[Dr.AD]

Soon after my aimless, solo wandering on the west coast enjoying the monsoon (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...karnataka.html), it was time to do the exact opposite. Opposite in every sense - I went to east coast instead of west, with family instead of solo, and instead of the aimless spontaneous travel, this was a well-planned, booked in advanced kind of travel. Even weather decided to play the opposite. While I enjoyed lush green landscapes and all types of rain (from light drizzle to heavy downpour) in that west coast drive, here we were greeted with hot sunny weather everywhere, and relatively dryer landscapes all around. And while in that drive I experienced local hospitality wherever I went, here it was time to experience something completely different and even foreign - a touch of Danish culture and history!

In short, this was a "family vacation" and the primary goal was spending time with family. We spent a couple of days in Mahabalipuram, relaxing in a resort most of the time, and then drove down to Tranquebar where we spent another couple of days.

This was the driving plan:



The drive as such was very uneventful, and it was pretty much a straight and smooth road all the way from Bangalore to Mahabalipuram. From there to Tranquebar involved driving on the East Coast Road (ECR), which was scenic in a couple of sections but mostly crowded and passing through dense urban areas (read traffic jams) in other sections. And from Tranquebar back to Bangalore was a mix of some rural roads, some terrible broken roads, and then some 6 lane highways. Overall, nothing much to write about the drive here, and I am completely keeping the drive part out of this travelogue.

For a change, this time it is more about the destination -Tranquebar- than the journey. Tranquebar is a relatively lesser known place (I had no idea about it until a couple of year ago, and even now, I meet many people who are not aware that such a place even exists). It was a Danish colony from 1620 to 1845, and today, the Danish history there is represented by a 17th century fort, a Danish bungalow which is now converted into a hotel, and a couple of old churches.

Dedication: I dedicate this travelogue to the wonderful "overnighter" group of Bangalore bhpians led by RSUDARSANAN. It was with this group that I discovered my first destination here - Radisson Blu at Mahabalipuram - back in 2015 (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-b...ry-2015-a.html). And it is again with this group that I am looking forward to rediscovering the second destination - Bungalow on the Beach in Tranquebar - next month (http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-b...er-2016-a.html).

[Dr.AD]

Relaxing in Mahabalipuram

As I mentioned above, our first stop on our way to Tranquebar was Mahabalipuram. We stayed at the Radisson Blu Resort, where we spent a couple of days relaxing and just having a good family time.

We had booked the "poolside chalets", which are pretty spacious and nice rooms in this resort. However, through some stroke of good luck, we were given a free upgrade to their Pool Villa, which was a luxurious villa with a proper living room, a dining area, and a separate bedroom, with two bathrooms in total. And of course, as the name suggests, it had a private swimming pool.

The living room in our pool villa:



The dining area:



The bedroom:



Both the bedroom and the living room had access to the private swimming pool:



The living room opening into the pool, where they had a couple of sun loungers (or deck chairs):



Our own private pool:



Water circulation for the pool done through this sculpture of a fish - very beautiful:



The villa as seen from the pool:






Beautiful walkways through the resort:



This resort has one of the best swimming pools I have seen anywhere:



We had a lot of fun playing in the pool, especially Zorbing (trying to walk inside this giant cylinder to make it roll on the water):



The resort has a very nice restaurant on the beach:



We had a dinner here. Perfect place for a relaxed family dinner:



Some flowers around the resort:



These are the sea facing villas in the resort, and I am sure they are a lot more expensive than the pool villas:



From the beach, the famous Shore Temple of Mahabalipuram is visible in the distance:



We spent most of the time relaxing in this place, except for a quick visit to Mahabalipuram, covered in the next post.

[Dr.AD]

Quick Visit to Mahabalipuram:

Mahabalipuram is a beautiful place in itself, and it has many monuments and temples which are definitely worth a detailed visit. However, since we had already seen those in the past, and since this time we were in a mood for just relaxing, we kept our visit to Mahabalipuram sites very short. We just went to the main Shore Temple, and then to a lighthouse.

