[CliffHanger]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

OK, we visited the Crocodile bank. It was very nice.

The Dolphin City has vanished - could not locate it at all and some people on the road told us the place closed down long time ago...

We are now setting off to Pondicherry. Can someone recommend good budget hotel in Pondicherry?

Also, from Pondicherry we will head back and need to stay in Bangalore overnight. Please recommend budget hotels in Bangalore with car park.

Ananth, check out St.Jame's Resort in Pondicherry, it is in ECR and comes around as soon as you enter Pondicherry. Room cost will be around 3k for a double bed room. It has a swimming pool and it is a beach faing resort with awesome view of the beach.

If you stay there, ask for a room on the first floor with the balcony facing the sea. It's really worth it. But book in advance, probably you can call up now.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

We are now setting off to Pondicherry. Can someone recommend good budget hotel in Pondicherry?

In Pondicherry - Hotel Surguru is good. They have a very good veg. restaurant also and close to the Auro Ashram and beach. Website HOTEL SURGURU

Hope this helps.

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by CliffHanger

Ananth, check out St.Jame's Resort in Pondicherry, it is in ECR and comes around as soon as you enter Pondicherry. Room cost will be around 3k for a double bed room. It has a swimming pool and it is a beach faing resort with awesome view of the beach.

If you stay there, ask for a room on the first floor with the balcony facing the sea. It's really worth it. But book in advance, probably you can call up now.

Originally Posted by NPV

In Pondicherry - Hotel Surguru is good. They have a very good veg. restaurant also and close to the Auro Ashram and beach. Website HOTEL SURGURU

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the inputs.
We stayed in the Park Guest House on the Pondycherry beach. It's actually Aurobindo Ashram's own guest house. Rs.400 for a bouble room. It's nice and clean but with some restrictions like no TV/room service/noise. I kind of liked it.

We had lunch and dinner at Surguru - food was OK, but there was always some waiting involved. They have some flashy things on the menu like french dosa, etc - but nothing great about those.

Pondycherry is a small place - from the map it appeared to be a well planned town something like Chandigadh, but in reality I could not appreciate much. The breach is all rocky, though they have made good strip for walking/jogging.

Auroville is good. A lot of greenery, and the Banyan tree is very nice. I was not convinced about their concept of creating a community free from all politics, religions, etc. They are creating a town that will house 50,000 global citizens. But then they have rules, regulations, the admission is restricted - of course all this is required if you want to manage anything properly, but that's exactly how all existing systems (nations, religions, etc started off in the first place, isn't it). So it's like creating another order or system as an alternative to existing order(s) or system(s). Anyways, as long as they maintain the peace and natural habitat, it's OK, IMO.


BTW, we are back in Pune - from Google Maps , I decided to take the NH66 from Pondycherry to Krishnagiri and then NH7 from Krishnagiri until E-city, then the NICE road all the way till Tumkur exit and then onto the NH4. All was well with this except for the fact that NH66 does not actually exist - it's a very small village road from Pondycherry to NH45 which you need to take until Tindivaram and then the so called NH-66 through Gingee, Tiruvannamalai to Krishnagiri. This road is broken and was a hell for the Laura.

Originally Posted by ampere

Here is a thread on bypassing Bangalore:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/route-...bangalore.html

Hope this helps.

Thank you so much!

NICE road - the pick of the trip. I envy the Bangalore guys - what a road. Amazing surface quality, well fenced - reminded me of some of the interstate highways of the US. I could easily test the top speed (well, almost) and it's the safest road to do that. This single piece of journey justified the decision of taking the Laura on the trip instead of Tucson .

Cheers!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

BTW, we are back in Pune - from Google Maps , I decided to take the NH66 from Pondycherry to Krishnagiri and then NH7 from Krishnagiri until E-city, then the NICE road all the way till Tumkur exit and then onto the NH4. All was well with this except for the fact that NH66 does not actually exist - it's a very small village road from Pondycherry to NH45 which you need to take until Tindivaram and then the so called NH-66 through Gingee, Tiruvannamalai to Krishnagiri. This road is broken and was a hell for the Laura.

If you had just mentioned that before:

Bangalore-Pondicherry has shifted loyalties from NH66!

Pondicherry-Tindivanam-Sothupakkam-Vandavasi-Cheyyar-Arcot-Krishnagiri-Bangalore

Bengaluru, Karnataka to Pondicherry - Google Maps


The idea is to latch on to NH46 (Chennai-BLR GQ at Arcot) and then drive on the 4L to Krishnagiri and beyond.

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by ampere

Bangalore-Pondicherry has shifted loyalties from NH66!

Pondicherry-Tindivanam-Sothupakkam-Vandavasi-Cheyyar-Arcot-Krishnagiri-Bangalore

Bengaluru, Karnataka to Pondicherry - Google Maps

Hmmm....now how does one find out the actual status of a given NH?
Is there a NHAI newletter that one can subscribe to? Maps and GPS only tell us the NH exists (on paper) and the merge and exit points.

BTW, how do you manage to keep track of all the roads and their status? Awesome man.

Thanks!

[ampere]

Originally Posted by anandpadhye

Hmmm....now how does one find out the actual status of a given NH?
Is there a NHAI newletter that one can subscribe to? Maps and GPS only tell us the NH exists (on paper) and the merge and exit points.

BTW, how do you manage to keep track of all the roads and their status? Awesome man.

Thanks!

Thanks for those kind words.
The only way we find road status is to follow our friends in BHP and most of all HVK!
All things learn here!