Our Weekend Drive - Bangalore to Pondicherry! - Team-BHP

finneyp · 31st October 2006, 17:01

Hi Guys,

Last Weekend (Oct 28-29), we had one helluva time driving down to Pondy and sightseeing some interesting places in & around Pondy.

We had 3 Palios + 1 Indica, families and friends made it a 11 strong contingent.

Oct-28:
5:30 - 6 AM : As planned, we assembled at GreenTracks, Hosur Road.

6 AM : We commenced our journey towards Pondy, the awesome 4-laned toll roads all the way till Krishnagiri made us to revv our speed-starved babes. And I clocked my highest speed of 140 kmph on my 1.2 here.
In no time, we reached Krishnagiri, took a diversion to proceed towards Tiruvanamalai.

We then stopped at a small town (maybe a village) called Mathur to have our Breakfast at a road side shack.
Man, what a yummy dosas with chutney & sambhar, it was quite tasty!
Had stomach full & then resumed our journey.

The two laned road between Krishnagiri & Tiruvanamalai is very tricky, though the roads are fairly good but out of blues there will be big hump across the mini canal bridges, and in one stretch there are hell lot of giant potholes that will put Bangalore pot-holes to shame!

From Tiruvanamalai there are 2 routes to reach Pondy, one is via Gingee, Tindivanam and the other one is via Villupuram. The locals suggested to take the Gingee route, since the road is super (in their language!).
And the road was super indeed, myself and Amith (on his 1.6) couldn't resist to have a mini-drag race...
No prizes to guess who won

We passed thru Tindivanam and the road to Pondy though 2 laned was in a good condition.

Reached Pondy by 1 PM.

Had to wait there for 30 mins coz Ronald & partner were driving in the economy mode and also they missed the way from Tindivanam and took the road to Chennai. Later, he realized his folly and was back on track.

Our Beach Resort was on ECR Road, 9 kms from Pondy, so from Pondy city we had to find the way onto the ECR Road and then to the Resort.

That day, Pondy was enevloped with clouds and it was drizzling all the day. Well, the 'Outlook Weekend Getaways' book said the Pondy is pleasant during the rains, so we were not complaining

So reached the Resort, occupied the rooms, decided to have the lunch at the Resort itself. The Food at the Resort was just ok, not worth having it again here.

We took some rest, in the evening we went to Pondy to see some places, do some shopping etc.
And boy it was still drizzling, so had to drop the plans of sightseeing that day, we then decided to find a nice place to eat.
Since Pondy was a French colony, some of us want to try out the French food, so we began our hunt to find a joint serving French food. After enquiring with dozens of locals, one of the them suggeseted 'Rendezvous'.
After bit of struggle, we managed to locate Rendezvous. The place looked very pleasant and ambient!
When they bought the menu card, we realized that they not had French cuisine but all the cuisines under sun.
Most of us ordered non-Indian cuisine, the food was good but not so great for the price!

After the meals, the bachelors and married-batchelors decided to take a stroll around the Pondy city.
They say the best way to see Pondy is to walk around and explore the places. And, they were right indeed, it was very pleasant to walk around & see the French-style houses, well maintained clean Roads,
and to do some shopping. The walk along the Beach Road (with Bay of Bengal at your side) was a soothing experience.

Can you believe you can get the latest Movies DVD for just Rs.30? Yes, it is pirated....!
So if you are a movie bluff, u need to come here and enhance your collection.
After the walk, we returned to our Resort and took a well-deserved rest.

Oct-29
Next day, by God's grace the weather was sunny and bright and the best time to see the places.
We went to Pondy, we decided to have Breakfast at Hotel Surguru (many thanks to Vignesh Ram @ Chennai for suggesting this place.) The South Indian food here was awesome, the dosas, vadas, idlis were superb and the price too was quite reasonable.

We then got divided into three groups and covered some main attractions of Pondy.
We (the batchelor gang) went again to the Beach Road, took some snaps along the sea-side and the Mahatma Gandhi statue. Then went to Auroville (9kms from Pondy) on the Tindivanam road. This town was setup by a French lady popularly called as the 'Mother', she was the spiritual successor of Sir Aurobindo Ghosh.
The idea was to build a futuristic city where people of goodwill would live together in peace and harmony.
The main attraction here is the Matri Mandir, this spherical marble chamber has a crystal placed inside it, (believed to be the largest of its kind in the world) reflecting the suns rays. (You can see it in the pics).