The famous Shore Temple:









One of the many beautiful structures and sculptures around the temple:



From the shore temple, away in the distance, one can see this lighthouse peeping out of the trees:



We decided to visit that lighthouse. The path to the lighthouse goes through a park, and alongside some other monuments:



This is how the lighthouse looks from below:



Zooming in on the top, you can see a row of windows, and a viewing gallery above that. When you climb up, the main stairs take you to those windows first, from where you can peep outside. Then another flight of narrow stairs takes you to the main viewing gallery, from where you get awesome 360 degree views of the surrounding:



When we climbed up to the topmost galley, this was the view:



On the other side, we could see all the way to the sea:



You can see the Shore Temple on the beach, away in the distance:



Zooming in on the Shore Temple:



On the other side, near the beach, it looked like there was another beach resort:



Zooming in on the monuments nearby. This is Mahishasuramardini cave:



The top portion of the cave was used as a lighthouse by the British before the new lighthouse was built:


We wrapped up our Mahabalipuram sightseeing with this visit to the lighthouse.

[Dr.AD]

The Bungalow on the Beach, Tranquebar

Although the 17th century Danish Fort is the main tourist attraction in Tranquebar, an equally old Danish bungalow next to the fort, now converted into a hotel, is very interesting by itself. The bungalow is of course restored to make it a modern hotel, but thankfully, they have taken all care to preserve the old architecture as much as possible. This ancient touch is especially striking in the interiors. They have used antique furniture everywhere, and that combined with the old architecture really gives a unique feeling inside. For us this was not just the hotel we stayed at, but also a site to explore, and thus, we spent a lot of time walking around inside the bungalow.


This is how the bungalow looks while walking towards it from the parking lot inside its premises:



However, this is the front view from the beach/fort side:



"The Bungalow on the Beach" - what an apt and nice name!



They call it a "non-hotel Hotel", emphasizing the unique nature of this place:



The full view of the bungalow:



From the main entrance, when you look outside, you can see the Danish fort:



The main entrance is exactly aligned to the fort; what a perfect design!



The view of the bungalow from the main entrance:



As you walk in, you are into this big central room, which doubles as the reception-cum-lobby of the hotel, and immediately you can see the antique theme everywhere:



The pillars in front of the central staircase:



And a lovely wooden spiral staircase that goes up to the first floor:



The central hall on the first floor, which again gives a certain antique, palatial feel:



The chandelier:



A better view of the central hall from the other side:



These huge doors (they were at least 10 feet in height) towards our room made us feel tiny while walking in:



Our room. Again, very spacious, with ceiling height of about 15 feet, and with a very palatial feel to it (just look at the huge doors with those superheavy curtains - it was an ordeal to pull up or down the curtains):



The antique furniture in the room:



This massive candle-stand, and that huge candle gave a very mystical feel:



As you can see, the antique interiors of this bungalow had a very unique feel to it, and it was fun experiencing this. But this place is not just about the interiors; the exterior and the views all around are equally unique, as you will see in the next post.

[Dr.AD]

Bungalow on the beach: Walking around

The hallways around the bungalow:



A beautiful outdoor restaurant, with a very homely feel to it:



The corner tables. This area got a very strong breeze from the sea in the evening, and we enjoyed sitting on these tables in the evening, having some tea and pakodas, taking that strong breeze on our faces:



The veranda on the first floor, connecting to all rooms:



Continuing the antique theme, the chairs outside our room:



And on this side, the veranda had beautiful sea views:



Sea views like this, reminding us that after all, this was a bungalow on the beach:



These tables were perfectly located, with great views of the fort as well as the sea (we spent a lot of time sitting here and just enjoying the views):



View of the fort from here:



The central area between the fort and the bungalow had some benches to sit on, and some open walking space:



You can get an almost picture perfect view of the fort right from this spot in the bungalow:



The fort seen through some plants and flowers in the bungalow:



From next to our room, this veranda had a staircase going down to the pool:



The magnificent swimming pool:



A beautiful small temple just outside the bungalow was in the backdrop of the pool:



The stairs taking you down:



They arrive at this poolside area, covered under a nice blue glass roof:



Flowers around the pool area:



I don't if this is a Danish architecture, but these pillars and the overall design certainly felt different and nice:



Walking back in, a couple of tables for eating inside, if you prefer (these were ideal for lunch, since it was way too hot to sit outdoors for lunch):



Some decorative items on the shelf, and some books for you to read while you relax here:



However, most of the books were in European languages:



Antique furniture like this was there in every corner in the bungalow:



Well, now I realized what they meant by a "non-hotel Hotel". Certainly a unique place in every sense of the word.

[Dr.AD]

The Danish Fort

With one quick glance at the fort, it became apparent that it was restored recently. The pictures I had seen, even those taken just a couple of years ago, showed a somewhat ruined, old, historical place. On the contrary, here the paint was fresh and this place looked like it was brand new. I am not sure whether I was happy to see this well done restoration or I was sad to miss out on seeing the original fort in the naturally ruined condition. I actually feel I would have preferred the latter.


