o clock.The bus was fast and went through the ECR road.All the way we were able to see beaches once I crossed the chennai end.I both admired the beaches and was also feeling afraid as the land was very close to the beach, so it is risky for the people who build homes near beach(especially since nature is very hard on humans these days).We slept a bit in the bus since we got up early in the morning.we were able to see mamallapuram on the route and enjoyed the sculptures for a brief period.we reached pondy very soon. before reaching pondy, I called one friend of mine, who told me that a HOTEL JAYARAM is a decent and economic hotel also. I highly recommend this hotel. Seeing the looks I thought it might be a very costly one, but on enquiring, I came to know that it is of course very attractive in price also. on reaching there, I didnt know which places to visit. so when I enquired a friend who is a local, he told me that there are a few places we can go and see.
Following are a few places to see there. 1. manakula vinayagar temple 2. varadharaja perumal temple. 3. vedhapureeswarar temple 4. city beach 5. auroville beach 6. auroville matrimandir 7. chunnambar boat house(MUST SEE). 8. port passage. 9 sunday market
In pondy, there are shops that rent you two wheelers for a day on a rent of hundred rupees. it is better that you rent one of these before starting your indepth exploration of pondy.
i took a bike from one shop, for a deposit of 500 rupees. I went to the city beach on goubert road. there at the end there is a govt port entrance, from where you can go to a pathway leading deep inside into the sea. I went there and spent some time there. it was great and we could see the fisher boys playing in the sea waves.
in the evening, we went to manakula vinayagar temple. the darshan was good. also we went to varadharaja perumal temple and one more shiva temple. Also we went to the aurobindo ashram. in the ashram, we can see the samadhi of aurobindu, where people keep praying and also we can see the collection of spiritual books.
The adyar ananda bhavan hotel(named A2B) offers tasty food at attractive prices. I spent a lot of time there during my pondy trip.in the evening I went to the beach. it is good to get some nice location in the rocks so that you can enjoy the waves. to enjoy more it is better to avail the services of ice cream walla and also the ground nut man.
in the evening back to the hotel, we went to A2B and came to room. the next day, we left for auroville. unfortunately we took the long route (via gorimedu). the roads are ok. we reached there after a drive of around an hour. on reaching there, we straight away left for the matrimandir. but after walking for a half an hour in the sun, we came to know that we need to get passes for seeing the mandir. it was 12:15 in the sunday afternoon and it was closing y 12:30. so we thought that we might not be able to see the matrimandir, however fortunately, we got free passes from people nearby and were able to see the globe. this is the second time that we are visiting and this time also it was closed for maintenance purposes.
we took some photographs and left back. in the return route we went to the auroville beach, which is around 5 kms from there. it is a isolated beach and it is better to be careful when going there.
the next day, we left for the chunnambar boat house. There are various trips there. some are trips by speed boats and some are for long trips where we can go there and they will leave us in the land between the lake and the sea. we a stay there for as long as we want. but we need to wait for the return boat. only when people are there, the return boat will come. it was a nice beach and it is worth staying for 6 hours also as there are some good hut-houses there.
dont forget to do a bit of shopping in the sunday market and dont forget to bargain...
after a enjoyable trip, while coming home I got a call on mobile from my office saying that I need to be there in the office as there critica issue in the office. the tension has started again....