Then, we returned to Pondy, had a sumptous Thali Meal at Hotel Surguru, then back to our Resort.
Freshened up, packed our bags & checked out of the Resort.

And by 2:30 PM started our return journey to Bangalore, took the same route: Pondy - Tindivanam - Gingee - Tiruvanamalai - Krishnagiri - Bangalore.
The drive again was awesome apart from that small strech between Tiruvanamalai & Krishnagiri.
In between, we took a 1 hour break at Mathur to have some snacks from that road-side shack and to wait for Ronald who again was on the economy mode :(

Overall, an excellent drive and an awesome sightseeing experience at Pondy!
No wonder, some of us want to visit Pondy again

Many Thanks to Amith Dsouza, Dileep, Ronald and his friends for making this a very successfull trip.

Also our thanks to Mahesh Natrajan and Vignesh Ram who called us frequently to check our well being and to share their valuable inputs on Pondy.

Please find some pics of our trip here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/finney...JFXvFBNLDTohNa

Cheers, Finney

rjstyles69 · 31st October 2006, 18:45

Nice write up mate. By the way Rendezvous has always been my fav' eat out @ Pondy. Am sure you would have tried the Lazzania they serve ?Its their best dish yummy..
Did u get a chance to take a stroll in the Golden globe @ Auroville?

finneyp · 31st October 2006, 21:41

Mods, can you please move this thread to the 'Travelogue' section.
Thanks!

finneyp · 2nd November 2006, 11:25

Hi rjstyle, entry to the Golden Globe was not allowed since some renovation work is going on, we could see it only from the outside...

rattimehra · 24th January 2007, 11:44

Hi..thanks for the tips..I did the trip early this month and most of your suggestions came very handy.

The eating joint at Mathur on our way to Pondicherry was worth every penny as recommended. Thanks mate for suggesting that.There's not much grub joints on the way,once you leave Krishnagiri

On eating joints in Pondicherry, three definetly recommended ones are 'Satsanga' for real good steaks/fillets and grilled fish,a German bakery on the road from ECR to Auroville for some really fresh and yummy bakery stuff and finally another conti eating joint on way to Auroville from ECR ( sorry forgot the name, it's called New XXX, )at 1.00 PM it was jampacked with the expat population and they run out of most of the popular dishes very fast.

finneyp · 16th February 2007, 16:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by rattimehra

Hi..thanks for the tips..I did the trip early this month and most of your suggestions came very handy.

Hi buddy, Good! you enjoyed your trip to Pondy!
A nice place to drive to and relax over the weekend! Cheers!

Jaggu · 16th February 2007, 16:56

oops am getting follwoing message when i click on photo link :(

Uh-oh. Something bad happened...

We are really sorry, but something went wrong while handling your request.

[parseServices]

finneyp · 16th February 2007, 17:09

Jaggu, there seems to be some issues with the new version of Yahoo Photos!
I'm sorry, I am helpless!

mobike008 · 16th February 2007, 17:39

Same problem, not able to view the pictures. Why dont you post some nice ones using image shacks.

finneyp · 16th February 2007, 18:00

ok, will try to post some pics at the earliest!

finneyp · 14th March 2007, 04:41

mobike008 · 14th March 2007, 12:58

Nice pics. Pondy seems to be a very neat place.