We stepped out of main gate of the hotel, which was perfectly aligned to the fort, and we were here:



Front view of the fort:



The public entrance to the fort. There were a couple of food stalls and some vehicle parked there:



First view of the fort from the inside, just as we entered the fort:



The central courtyard:



The lower portion of the fort had these small cellars, for a variety of things:



Such as a "Room for Gunpowder" as the label here says:



And the kitchen (similarly, other rooms were labeled as room for storing kitchen utensils, groceries, living quarters for soldiers etc.):



A couple of inside views of the fort:






Then we climbed to this upper level, where there was a spacious walkway all around the fort:



From there, we could see the sea:



Some boats resting on the sand:



The Bungalow as seen from the fort:



We could see the Tranquebar town around, with that beautiful white church giving a distinctive touch to the landscape:



Another view of the fort as seen from the upper level:



The front side of the fort:



The beach right outside the front of the fort:



Inside the fort is a small museum, showcasing few old Danish documents, pieces of ancient articles, pictures, utensils etc.


As we entered the museum, the first thing we saw - kept right in front of the entrance - was this beautiful wooden scale model of the entire fort:



The wooden scale model was really nice:



The backside view, with all the intricate details modeled perfectly:



The front door of the museum - with that lovely pink color on the walls and the views of the blue sea outside, it looked very nice:



A canon placed at the window:



Back outside, the view of the beach on the south side of the fort (the Bungalow was on the north side):



Another shot of the boats outside:



View of the fort from the south end:



The walkway on the south side:



The engraving at the front (does this look new or restored too?). Notice that the official name is "Fort Dansborg", although it is most commonly known as simply the Danish fort, and that it was built in 1620.



Overall, a very nice fort, and we had a nice time walking around there. Unfortunately, it was very hot and humid when we were there, but this would be an awesome place in better weathers.

[Dr.AD]

A walk around Tranquebar:

Between the fort and bungalow, is this open walking space:



The beach had many such man-made rock formations:



A small temple, right behind the bungalow (even this temple looked like it was restored recently: I remember seeing pictures of a ruined temple here which I assume must be this before restoration):



The temple was closed when we went there, but nevertheless, it looked nice from outside:



A close-up of the decorative gopuram of the temple:



The Nandi in the font, and some rock formation going into the sea behind:



From those rocks, we got views of the beach further up north:



View of the bungalow and the fort as seen from the front of this temple:



Then we went for a walk around the main street in the town. The town has a distinct entrance arch that you can see in the picture below (at the far end of the road), and everything inside the arch had a different architecture, reminiscent of the Danish colony of the yesteryear:



There on that street lies this beautiful church, circa 1718:



Front view of this church:



Walkway within the church premises:



The views of the outside street as seen from the church premises show the European touch to the architecture:






Back on the main street, which itself resembles some European small town:



Walking back towards the beach, the street ends at this point, where lies this commemorative statue for the "Tranquebar Mission":



Another beautiful church at that junction of the street:



The front view of this church:



The town is beautiful and has a distinct European feel to it. Unfortunately, the weather was really hot and humid, and we could not spend any more time walking around there in that heat. But this quick tour was good enough for us to get a feel of the erstwhile Danish colony.

[Dr.AD]

An evening at the Bungalow on the Beach:

After walking around in that hot and humid weather, we had to retire to our room for an afternoon rest. The AC felt like the most desirable property of the room at that time. However, when we stepped out of the room later in the evening, we had a pleasant surprise. There were clouds in the sky, a strong breeze coming from the sea felt refreshing, and in general the surroundings had become very pleasant.


What a beautiful spot to sit and enjoy the evening:



The pool looked even more beautiful with the dark clouds in the background:



Even the sea - now in dark grey shade - looked lot more beautiful than in the afternoon:



Flowers on the backdrop of the blue pool:



The sea in the distance looked mesmerizing:



Another view of that perfect spot, where we sat for a while just enjoying the scenery around:



Waves crashing on some man-made structure in the sea:



Force of the strong wind was visible over these nearby trees:



A fishing boat appeared in the distance from behind the tree:



The sea looked dark grey, and the breaking waves appeared like while flashes. These white flashes all over the dark sea looked amazing:



A close-up of the fishing boat:



On the fort side, the evening crowd was building up. The entrance of the fort was already crowded:



A lot more crowd around the fort and the front area too. The whole area looked like an evening picnic spot:



In the evening light, the fort looked beautiful:



Crowd on the beach:






Away in the sea, another fishing boat working nonchalantly in the rough sea:



In the distance, a largish fishing trawler appears from behind the trees:



Zooming in on the fishing trawler through the leaves (you can actually see another fishing boat further away)



As the evening turned into night, the verandas of the bungalow looked beautiful under these yellow lights:



Overall, it was a very pleasant evening. We had a vantage seating point - right in the veranda of the bungalow - from where we could see the clouds, the sea, the fort, the boats, the people walking around, and we just had a good time sitting and watching this. Fortunately, the weather was very nice in the evening, aided by the strong sea breeze.

