[wanderernomad]

Thought about going away from the maddening crowd for the new years eve. Destination Havelock. But since the family had never been on the ECR and Chennai decided to include these places as well. The final itinerary was as follows.
Dec 25 Arrival in Chennai.
Dec 27 Depart for Pondicherry
Dec 28 Visit Pichawaram ( heard about it on this forum a lot)
Dec 29 Chennai
Dec 30 Portblair
Dec 31 Havelock
Jan 02 Chidiya Tapu, Naval and Coast Guard jetty for jetski and sailing
Jan 03 Bamboo Flats, Mount Harriet
Jan 04 Jolly Buoy Mahatma Ghandhi Marine Park
Jan 05 Bartang
Jan 07 Delhi.

Before I write here are a few teasers.

[rk_sans]

Good teasers to start Vikram. Waiting for the full travelogue.

[wanderernomad]

Thanks. I will not write the entire story of how I boarded the plane, the saaree the air hostess wore but limit it to the bare essentials and let the pictures do the talking. I would put in information about the places to see and the way to go about them. What can be missed, while what is an absolute essential. Talking about essentials, the reason we choose A&N was to see this...

[arvi86]

Nice teasers there. The second picture is absolutely brilliant. Bring the full set on! Waiting for it.

[lordofgondor]

A travelogue on sea & sands from a mountain goat! This is gonna be interesting for sure. The first pic reminds me of "Lost" albeit on a small island. Bring it on mate, eagerly waiting for the continuation.

[wanderernomad]

This time the the KIDS wanted sun and sand and not the morbid fog and snow of the hills. The day at Delhi started with the typical morning fog which delayed the flight by almost 45 minutes. Thank god! another family friends who were travelling to Cochin got delayed by 5 hours! The driver dropped us off at the new T3 terminal and what a revelation. We have surely come of age as a proud nation. The check in was not a breeze, as was expected, courtesy the ever efficient Indian Airlines staff. The poor chap could not for the life of him figure out how to issue a boarding pass for an infant. After numerous tries, some criticism from the passengers waiting for an eternity and the final ultimatum from me that if my infant becomes child while waiting I am not paying the extra fare, finally got the boarding card. The terminal is swanky and well built, how long will the lustre lasts remains to be seen. The flight in itself was uneventful and we reached Chennai where we were received by a friend who took us to our guest house. The change from the soggy Delhi morning to the hot sultry afternoon was like the difference between Wahida Rehman in Chaudhwheen ka chand and Mallika Sehrawat in Murder.

[dre@ms]

Haha..nice teasers and a review on your experience in T3. Go ahead, we are waiting.

[Swanand Inamdar]

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

The change from the soggy Delhi morning to the hot sultry afternoon was like the difference between Wahida Rehman in Chaudhwheen ka chand and Mallika Sehrawat in Murder.

What a superb way to describe the change in climate!

Superb teasers till now. Please continue.
Ill be keeping a close tab on this TL. Planning to do the A&N Islands next month. So some pointers from you would be highly appreciated.

[wanderernomad]

Thanks guys. Here are the pictures. The T3 terminal, Crocodile park and the shore temple at Mamallapuram. At the crocodile park there is a very interesting small window which lets you open it and see the most dangerous animal on the earth. Any guesses?

[wanderernomad]

Can some one tell me how to put narration and picture together so that I dont have to post pictures in bulk and the narration separately.
This set has pictures from Pondicherry, Pichawaram and Natraj temple Chidambaram.

[wanderernomad]

The natraj Temple was seen only from outside as the temple was closed and due to open only after 1600 (?) hrs and I had to drive back to Chennai.

[wanderernomad]

The first thing about Chennai I noticed was that the traffic has become even worse than what it was when I was there a few years back. A friend had lent me his Santro for the trip to Pondicherry. The ECR was a pleasure to drive on except that the Chennai has grown on the outskirts but the road capacity has not kept pace with the growth story.

The Crocodile park was a new experience as I ahve never seen so many of these in one single place. Its enough to send a shiver down your spine. Learnt that the Salt Water Crocodile is also the most dangerous and the biggest of all Crocs. You cannot imagine that these beasts are fast and furious by looking at them basking in the sun lazily.

The Mamallapuram stay was hot and uncomfortable. The sun was beating down relentlessly and added to this chaos was the fact that the Santro AC was almost non existent. The road upto the temple was choc a block with traffic and the local SUMOs were well..aptly living upto their name.Had lunch at the Hotel by the fork in the road. Forgot the name now. Limited menu, horrible service, extra spicy were the main attractions. The place was crowded too. Its the place bang in the middle of the fork at the turn off where one road leads to the city while the other curves right onto Pondi.

The drive in itself was nice and relaxing. Pondi was a diverse city and locating the State GH was a bit troublesome despite it being bang on the road. The rooms were big but just about OK in amenities. We got ourselves a VIP suite. The distinction being an extra room with a dinning table useless as they didnot have messing facilities. We went to the french quarters and strolled along the Marine Drive. The kids were disappointed by the rocky coast line and made their displeasure known in no uncertain terms. I was running low on cash since I ahve this tendency to let the money rot in my account than get blown in my pocket and wife lets her money rest safely in her purse, which was left in the guest room to shake off the fatigue of the grueling drive from Chennai. 4 ATM's that I tried were simply not obliging enough. Ordered snacks at the French sounding coffee house on the marine drive like a king. When it was time to call for the check did the reality dawn that we might be short of cash. Anyway we had a good laugh and called for the check. It came to something about 519 Rs, got all my pockets emptied and came out a winner. I had exactly Rs 520, someone was going to be very disappointed on missing a tip.