31st October 2006, 17:01	#1 (permalink)
finneyp Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 2,203 View My Garage	Our Weekend Drive - Bangalore to Pondicherry! Hi Guys, Last Weekend (Oct 28-29), we had one helluva time driving down to Pondy and sightseeing some interesting places in & around Pondy. We had 3 Palios + 1 Indica, families and friends made it a 11 strong contingent. Oct-28: 5:30 - 6 AM : As planned, we assembled at GreenTracks, Hosur Road. 6 AM : We commenced our journey towards Pondy, the awesome 4-laned toll roads all the way till Krishnagiri made us to revv our speed-starved babes. And I clocked my highest speed of 140 kmph on my 1.2 here. In no time, we reached Krishnagiri, took a diversion to proceed towards Tiruvanamalai. We then stopped at a small town (maybe a village) called Mathur to have our Breakfast at a road side shack. Man, what a yummy dosas with chutney & sambhar, it was quite tasty! Had stomach full & then resumed our journey. The two laned road between Krishnagiri & Tiruvanamalai is very tricky, though the roads are fairly good but out of blues there will be big hump across the mini canal bridges, and in one stretch there are hell lot of giant potholes that will put Bangalore pot-holes to shame! From Tiruvanamalai there are 2 routes to reach Pondy, one is via Gingee, Tindivanam and the other one is via Villupuram. The locals suggested to take the Gingee route, since the road is super (in their language!). And the road was super indeed, myself and Amith (on his 1.6) couldn't resist to have a mini-drag race... No prizes to guess who won We passed thru Tindivanam and the road to Pondy though 2 laned was in a good condition. Reached Pondy by 1 PM. Had to wait there for 30 mins coz Ronald & partner were driving in the economy mode and also they missed the way from Tindivanam and took the road to Chennai. Later, he realized his folly and was back on track. Our Beach Resort was on ECR Road, 9 kms from Pondy, so from Pondy city we had to find the way onto the ECR Road and then to the Resort. That day, Pondy was enevloped with clouds and it was drizzling all the day. Well, the 'Outlook Weekend Getaways' book said the Pondy is pleasant during the rains, so we were not complaining So reached the Resort, occupied the rooms, decided to have the lunch at the Resort itself. The Food at the Resort was just ok, not worth having it again here. We took some rest, in the evening we went to Pondy to see some places, do some shopping etc. And boy it was still drizzling, so had to drop the plans of sightseeing that day, we then decided to find a nice place to eat. Since Pondy was a French colony, some of us want to try out the French food, so we began our hunt to find a joint serving French food. After enquiring with dozens of locals, one of the them suggeseted 'Rendezvous'. After bit of struggle, we managed to locate Rendezvous. The place looked very pleasant and ambient! When they bought the menu card, we realized that they not had French cuisine but all the cuisines under sun. Most of us ordered non-Indian cuisine, the food was good but not so great for the price! After the meals, the bachelors and married-batchelors decided to take a stroll around the Pondy city. They say the best way to see Pondy is to walk around and explore the places. And, they were right indeed, it was very pleasant to walk around & see the French-style houses, well maintained clean Roads, and to do some shopping. The walk along the Beach Road (with Bay of Bengal at your side) was a soothing experience. Can you believe you can get the latest Movies DVD for just Rs.30? Yes, it is pirated....! So if you are a movie bluff, u need to come here and enhance your collection. After the walk, we returned to our Resort and took a well-deserved rest. Oct-29 Next day, by God's grace the weather was sunny and bright and the best time to see the places. We went to Pondy, we decided to have Breakfast at Hotel Surguru (many thanks to Vignesh Ram @ Chennai for suggesting this place.) The South Indian food here was awesome, the dosas, vadas, idlis were superb and the price too was quite reasonable. We then got divided into three groups and covered some main attractions of Pondy. We (the batchelor gang) went again to the Beach Road, took some snaps along the sea-side and the Mahatma Gandhi statue. Then went to Auroville (9kms from Pondy) on the Tindivanam road. This town was setup by a French lady popularly called as the 'Mother', she was the spiritual successor of Sir Aurobindo Ghosh. The idea was to build a futuristic city where people of goodwill would live together in peace and harmony. The main attraction here is the Matri Mandir, this spherical marble chamber has a crystal placed inside it, (believed to be the largest of its kind in the world) reflecting the suns rays. (You can see it in the pics). Then, we returned to Pondy, had a sumptous Thali Meal at Hotel Surguru, then back to our Resort. Freshened up, packed our bags & checked out of the Resort. And by 2:30 PM started our return journey to Bangalore, took the same route: Pondy - Tindivanam - Gingee - Tiruvanamalai - Krishnagiri - Bangalore. The drive again was awesome apart from that small strech between Tiruvanamalai & Krishnagiri. In between, we took a 1 hour break at Mathur to have some snacks from that road-side shack and to wait for Ronald who again was on the economy mode :( Overall, an excellent drive and an awesome sightseeing experience at Pondy! No wonder, some of us want to visit Pondy again Many Thanks to Amith Dsouza, Dileep, Ronald and his friends for making this a very successfull trip. Also our thanks to Mahesh Natrajan and Vignesh Ram who called us frequently to check our well being and to share their valuable inputs on Pondy. Please find some pics of our trip here: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/finney...JFXvFBNLDTohNa Cheers, Finney __________________ Drive Safe, your loved ones need you! My passion is not driving Cars, but driving a FIAT! Finney, Palio 1.2 NV - 2004 Last edited by adya33 : 2nd November 2006 at 13:49.

