Team-BHP - Road Trip (Jan '10) : Bangalore - Pondicherry

Hello All
This is a quick travelogue on a trip to Pondicherry (from Bangalore) that we undertook last weekend.

]We started at 0830 h on Sunday from Bangalore for Pondicherry in an Innova. Fortunately – there wasn’t any traffic jam as we exited the city and this was also my first drive over the newly inaugurated ‘elevated road’ from the Silk Board junction to Electronic City … this is a dream …. About 9 kms , two lanes and we skipped all potential bottlenecks on the way.

The NH7 is an example of what a good highway should be like. Drove at a cautious speed and it was a pleasant ride all the way till the Toll Gate (no rush again).

We stopped for breakfast (yep – left at 8:30 without eating J ) at Sri Krishna Bhavan. I would recommend this stop highly – this is adjacent to an HP petrol bunk and the area also has a Café Coffee Day. The rest rooms are clean. Overall – a good place to stop, eat good food, tank up and continue the journey. The only flip side is that one reaches this point pretty fast (took us an hour from Hosur Road to hit this point and unless (like us) you have skipped b’fast … there really is no need to stop so fast.

We took the turn to Pondicherry at Krishnagiri (a left from NH7 and a right one kilometer down the road onto NH 66) – from here, the road is average – single lane both ways, no dividers and a lot of patch work to cover potholes. The average driving speed drops significantly all the way through to Pondicherry. Additionally – there’s isn’t any good place (at least none that I could see) where we could have stopped for a break. The drive took us through beautiful, unspoilt countryside (it was nice to see clean water bodies close to Gingee with flocks of birds resting … ). We didn’t stop at the fort – it was a pretty majestic site though and I am sure the view from the top would be fantastic.

Tindivanam is a town about 45 kms short of Pondicherry. From here – the highway is being widened to a 4 lane road. It required careful driving since at places there is a sudden change in the level of the road which gives a hard bump to the car if you don’t spot it in time. Also – there are a few diversions (owing to the road construction) so be careful not to go at a very high speed , especially if you are driving at night.

We hit Pondicherry at 3 pm and went straight to the hotel. Pondicherry is a lovely, quaint town and a good place to walk (without risking limb or life). We did the usual touristy things (Auroville, Beach Road, and Shopping) and ate at a few recommended restaurants. These were disappointing (expensive, very average food). The smaller joints near the Beach Road dished out much better stuff.

It took us the same time (6.5 hours) to get back from Pondicherry to Bangalore. It helped that we drove back on the 26th of Jan and there was again no traffic as we entered Bangalore. I missed driving on the elevated road since apparently its only one way (from Hosur Road side to Elec city) …

Safe travels …