Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!

Lightening-Fast · 29th July 2010, 19:27

Totally agree with you MX6. Same sentiments here from my foodie friends too

Lightening-Fast · 29th July 2010, 19:52

Next morning, after breakfast, we had a quick chat with the person at the reception who helped us with managing our time for the next 2 days. Its not a place where you can visit dozens of places. There is Auroville and then there is the Beach. Its a typical weekend hangout destination. And so we headed towards Auroville. Its a huge campus and very well maintained. If you want to visit the concentration centre in Auroville, you need to have prior booking. So we did decided not to and just hung around the place for about an hour. Weather in Pondi was humid, but since sun was playing hide and seek, it gave us some respite from the heat. Nalla Beach resort has another property called Nalla Farm house on NH66 and use of swimming pool here is complimentary for anyone who has a booking with Beach resort. So time to splash the pool and relax in water. Not the best of pools to mention, but at the bargain, its a fair deal. With more and more calories burning out with each swimming stroke, we decided we were missing something. LUNCH!!! Yes lunch time and we headed to Pondi city to explore some traditional and typical TN food. After wandering for about 30 mins, we did have a heavy lunch at the restaurant and headed back to our hotel. This is when the skies opened up. It was as if it was waiting for us to reach our hotel. It rained and rained cats and dogs for 2 hours. With beach in the background, rains with lush green sorroundings was great to watch and i made a humble attempt to capture the same in the lense.Once the rain had stopped, we decided to venture out. We went to the beach and spent about an hour walking around and watching the waves. Evenings are when you would spot few people on the beach which otherwise mostly looked deserted. We spent rest of the evening hanging around in Pondi City and finally had our dinner to bid goodbye to the first day of Pondi.
Come sunday morning and we decided to head to the much hyped or overhyped i must say to the Pondi market. We were briefed that you would find anything under the sun in this market and at throw away prices. And when we finally went there, it was nothing short of "Majestic market". For the benefit of people who are not from Bangalore, what i am refering here is any other market weekly market in most indian towns and cities. So no shopping in Pondi!! Thats not bad news after all!!There were 2 more items in the itinerary. Hanuman and Kali temple. Hanuman temple is situated on the L.H.S on NH66 while approaching Pondi. Its a huge statue and quite a nice temple and also a famous one.Kali temple is not located in any of the main roads. We had to navigate our way to temple with the help of locals and by that time, it was lunch time. A good lunch was important for our long journey back home. So we had a buffet lunch at one of the better hotels in Pondi called Anand Inn. Lunch was Rs.350, but worth it. Back to resort and since it was a 24 hour checkout, we were able to check out at 4PM in the evening. As decided, we took the ECR road till Mahabalipuram. Its not a 4 lane. But you can still maintain speeds of 100KMPH+ on this road and we had made the right decision not to take NH66 for the return.We just had one Tea/coffee break and no, this time it did not turn into a snack break!! Till Kanchipuram, drive was quite cautious after which NH46 4 lane gives you the liberty to clock 100KMPH+ speeds. We wanted to reach Bangalore at the earliest as everyone had to come back to office the next day. Barring the jam because of pile up of trucks at Hosur border, the return journey was pretty eventless, thankfully so!! We were back in C.V.Raman Nagar at 12.15 in the night and that was the end of the long due team outing.

Auroville

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-dsc01116.jpg

Pondi Beach

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-dsc01103.jpg

Great Banyan tree, epicentre of Auroville

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-dsc01114.jpg

Roads leading to Auroville

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-dsc03573.jpg

And finally, more flowers!!

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-dsc01109.jpg

Overall Scorecard: Distance travelled: 920 Kms, , Happy Individuals: 4, Toll fee: > 300, Beaches visited: Many, Potholes navigated: Countless!!
Till next travelogue, drive safe everyone

swiftnfurious · 29th July 2010, 20:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lightening-Fast

We were 4 guys and we had 4 cars to choose from. Spark, Beat and Wagon-R paved the way for 1.6 Diesel Ford Fiesta and we did realize later that it was such a wise decision to get the beast along with us.

I believe Fiesta has a 1.4 Diesel engine

By the way good pics -- Nice to see its raining too. this would have helped to keep the heat under control right?

