Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!

Lightening-Fast · 28th July 2010, 20:11

After a serious attempt to go out for a weekend team outing, things did not materialize at the last moment. So this was our second attempt to get our bags packing and yes, things were looking good this time. Coorg and Banidpur were 2 options that was always on the mind. But then,everyone was longing to go to a beach and Goa seemed quite hectic for a weekend.This is when Pondicherry popped out and the destination Pondi it was!!
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. Plan was to start Friday afternoon and reach Pondi by night.2 nights at our disposal and we would return by Sunday night back to Bangalore.
So the week started off with search for accomodation. We were particular that we stay in a beach resort, but not really the most expensive ones, as we would spend most time outdoors.Called up Kailash Beach resort,Ashok and a few others. St James was running full and after coming up with a matrix of comfort versus price, we settled in for Nalla Eco Beach resort. More details on stay to follow later.Next, how to get there? "No fear when Team-BHP is here!!". Reaching a destination never has been a problem, thanks to fellow Team-BHPians with detailed travelogues and route query details.We planned to take NH7 till Krishnagiri, take a left towards chennai on NH46 and then turn right to take NH66. Stay on NH66 all the way till Pondi and we had planned to take the same route back for our return. But our decision was about to change...

Some Teaser Pics!!

Pondi Beach

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-dsc01102.jpg

Sunset

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-phpfbcohvam.jpg

Rains

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-phpxb24xaam.jpg

More Rains

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-phpvbp1cxam.jpg

kannan666 · 28th July 2010, 23:13

Nice pics for a teaser Lightening-Fast, waiting to see and read more ! Pondicherry is always a fascinating place !

Lightening-Fast · 29th July 2010, 09:02

Thanks Kannan666 for the comments. More details and photos to follow.

sami316 · 29th July 2010, 09:08

Good teaser Lightning,

Looking forward to more pics.

Lightening-Fast · 29th July 2010, 09:12

Thanks Sami316. I guarantee to make good use of my office bandwidth to upload more pics!!

Lightening-Fast · 29th July 2010, 12:03

Tried 6 times to post again. But looks like there is too much load on the server. I am not able to preview or post the log. I dont think i am doing anything wrong, but experts can comment please

Lightening-Fast · 29th July 2010, 12:56

The day arrives: It was Friday and we are starting today for a trip where work will not be discussed, deadlines will not remembered and nirvana from Bangalore traffic. We planned to start after lunch from office.But never short of spirit, we planned to have our lunch at some Dhaba. Winding up our work at 1PM, we started from C.V.Raman Nagar, Bangalore on our maiden team outing.Made our way through traffic to reach R.K Dhaba just after Electronics City at 2.30PM.After a good lunch, it was time to roll on and pick our colleague from Hosur.Started from R.K.Dhaba at 3.30PM and in 10 mins time we were at the Hosur fly over where we picked our colleague and officially starting our outing!!
After picking our colleague at Hosur, it was all go for Pondi! As expected no real problems on NH7. Drive till Krishnagiri was a breeze. Here we took a left onto NH46 onto chennai road and an immediate right to join NH66 for Pondi. The real journey was about to begin now and what a change. We had just stepped into NH66 and we realized that the roads have gone bad. Not sure if it was the monsoons doing the damage, but from my search in Team-BHP, i had expected a bumpy but still drivable good roads. But these were far from that. The initial 30 Kms was a task of navigating around the potholes. Just when you hit a good stretch and by a good stretch, i dont mean anything beyond a Km, you would again come across lot of potholes and no, it was not a surprise!! Fiesta took all of these very well in its stride and we had almost decided within 50 Kms on NH66, that we are not going to take this road for our return journery, considering the fact that it would be dark and could be rainy.
Our next stop was at Tiruvanamali at 6.45PM. What was supposed to be a quick Tea/Coffee break got pushed to finger licking snack break with Idli/Dosas/Ghee roasts between us. I am always told by TN colleagues about the food and the effort that goes into making a real good meal. And everytime i answer my taste buds, i cant deny that TN food is actually very good. Never short of spirit and Never short of a good apetite!! Time to move on, 7.15PM we resume our journey and we decided to drive all the way to our resort without any breaks. Roads slightly improved after Tindivanam and there is 4 laning going on till Pondi. Diversions are very poorly marked and caution is advised during night driving. We did not have to enter Pondi city but take a left on NH66 which directly leads to ECR. 3 kms from this point and we finally landed at Nalla Eco Beach Resort.

More details to follow.....

NH7, the beauty

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-nh.jpg

Ford Fiesta, the beast

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-car.jpg

Beach View from resort

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-beach.jpg

Play Sudoku while you eat

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-dsc03653.jpg

Flowers in the rain

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-flower.jpg

arindamray · 29th July 2010, 13:10

We were also at Pondicherry at the same time, I guess

Lightening-Fast · 29th July 2010, 13:56

Arindamray, we were there on 16,17 and 18th of this month.

ampere · 29th July 2010, 13:59

Good! Place of all seasons! Sunshine, sunset, rains and...
Lets see Pondicherry on the double! (Two TLs on the road!)

