[esteem_lover]

Yes, this is the first time I am making an attempt at writing a travelogue, so don't go making fun of me guys. I have made a number of trips with my family in the last 7 years, but this is the first time I am relating my experience to anyone at all.

29/5/2007 - Tuesday

Started around 9.00 am, broke the fast in a restaurant near our house in koyambedu & took the East Coast Road towards pondicherry. First stop was the Crocodile Bank, my elder son's favourite haunt. Both my sons had a fantastic time looking at those lazy arrogant blokes who do not move an inch for hours together except during feeding time. Here are a few snaps of those ugly prehistoric monsters. (My son would kill me if he can read this).

My sons (Caleb & Timeus) in 7th Heaven holding one of those little buggers


Caleb holding a tortoise



Holding a baby Python


Timeus' turn with the Baby Python


Crocs are cool & so are my kids


Now for some Croc Images






I think you guys have had enough of the crocs for now. Getting on with the journey. After an hour in the croc bank, we started off to Pondy in the famous ECR (East Coast Road). Yeah, the road is scenic allright, but not to my taste for driving. It is a single lane, very well laid road that curves & curves & curves throughout the 150 km journey. My elder son became sick just 10 km before pondy & we had a short stopover because of that. To make matters worse, the AC was just working like a cooler.

Finally we reached the outskirts of Pondy around lunchtime (sorry i don't keep time, i remember them by the various acts of the day). My reservations in a city hotel were for monday & tuesday. Since we did not turn up on monday (thanks to ABT maruti, read it here.... Esteem AC Issues the bookings were cancelled.). I was desparate to find a decent hotel & called up 10 of them out of which 3 confirmed they have rooms ranging between 700 to 3000. Confused about what to do, we drove on & came across this beach resort 5 km before Pondy. It is called the St.James Court Beach Resort. We drive in & enquire about the rooms & we are shown a magnificent, large room with a view of the sea & i immediately settle for it. It costed 2,500 per day but was really really worth it. Here are some pics.





View from the room


The beach is just a 5 min walk from the room & it is very clean & also private which is just not there in chennai. Wife & kids had a great time playing in the sand



There you go, dad's got fish for dinner.



Second part to be continued tomorrow. Cheers

[nevertouchme]

Sir...........

One amazing trip. Excellent photographs too. Keep them coming...

I am afraid that the link to " tech issues - ABT maruti " stuff is not working.

And 2,500 per day for a resort near that beach is not a bad bet at all.

Cheers,
Jai

[akroy]

Excellent pics esteem_lover, and ya ur kids are very kool too...
I always put up in Banyan Beach Resort, will try out St. James Resort next time around...

Abhi

[hydrashok]

Great pics, e_l! Looks like you folks had a blast. You have really brave sons. I wouldn't go anywhere near a python or a croc (baby or not) at that age, let alone hold one of those. Even now

[toiingg]

Neat stuff e_l, keep going.

[ravi@64bhp]

Nice trip Esteem_lover. Seem you had a blast time with your kids playing with those crocs and pythons. I must appreciate yours sons' bravery. See, How cool they are playing witgh them at that age. It is amazing.

Keep the second part coming. Very nice pictures to complement.

[n_aditya]

Nice travel report there John. I liked the pics as well. Where is the croc park located?

BTW 2.5k for a day seems a lil on the higher side considering everything is so cheap in Pondy. But i reckon this place is frequented by foreigners so that explains the price.

[esteem_lover]

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.

[ad75]

good travelogue esteem_lover.

The island looks like a perfect get away.will include that during my next pondy trip.

[akroy]

Nice place e_l, I think I need to discuss with u before my next pondy trip...this island is not to be missed....this was excellent...

Abhi

[Surprise]

Nice photographs. I have been never to crocodile park & upon seeing the pics decided to visit soon. Esp, the photo of your kid with python on his shoulders.

[mobike008]

Excellent write up E_L. Like most of them commented, i too would like to mention that your kids are really cute and extremely brave to be playing around with reptiles so cooly. Great pictures and a nice travelogue report. Cheers !!!

[rjstyles69]

Aaahh there you are MAN !! Made us wait so long . Nice to know you had a fantastic trip.

[msdivy]

Nice trip. Brave kids I must say !

[Dippy]

Nice account of your trip and great pictures to go with it


Loved the croca doodle doo