31st October 2006, 21:41	#3 (permalink)
finneyp Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 2,203 View My Garage	Mods, can you please move this thread to the 'Travelogue' section. Thanks! __________________ Drive Safe, your loved ones need you! My passion is not driving Cars, but driving a FIAT! Finney, Palio 1.2 NV - 2004

2nd November 2006, 11:25	#4 (permalink)
finneyp Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 2,203 View My Garage	Hi rjstyle, entry to the Golden Globe was not allowed since some renovation work is going on, we could see it only from the outside... __________________ Drive Safe, your loved ones need you! My passion is not driving Cars, but driving a FIAT! Finney, Palio 1.2 NV - 2004

16th February 2007, 16:56	#7 (permalink)
Jaggu Team-BHP Support Join Date: May 2004 Location: Bangalore Posts: 6,903	people do use search option oops am getting follwoing message when i click on photo link :( Uh-oh. Something bad happened... We are really sorry, but something went wrong while handling your request. [parseServices] __________________ The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference. -Calvin Last edited by Jaggu : 16th February 2007 at 17:01. Reason: look at the post date !!! look at the post date!!

16th February 2007, 17:09	#8 (permalink)
finneyp Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 2,203 View My Garage	Jaggu, there seems to be some issues with the new version of Yahoo Photos! I'm sorry, I am helpless! __________________ Drive Safe, your loved ones need you! My passion is not driving Cars, but driving a FIAT! Finney, Palio 1.2 NV - 2004

31st October 2006, 18:45	#2 (permalink)
rjstyles69 Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Bengalooru.. Posts: 2,499 View My Garage	Nice write up mate. By the way Rendezvous has always been my fav' eat out @ Pondy. Am sure you would have tried the Lazzania they serve ?Its their best dish yummy.. Did u get a chance to take a stroll in the Golden globe @ Auroville?

24th January 2007, 11:44	#5 (permalink)
rattimehra Newbie Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Bangalore Posts: 5	Hi..thanks for the tips..I did the trip early this month and most of your suggestions came very handy. The eating joint at Mathur on our way to Pondicherry was worth every penny as recommended. Thanks mate for suggesting that.There's not much grub joints on the way,once you leave Krishnagiri On eating joints in Pondicherry, three definetly recommended ones are 'Satsanga' for real good steaks/fillets and grilled fish,a German bakery on the road from ECR to Auroville for some really fresh and yummy bakery stuff and finally another conti eating joint on way to Auroville from ECR ( sorry forgot the name, it's called New XXX, )at 1.00 PM it was jampacked with the expat population and they run out of most of the popular dishes very fast.

16th February 2007, 17:39	#9 (permalink)
mobike008 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Hyderabad Posts: 3,229 View My Garage	Same problem, not able to view the pictures. Why dont you post some nice ones using image shacks. __________________ I have terrible reflexes- I was once run over by a car being pushed by two guys !!!!!!!

16th February 2007, 18:00	#10 (permalink)
finneyp Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 2,203 View My Garage	ok, will try to post some pics at the earliest! __________________ Drive Safe, your loved ones need you! My passion is not driving Cars, but driving a FIAT! Finney, Palio 1.2 NV - 2004

14th March 2007, 04:41	#11 (permalink)
finneyp Senior - BHPian Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Bangalore Posts: 2,203 View My Garage	Some Pondy pics as promised! __________________ Drive Safe, your loved ones need you! My passion is not driving Cars, but driving a FIAT! Finney, Palio 1.2 NV - 2004

14th March 2007, 12:58	#12 (permalink)
mobike008 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Hyderabad Posts: 3,229 View My Garage	Nice pics. Pondy seems to be a very neat place. __________________ I have terrible reflexes- I was once run over by a car being pushed by two guys !!!!!!!

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