MX6 · 29th July 2010, 14:26

Anjappar is one of the best in Chettinad cuisine. Famed for the non veg dishes.
There's an Anjappar in Singapore as well!

arindamray · 29th July 2010, 14:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lightening-Fast

Arindamray, we were there on 16,17 and 18th of this month.

stand corrected, we were there last week-end.

Lightening-Fast · 29th July 2010, 14:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by MX6

Anjappar is one of the best in Chettinad cuisine. Famed for the non veg dishes.
There's an Anjappar in Singapore as well!

Thats true MX6. Anjappar was recommended by everyone there and was almost an unanimous choice. But i am a pure Veggie and veggie meal tasted great too

Lightening-Fast · 29th July 2010, 15:16

About the resort: After lot of research and speaking to different resorts, we had arrived on this one. Not to mention, this one gave us the best price possible. We paid 4500/night for a AC room and big enough to easily accomodate 4 people. This price also included complimentary breakfast. Food was good and served hot. It was a triple room with an additonal bed. Beach is just 200 mts away and almost a private beach as the only human habitation you see on this beach are the people from the resort and fishermen. Its quite safe as well. We visited the beach at 1.00 in the morning and its a differnt experience to have the beach all for yourselves and hear the waves making a splash. Almost half the resort was empty on Friday night and on Saturday night, it was running completely full, thanks to the crowd that drops in from Chennai for the weekend. Rooms are neat and tidy.However, house keeping staff could take better care of the resort. Was able to see some water logging after heavy rains during our stay.

Location: Its on ECR road and those of you familiar with St James Resort, this one is further ahead on the right while going to Chennai from Pondi. It is quite close to Auroville and Pondi City. There isnt a great deal of traffic in Pondi, so navigating in your 4 wheeler isnt really a problem.Not all rooms are beach facing. So if you plan to visit the resort, remember to ask for a beach facing room and on the first floor. If its a off peak season like the month of July, bargain to get a good deal.

Last set of pics and details to follow soon..

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-resort.jpg

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-dsc03655.jpg

Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry!-dsc03663.jpg

MX6 · 29th July 2010, 18:47

I'm a pure veggie too lightening. And Anjappar is really good. But the non-veg stuff is even better in Anjappar. That's from some good foodie friends I have!

28th July 2010, 20:11	#1
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 252 Thanked: 17 Times	Team Outing: Weekend at Pondicherry! After a serious attempt to go out for a weekend team outing, things did not materialize at the last moment. So this was our second attempt to get our bags packing and yes, things were looking good this time. Coorg and Banidpur were 2 options that was always on the mind. But then,everyone was longing to go to a beach and Goa seemed quite hectic for a weekend.This is when Pondicherry popped out and the destination Pondi it was!! 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. Plan was to start Friday afternoon and reach Pondi by night.2 nights at our disposal and we would return by Sunday night back to Bangalore. So the week started off with search for accomodation. We were particular that we stay in a beach resort, but not really the most expensive ones, as we would spend most time outdoors.Called up Kailash Beach resort,Ashok and a few others. St James was running full and after coming up with a matrix of comfort versus price, we settled in for Nalla Eco Beach resort. More details on stay to follow later.Next, how to get there? "No fear when Team-BHP is here!!". Reaching a destination never has been a problem, thanks to fellow Team-BHPians with detailed travelogues and route query details.We planned to take NH7 till Krishnagiri, take a left towards chennai on NH46 and then turn right to take NH66. Stay on NH66 all the way till Pondi and we had planned to take the same route back for our return. But our decision was about to change... Some Teaser Pics!! Pondi Beach Sunset Rains More Rains
	() Thanks