We are also planning to go to Pondy the coming week. I heard there is another route to go to Pondy.

Take the second right after you get into Chennai route from krishnagiri [ You guys took the first right to reach Tiruvannamalai] I heard the road after second right is too good ! Anybody have any insights into this? If so, details also

Lightening-Fast · 29th July 2010, 20:44

Thanks for the comments swiftnfurious. Fiesta is a 1.6Diesel and it helped a lot to take the potholes on NH66. After you reach krishnagiri, you take a left to get onto NH46 that takes you to chennai. If you take the right that i mentioned, you will get to Pondi via NH66 and the roads are in bad condition. Instead stick to NH46, drive to Kanchipuram and take the ECR to Pondi. This is a much better drive, the one we took on our return and should be an extra 90kms

swiftnfurious · 29th July 2010, 20:58

Thanks lightning_Fast!

The Kancheepuram road is completely good [no potholes] or do we need to be careful at some points which is comparatively bad?

The extra kilometers would not be a problem if the roads are good.

The better roads will ensure a better / equal timing to reach the destination, better FE, lesser maintenance for the car and the individuals in the car as well.

Lightening-Fast · 29th July 2010, 21:29

Swiftnfurious, roads till kanchipuram is a breeze. No potholes or surprise speedbreakers. Can easily do >100KMPH speeds. Roads after that are still good. But expect speed breakers and its not a four lane.

Joy · 29th July 2010, 21:45

Nice travelogue and great pics. You people down south has quite a variety of weekend destinations.

If you have some more pics, do post it. It's lovely.

SafeDrive · 29th July 2010, 22:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Nice to see its raining too. this would have helped to keep the heat under control right?

Forget Pondi, it's right now raining cats and dog in Chennai - something unheard off

Lightening-Fast · 30th July 2010, 09:47

@Joy: Thanks for the comments. Yes, people down south do have plenty of options when it comes to weekends. Travel 400 Kms and you would find a beach, a hill station, a religious temple, a jungle resort and so on

Welcome South Joy!!

@SafeDrive: Yup, looks like the real monsoons are here. It rained damn heavy last evening in Bangalore as well and traffic went haywire. As for Pondi, rains did keep the heat down though pretty humid when the sun was out. Night temp was cool, thanks to the sea breeze

Milestone · 31st July 2010, 21:39

Nice pics indeed Lightening-Fast, hope you enjoyed to the fullest. During my trip to Pondy last year, Pondy Festival was going on, the entire beach road was decorated with lights and looked simply superb. I would recommend a visit to French colony

, nice place to pass time and you will find some beautiful houses in French style.

Cheers ...

ampere · 1st August 2010, 07:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lightening-Fast

Thanks for the comments swiftnfurious. Fiesta is a 1.6Diesel and it helped a lot to take the potholes on NH66.

Where did that come from? I always thought Fiesta Diesel was always 1.4D TDCI and petrol was 1.6L.

sami316 · 1st August 2010, 12:05

Hi Lightening fast,
Loved the pics. Have visited Pondi 3ice but yet to go into the Goldeb Ball in Auroville.

Lightening-Fast · 1st August 2010, 12:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milestone

Nice pics indeed Lightening-Fast, hope you enjoyed to the fullest. During my trip to Pondy last year, Pondy Festival was going on, the entire beach road was decorated with lights and looked simply superb. I would recommend a visit to French colony

, nice place to pass time and you will find some beautiful houses in French style.

Cheers ...

Thanks Milestone. We did enjoy our trip to the fullest. We did not try to pack in too many things at the same time. So we did things at our own pace. Missed the french colony this time. On my mandatory list for the next time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ampere

Where did that come from? I always thought Fiesta Diesel was always 1.4D TDCI and petrol was 1.6L.

You are right ampere. My bad, Diesel is 1.4L.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sami316

Hi Lightening fast,
Loved the pics. Have visited Pondi 3ice but yet to go into the Goldeb Ball in Auroville.

