During the week of Dussehra, I had to travel to Bangalore from Delhi for work. I thought of extending my trip to include the long weekend and was thinking of either going to Goa or Pondicherry to sit and relax at the beach.
But since I had been to Goa, twice before, so I planned to go to Pondicherry. A friend of mine from Bangalore, agreed to join me on the trip since he had never visited Pondicherry. We booked ourselves a seat in the KSRTC Airavat for an overnight journey and an Oyo hotel, booked for stay in Pondicherry
We started off our journey from Bangalore around 22:30 IST and reached Pondicherry in the morning around 05:00.
Since it was early morning and time for a sun rise, we decided to go to the Rock beach and enjoy the sun rise there. We sat their around 1 hour, during which we enjoyed the sunrise and the cool breeze from the Bay of Bengal. Meanwhile we had called the hotel to enquire about the early check-in and they agreed to allow us to check-in around 08:00. So, we reached the hotel, checked-in, relaxed and got ready for an exciting day ahead.
Around 11 we left the hotel. A friend of mine had suggested us a Bike rental in Pondicherry from where he rented the bikes/scooter during his visits to the city. So straight off, we went there and enquired about the Bikes available. We finally hired a Bajaj Pulsar from them for the next two days at a reasonable price of 600 per day and off we were, exploring the city.
I, being a foodie, had heard about the delicious French cuisine available in the city and hence we headed towards the Baker Street there. As I entered, I was stunned to see the variety of the Breads, Pastries, Cakes and what not, available there. I had not seen such a variety anywhere ever since I left UK. Coming back, we ordered a variety of sandwiches and cakes and enjoyed them.
Post the food, we started off towards the Paradise beach. We had heard that the Paradise beach was the best beach in Pondicherry and there were two ways to reach the beach-
1. Via the motor boats that pick you up from Chunnambar Boat House and take you across the Chunnambar river
2. You take your vehicle across the river, through the bridge and then divert towards the river. This route was longer.
We decided to take the road route to the Paradise beach as we had plenty of time and wanted to enjoy each bit of the city. It took us approx. 30 minutes to reach the sea side and an additional 15 minutes of walk to reach the paradise beach. Paradise beach was the only beach in Pondicherry where one has to pay a fee of 120 Rs / head to enter. We did not want to pay this amount and hence we headed back to the bike to enter the city back.
Post this we headed towards the Auroville. Auroville was on the other part of the city. It took us 1 hour to reach Auroville from the beach. This place was spread in a very large area and was crowded with tourists. There was a trail marked for the tourists. We followed the trail. After walking for almost 30 minutes, we reached the main Auroville view point. There was a huge Spherical structure built in the middle of a wide-open land. It was a beautiful and calm sight to watch. We stood there for 5-10 minutes, enjoying the beauty and headed back. We were back into the parking in 25 – 30 minutes.
Since it was already evening, we wanted to sit, relax and enjoy the evening at a shack on the beach. We started searching for a shack. We searched at the Auroville beach, Serenity Beach, Rock Beach and at last we found a restaurant at the beach side at the Promenade beach with an extended terrace. We took a seat at the terrace and enjoyed the breeze. Later, we headed back to the hotel for a sleep.
Since our package included a breakfast, we woke up to a nice and tasty Tamil Breakfast (Idli, Wada, Sambar). We had covered almost whole of Pondicherry in the previous day and could not find any place to visit. So we started the day easy, around 11:00. I was craving for another round of delicious French delicacies. We went to another bakery that goes by the name “Hot Breads” and enjoyed food there.
After this we headed for a stroll at the Rock beach. By the time, we reached the Rock Beach, it had started raining and we took a shelter in an art shop at the Rock beach until the rain stopped. Since we could not think about much to do this day, we thought to going back to the Paradise Beach via the boat since that was the only thing we did not experience.
So we headed towards the Chunnambar Boat house and bought us tickets to the Paradise Beach. Since the weather was pleasant and windy, it was a nice experience. We reached the Paradise beach in just 15-20 minutes. It was a clean beach and not much crowded. We could find people playing with volleyball, Frisbee, enjoying in the water etc. I settled myself down at one end of the beach to enjoy the cool breeze from the sea.
We spent almost 2 hours at the paradise beach, sitting there and relaxing. Since it was now evening, we headed towards the city and again we went to the French Bakeries, so I could buy some cakes and breads, to relish later.
Post this, we headed back to our hotel to check out and pick our bags and later dropped the bike that we had rented. The owner of the bike was an amazing guy and told us about his completely unplanned trip with his daughter, where they explored almost half of India in 2 months using only public transport.
Post dropping the bike back to the Rock beach for a stroll and dinner. There was a South Indian restaurant (or how a north Indian would call it), where we settled and enjoyed some Malabar Parantha, Appam etc. I had these for the first time and did really like it. Post that, we sat at the terrace of a café to enjoy coffee.
Since it was time to head for the Bus station to catch the bus back to Bangalore, thus ending our trip.
In the morning around 7:00 we reached Bangalore, when it was time for me to head towards the airport for my flight back to Delhi, ending an amazing and much needed trip.
Our version of roaming around the city:
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