Well, with that beautiful evening, it was time for us to wrap up our vacation. Next day we drove back to Bangalore, which was another uneventful and actually a very non-scenic drive.

In summary, I really liked this place. This place does not have too many things to do, but it certainly has a very unique and distinctive touch to it. For those who want to explore something new, something different from the usual hotels and resorts, this is the perfect place!

With that, this is the right place to wrap up this travelogue too. Thank you very much for reading.

[Eddy]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing.

[h14]

Just WOW! Beautifully compiled log. Thanks for taking time in sharing. I too heard of this place from the Bangalore drive thread and had marked this place for a visit. This thread has only kindled the desire to visit it sooner

[anandtheleo]

Dear Anand,

A lovely travelogue with some beautiful pics for company.
I felt i was right there, it was that good

[NPV]

Dr.AD - Lovely travelogue with great narration, pictures and captions - CAPTIVATING! Thanks for sharing

Probably, the other places you could have considered visiting if you had the time are the Mangroves of Pichavaram (boat ride there is very nice is what I've heard) and maybe Gangaikonda Cholapuram.
I haven't been to Tranquebar or the other places I mentioned, just been reading about them and they are all on my list of places to visit, hopefully soon

If I understood correctly, you will be visiting the Bungalow again next month with the TBHP Drive group ? Man, you're having a great time!

[earthian]

Dr AD
Beautiful travelogue and pictures. I drive down to Pondicherry at least 4 times a year ( from Chennai, not A'Bad!) and i did not know there was such a beautiful property lacted just a short distance away. And Neemrama properties have a unique flair and ambience. We enjoyed our stay at the Verendah in the Forest.
Thank you for sharing and have added it in my list.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by h14

Just WOW! Beautifully compiled log. Thanks for taking time in sharing. I too heard of this place from the Bangalore drive thread and had marked this place for a visit. This thread has only kindled the desire to visit it sooner

Thank you very much.

Originally Posted by anandtheleo

Dear Anand,

A lovely travelogue with some beautiful pics for company.
I felt i was right there, it was that good

Thank you very much.

Originally Posted by NPV

Dr.AD - Lovely travelogue with great narration, pictures and captions - CAPTIVATING! Thanks for sharing

Thank you very much.

Originally Posted by NPV

Probably, the other places you could have considered visiting if you had the time are the Mangroves of Pichavaram (boat ride there is very nice is what I've heard) and maybe Gangaikonda Cholapuram.

Thanks for the tip. Actually we are planning to visit the Mangroves of Pichavaram during the team-bhp group drive next month. So I skipped it this time.

Originally Posted by NPV

If I understood correctly, you will be visiting the Bungalow again next month with the TBHP Drive group ? Man, you're having a great time!

Yes, you are correct. I am going to visit the same place again with that group, and I am looking forward to that.

Originally Posted by earthian

Dr AD
Beautiful travelogue and pictures. I drive down to Pondicherry at least 4 times a year ( from Chennai, not A'Bad!) and i did not know there was such a beautiful property lacted just a short distance away. And Neemrama properties have a unique flair and ambience. We enjoyed our stay at the Verendah in the Forest.
Thank you for sharing and have added it in my list.

Thank you very much. What you said exactly illustrates my point. Somehow this place is not known to people, and I meet many otherwise regular travelers who do not know about this area. Some of my friends from Chennai were not even aware of this place in spite of living all their life a few hours away from this place.

This was my first stay at any Neemrama property. I will certainly try to stay in their properties in other parts of the country if I get a chance.

You should definitely visit this during one of your Pondicherry drives.

[Grand Drive]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

Somehow this place is not known to people, and I meet many otherwise regular travelers who do not know about this area. Some of my friends from Chennai were not even aware of this place in spite of living all their life a few hours away from this place.

Wonderful travelogue and exceptional photos . This place is called as Tharangambadi and people won't recognize if addressed as Tranquebar. Tharangambadi is very close to the famous temple town Thirukadaiyur.