Thanks Sami316. This was my first visit, but i would love to visit the place again, but definitely not in the summers. Auroville is a good place to visit. Its a very well maintained campus and something anyone would recommend you to visit in Pondi

swiftnfurious · 4th August 2010, 19:08

hey Lightning_Fast,

Could you tell me whether the below one is the same route which you took on your return journey?

I am very familiar with the Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri route. So I have given the route from Krishnagiri till Pondy.

If you could give me a better point to point coverage on the route, will be great.

Route I

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-blr_pondy.jpg

Route II [thru Mahabalipuram]

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-blr_pondy_ii.jpg

arindamray · 4th August 2010, 19:43

Going by his description he took some mofidification of route I, at Tindivanam he took NH 45.

But IMHO, the route II with slight modification will be better - good roads for most of the time. Don't take left from Tirukalundram, continue on SH58, you will hit ECR further down, take right and continue to Pondicherry (unless you want to cover Mahabalipuram).

You may refer to my travelogues for Mahablipuram and Pondicherry details, also some info on the road.

29th July 2010, 19:27	#16
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 251 Thanked: 11 Times	Totally agree with you MX6. Same sentiments here from my foodie friends too
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 19:52	#17
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 251 Thanked: 11 Times	And the last part Next morning, after breakfast, we had a quick chat with the person at the reception who helped us with managing our time for the next 2 days. Its not a place where you can visit dozens of places. There is Auroville and then there is the Beach. Its a typical weekend hangout destination. And so we headed towards Auroville. Its a huge campus and very well maintained. If you want to visit the concentration centre in Auroville, you need to have prior booking. So we did decided not to and just hung around the place for about an hour. Weather in Pondi was humid, but since sun was playing hide and seek, it gave us some respite from the heat. Nalla Beach resort has another property called Nalla Farm house on NH66 and use of swimming pool here is complimentary for anyone who has a booking with Beach resort. So time to splash the pool and relax in water. Not the best of pools to mention, but at the bargain, its a fair deal. With more and more calories burning out with each swimming stroke, we decided we were missing something. LUNCH!!! Yes lunch time and we headed to Pondi city to explore some traditional and typical TN food. After wandering for about 30 mins, we did have a heavy lunch at the restaurant and headed back to our hotel. This is when the skies opened up. It was as if it was waiting for us to reach our hotel. It rained and rained cats and dogs for 2 hours. With beach in the background, rains with lush green sorroundings was great to watch and i made a humble attempt to capture the same in the lense.Once the rain had stopped, we decided to venture out. We went to the beach and spent about an hour walking around and watching the waves. Evenings are when you would spot few people on the beach which otherwise mostly looked deserted. We spent rest of the evening hanging around in Pondi City and finally had our dinner to bid goodbye to the first day of Pondi. Come sunday morning and we decided to head to the much hyped or overhyped i must say to the Pondi market. We were briefed that you would find anything under the sun in this market and at throw away prices. And when we finally went there, it was nothing short of "Majestic market". For the benefit of people who are not from Bangalore, what i am refering here is any other market weekly market in most indian towns and cities. So no shopping in Pondi!! Thats not bad news after all!!There were 2 more items in the itinerary. Hanuman and Kali temple. Hanuman temple is situated on the L.H.S on NH66 while approaching Pondi. Its a huge statue and quite a nice temple and also a famous one.Kali temple is not located in any of the main roads. We had to navigate our way to temple with the help of locals and by that time, it was lunch time. A good lunch was important for our long journey back home. So we had a buffet lunch at one of the better hotels in Pondi called Anand Inn. Lunch was Rs.350, but worth it. Back to resort and since it was a 24 hour checkout, we were able to check out at 4PM in the evening. As decided, we took the ECR road till Mahabalipuram. Its not a 4 lane. But you can still maintain speeds of 100KMPH+ on this road and we had made the right decision not to take NH66 for the return.We just had one Tea/coffee break and no, this time it did not turn into a snack break!! Till Kanchipuram, drive was quite cautious after which NH46 4 lane gives you the liberty to clock 100KMPH+ speeds. We wanted to reach Bangalore at the earliest as everyone had to come back to office the next day. Barring the jam because of pile up of trucks at Hosur border, the return journey was pretty eventless, thankfully so!! We were back in C.V.Raman Nagar at 12.15 in the night and that was the end of the long due team outing. Auroville Pondi Beach Great Banyan tree, epicentre of Auroville Roads leading to Auroville And finally, more flowers!! Overall Scorecard: Distance travelled: 920 Kms, , Happy Individuals: 4, Toll fee: > 300, Beaches visited: Many, Potholes navigated: Countless!! Till next travelogue, drive safe everyone
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 20:44	#19
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 251 Thanked: 11 Times	Thanks for the comments swiftnfurious. Fiesta is a 1.6Diesel and it helped a lot to take the potholes on NH66. After you reach krishnagiri, you take a left to get onto NH46 that takes you to chennai. If you take the right that i mentioned, you will get to Pondi via NH66 and the roads are in bad condition. Instead stick to NH46, drive to Kanchipuram and take the ECR to Pondi. This is a much better drive, the one we took on our return and should be an extra 90kms
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 20:58	#20
swiftnfurious Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Chennai Posts: 7,204 Thanked: 9,663 Times	Thanks lightning_Fast! The Kancheepuram road is completely good [no potholes] or do we need to be careful at some points which is comparatively bad? The extra kilometers would not be a problem if the roads are good. The better roads will ensure a better / equal timing to reach the destination, better FE, lesser maintenance for the car and the individuals in the car as well.
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 21:29	#21
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 251 Thanked: 11 Times	Swiftnfurious, roads till kanchipuram is a breeze. No potholes or surprise speedbreakers. Can easily do >100KMPH speeds. Roads after that are still good. But expect speed breakers and its not a four lane.
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 21:45	#22
Joy BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Kolkata Posts: 305 Thanked: 25 Times	Nice travelogue and great pics. You people down south has quite a variety of weekend destinations. If you have some more pics, do post it. It's lovely.
	() Thanks