28th July 2010, 23:13	#2
kannan666 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: KA-02 Posts: 1,003 Thanked: 134 Times View My Garage	Nice pics for a teaser Lightening-Fast, waiting to see and read more ! Pondicherry is always a fascinating place !
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 09:02	#3
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 252 Thanked: 17 Times	Thanks Kannan666 for the comments. More details and photos to follow.
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 09:08	#4
sami316 BHPian Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 486 Thanked: 45 Times View My Garage	Good teaser Lightning, Looking forward to more pics.
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 09:12	#5
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 252 Thanked: 17 Times	Thanks Sami316. I guarantee to make good use of my office bandwidth to upload more pics!!
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 12:03	#6
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 252 Thanked: 17 Times	Tried 6 times to post again. But looks like there is too much load on the server. I am not able to preview or post the log. I dont think i am doing anything wrong, but experts can comment please
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 12:56	#7
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 252 Thanked: 17 Times	Continued.. The day arrives: It was Friday and we are starting today for a trip where work will not be discussed, deadlines will not remembered and nirvana from Bangalore traffic. We planned to start after lunch from office.But never short of spirit, we planned to have our lunch at some Dhaba. Winding up our work at 1PM, we started from C.V.Raman Nagar, Bangalore on our maiden team outing.Made our way through traffic to reach R.K Dhaba just after Electronics City at 2.30PM.After a good lunch, it was time to roll on and pick our colleague from Hosur.Started from R.K.Dhaba at 3.30PM and in 10 mins time we were at the Hosur fly over where we picked our colleague and officially starting our outing!! After picking our colleague at Hosur, it was all go for Pondi! As expected no real problems on NH7. Drive till Krishnagiri was a breeze. Here we took a left onto NH46 onto chennai road and an immediate right to join NH66 for Pondi. The real journey was about to begin now and what a change. We had just stepped into NH66 and we realized that the roads have gone bad. Not sure if it was the monsoons doing the damage, but from my search in Team-BHP, i had expected a bumpy but still drivable good roads. But these were far from that. The initial 30 Kms was a task of navigating around the potholes. Just when you hit a good stretch and by a good stretch, i dont mean anything beyond a Km, you would again come across lot of potholes and no, it was not a surprise!! Fiesta took all of these very well in its stride and we had almost decided within 50 Kms on NH66, that we are not going to take this road for our return journery, considering the fact that it would be dark and could be rainy. Our next stop was at Tiruvanamali at 6.45PM. What was supposed to be a quick Tea/Coffee break got pushed to finger licking snack break with Idli/Dosas/Ghee roasts between us. I am always told by TN colleagues about the food and the effort that goes into making a real good meal. And everytime i answer my taste buds, i cant deny that TN food is actually very good. Never short of spirit and Never short of a good apetite!! Time to move on, 7.15PM we resume our journey and we decided to drive all the way to our resort without any breaks. Roads slightly improved after Tindivanam and there is 4 laning going on till Pondi. Diversions are very poorly marked and caution is advised during night driving. We did not have to enter Pondi city but take a left on NH66 which directly leads to ECR. 3 kms from this point and we finally landed at Nalla Eco Beach Resort. More details to follow..... NH7, the beauty Ford Fiesta, the beast Beach View from resort Play Sudoku while you eat Flowers in the rain
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 13:10	#8
arindamray BHPian Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Bangalore Posts: 750 Thanked: 98 Times	We were also at Pondicherry at the same time, I guess
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 13:56	#9
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 252 Thanked: 17 Times	Arindamray, we were there on 16,17 and 18th of this month.
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 13:59	#10
ampere Team-BHP Support Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Bangalore Posts: 18,343 Thanked: 13,649 Times View My Garage	Good! Place of all seasons! Sunshine, sunset, rains and... Lets see Pondicherry on the double! (Two TLs on the road!)
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 14:26	#11
MX6 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: City of seven islands. Posts: 2,878 Thanked: 235 Times	Anjappar is one of the best in Chettinad cuisine. Famed for the non veg dishes. There's an Anjappar in Singapore as well!
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 15:16	#14
Lightening-Fast BHPian Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Bangalore Posts: 252 Thanked: 17 Times	Continued.. About the resort: After lot of research and speaking to different resorts, we had arrived on this one. Not to mention, this one gave us the best price possible. We paid 4500/night for a AC room and big enough to easily accomodate 4 people. This price also included complimentary breakfast. Food was good and served hot. It was a triple room with an additonal bed. Beach is just 200 mts away and almost a private beach as the only human habitation you see on this beach are the people from the resort and fishermen. Its quite safe as well. We visited the beach at 1.00 in the morning and its a differnt experience to have the beach all for yourselves and hear the waves making a splash. Almost half the resort was empty on Friday night and on Saturday night, it was running completely full, thanks to the crowd that drops in from Chennai for the weekend. Rooms are neat and tidy.However, house keeping staff could take better care of the resort. Was able to see some water logging after heavy rains during our stay. Location: Its on ECR road and those of you familiar with St James Resort, this one is further ahead on the right while going to Chennai from Pondi. It is quite close to Auroville and Pondi City. There isnt a great deal of traffic in Pondi, so navigating in your 4 wheeler isnt really a problem.Not all rooms are beach facing. So if you plan to visit the resort, remember to ask for a beach facing room and on the first floor. If its a off peak season like the month of July, bargain to get a good deal. Last set of pics and details to follow soon..
	() Thanks

29th July 2010, 18:47	#15
MX6 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: City of seven islands. Posts: 2,878 Thanked: 235 Times	I'm a pure veggie too lightening. And Anjappar is really good. But the non-veg stuff is even better in Anjappar. That's from some good foodie friends I have!
	() Thanks