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esteem_lover · 15th June 2007, 12:20

Day 2 - Pondy Trip (30/05/2007)

After an exciting first day, the next day we slept for long & woke up to have a good room service breakfast of iddlis, dosas, pongal & pooris. I must tell you the sambar is just great.

11.00 Am - We started out to a place called Paradise Beach Resort which is an island in the backwaters. This place is about 4 km from pondy on the cuddalore road. You have to go real slow otherwise you will miss it. I missed it going at 50KMph & had to turn back. The sun is merciless around here & i had to leave my car in the baking sun. Buy tickets for the resort at Rs5/- per head (This place is run by the Pondicherry Tourism Development Corporation). There is a bit of an entertainment for the kids once you are inside. There is a lousy bar & an even lousier restaurant.

Here are my kids fully armed & ready to rock 'n roll in this sweltering mid afternoon heat.

We were actually beginning to regret having come here in this terrible heat. So we move on & find that there are boats every 10 minutes ferrying people to the small island that is about 5 kms away. So we hop into one of these. The backwaters are full of fantastic variety of fish. You can actually catch them with your hand, there are that many. My elder son (A die hard fish, croc, dino fan) cannot control his excitement at seeing these fishes. Even while we go by the boat, we could see fish jumping out of the water right before the boat.

A pic of the boat ride thropugh the backwaters

A View of the island from the boat

This island is a fantastic place to spend your holidays, unfortunately we discovered this a little late. There are cottages, tree houses & beaches & beaches. A fantastic place to spend your day(s). The sands are so fine & white, i have never seen such sand in my life. The waves were pretty nice & very different from what i have experienced in the beaches in chennai, probably because this is an island. The moment we stepped into the wet sand, all hints of the heat disappeared. PTDC has built some nice looking shelters all over the beach for one to rest under & change. And the best part is that it is still undiscovered. Sorry i could not take any pics at all as we were all soaking wet & didn't dare to open the bag to take the camera out. I wish i had. Of course, the restaurant at the main land will serve your food on this island too & there is canned beer for Rs.50- per can. After a few hours of frolicking in this fine fine beach, we took the boat back to mainland & my son started fishing. We held out a hand kerchief & caught quite a few baby shrimps. I literally had to drag my son from the place & we headed back to the sanctuary of our terrific chilllllll room at the resort. The AC in this room was mind blowingly cool. Loved that. Here it is, a Voltas vertis split. I think it deserves a place here for keeping us cooool.

Again the wife & kids ran off to the beach in the evening while i kept myself confined to the room with music & smirnoff for company. Slept well & started off to chennai the next afternoon.

Picked up a load of liquor in pondy & took the tindivanam route. And then the AC suddenly conked off & had to drive around in horrible conditions again all the while cursing ABT.

DId quite good speeds in this route putting to shame a lot of the newer cars, specially since there was no AC. reached chennai around 3.30 pm & started the routine life with the batteries fully charged.

Thanks guys for reading through.

15th June 2007, 12:20	#8 (permalink)
esteem_lover Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Madras Posts: 6,266	Day 2 - Pondy Trip (30/05/2007) Day 2 - Pondy Trip (30/05/2007) After an exciting first day, the next day we slept for long & woke up to have a good room service breakfast of iddlis, dosas, pongal & pooris. I must tell you the sambar is just great. 11.00 Am - We started out to a place called Paradise Beach Resort which is an island in the backwaters. This place is about 4 km from pondy on the cuddalore road. You have to go real slow otherwise you will miss it. I missed it going at 50KMph & had to turn back. The sun is merciless around here & i had to leave my car in the baking sun. Buy tickets for the resort at Rs5/- per head (This place is run by the Pondicherry Tourism Development Corporation). There is a bit of an entertainment for the kids once you are inside. There is a lousy bar & an even lousier restaurant. Here are my kids fully armed & ready to rock 'n roll in this sweltering mid afternoon heat. We were actually beginning to regret having come here in this terrible heat. So we move on & find that there are boats every 10 minutes ferrying people to the small island that is about 5 kms away. So we hop into one of these. The backwaters are full of fantastic variety of fish. You can actually catch them with your hand, there are that many. My elder son (A die hard fish, croc, dino fan) cannot control his excitement at seeing these fishes. Even while we go by the boat, we could see fish jumping out of the water right before the boat. A pic of the boat ride thropugh the backwaters A View of the island from the boat This island is a fantastic place to spend your holidays, unfortunately we discovered this a little late. There are cottages, tree houses & beaches & beaches. A fantastic place to spend your day(s). The sands are so fine & white, i have never seen such sand in my life. The waves were pretty nice & very different from what i have experienced in the beaches in chennai, probably because this is an island. The moment we stepped into the wet sand, all hints of the heat disappeared. PTDC has built some nice looking shelters all over the beach for one to rest under & change. And the best part is that it is still undiscovered. Sorry i could not take any pics at all as we were all soaking wet & didn't dare to open the bag to take the camera out. I wish i had. Of course, the restaurant at the main land will serve your food on this island too & there is canned beer for Rs.50- per can. After a few hours of frolicking in this fine fine beach, we took the boat back to mainland & my son started fishing. We held out a hand kerchief & caught quite a few baby shrimps. I literally had to drag my son from the place & we headed back to the sanctuary of our terrific chilllllll room at the resort. The AC in this room was mind blowingly cool. Loved that. Here it is, a Voltas vertis split. I think it deserves a place here for keeping us cooool. Again the wife & kids ran off to the beach in the evening while i kept myself confined to the room with music & smirnoff for company. Slept well & started off to chennai the next afternoon. Picked up a load of liquor in pondy & took the tindivanam route. And then the AC suddenly conked off & had to drive around in horrible conditions again all the while cursing ABT. DId quite good speeds in this route putting to shame a lot of the newer cars, specially since there was no AC. reached chennai around 3.30 pm & started the routine life with the batteries fully charged. Thanks guys for reading through. __________________ "Keep your friends close, Keep your enemies closer"