30th July 2010, 09:47	#24
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 251 Thanked: 11 Times	@Joy: Thanks for the comments. Yes, people down south do have plenty of options when it comes to weekends. Travel 400 Kms and you would find a beach, a hill station, a religious temple, a jungle resort and so on Welcome South Joy!! @SafeDrive: Yup, looks like the real monsoons are here. It rained damn heavy last evening in Bangalore as well and traffic went haywire. As for Pondi, rains did keep the heat down though pretty humid when the sun was out. Night temp was cool, thanks to the sea breeze
	() Thanks

31st July 2010, 21:39	#25
Milestone BHPian Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Bang Bang !!! Posts: 103 Thanked: 27 Times	Nice pics indeed Lightening-Fast, hope you enjoyed to the fullest. During my trip to Pondy last year, Pondy Festival was going on, the entire beach road was decorated with lights and looked simply superb. I would recommend a visit to French colony , nice place to pass time and you will find some beautiful houses in French style. Cheers ...
	() Thanks

1st August 2010, 12:05	#27
sami316 BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 484 Thanked: 45 Times View My Garage	Hi Lightening fast, Loved the pics. Have visited Pondi 3ice but yet to go into the Goldeb Ball in Auroville.
	() Thanks

4th August 2010, 19:08	#29
swiftnfurious Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Chennai Posts: 7,204 Thanked: 9,663 Times	BLR - KANCHIPURAM - PONDY Route hey Lightning_Fast, Could you tell me whether the below one is the same route which you took on your return journey? I am very familiar with the Bangalore - Hosur - Krishnagiri route. So I have given the route from Krishnagiri till Pondy. If you could give me a better point to point coverage on the route, will be great. Route I Route II [thru *Mahabalipuram] Last edited by swiftnfurious : 4th August 2010 at 19:16.*
	() Thanks

4th August 2010, 19:43	#30
arindamray BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 750 Thanked: 91 Times	Going by his description he took some mofidification of route I, at Tindivanam he took NH 45. But IMHO, the route II with slight modification will be better - good roads for most of the time. Don't take left from Tirukalundram, continue on SH58, you will hit ECR further down, take right and continue to Pondicherry (unless you want to cover Mahabalipuram). You may refer to my travelogues for Mahablipuram and Pondicherry details, also some info on the road. Last edited by arindamray : 4th August 2010 at 19:45.
	() Thanks