Distance from Bangalore: Around 400 kms
Route: Bangalore – Hosakote – Mulbagal – Chittoor – Ranipettai – Walajpet – Kancheepuram – Chengalpattu – Tindivanam – Pondicherry

I and my husband decided to visit Pondicherry over the long Bakrid-Christmas weekend. Now if I look back, we couldn’t have chosen a worse time than this.

It was Christmas eve and the looming New Year’s eve. Add to that a visit by our honorable President and you have all the ingredients to ruin your holiday plans. Tight security within the city and waiting time at every tourist place we decided to visit got us so fed up, we cut short our trip by two days. Next time, I am going to look at all our political leaders’ diaries before making a holiday plan.

Getting back to the trip, after a lot of discussions and arguments, we settled on the route given above. Even though this was the longest possible route, we decided to take it. Our route included NH4, NH45 and NH66 and this was reason enough for my husband to choose this route. And he was right – it was the best drive we have had so far. The roads were wide, smooth and very scenic. Apart from the few kilometres of potholes ridden road around Ranipettai, the drive was exceptionally smooth. We were surprised to see very less traffic on the road.

Day 1

We started from Bangalore at 5 and were out of Bangalore before daybreak. A hot cup of tea on the way and the next stop for breakfast was near Chittoor. With a comfortable four and a half hours drive behind us, we hogged the hot idli and sambhar that the lady

served. After a heavy breakfast, we set off again on NH4. Apart from a few pit stops to exchange driver’s seat and to answer nature calls, we didn’t stop anywhere. Around 50-60 kilometers before Kancheepuram, the road turned into a wide four lane one. We could reach even 100 in our Alto and envied all the more luxurious cars that were zipping ahead of us. We had to bid good-bye to this heavenly road and turn right to go to Kancheepuram. We had to do a

town darshan to get onto the road which connects to Chengalpattu, where we stopped over to have lunch. We found a good restaurant, Shri Ramakrishna Cafe in Chengalpattu. Food was awesome and service was excellent. We were so impressed with the waiter, we offered a tip and he promptly refused. Do visit this hotel if you want to have a good masala dosa or idli.

We finally reached Pondicherry around 2.45. Right from Tindivanam, which is around 35 kms from Pondicherry, we could spot a policeman every 100 metres. We actually thought there was major disturbance in the city, but later realized this is all for Ms. President. After reaching Pondicherry, our ordeal began. We entered a street only to be caught by the police saying we entered a one-way street. There was no no-entry sign in sight and moreover, we were being led by the hotel guy. After haggling for half an hour, we were let off with a stern warning. No money, can you imagine, the policeman didn’t take any money!

The first thing

that gets you is the traffic. People don’t use horns – they know nobody gives a hoot about it. Even if you honk, it doesn’t matter to them – they just go on as if nothing happened. No sense of lanes, no indicators, they only stop if they are sure they are going to hit someone if they don’t stop. I thought Bangalore traffic was bad – but nothing can be worse than Pondy’s traffic.

A quick nap and we were ready to explore the city. We stayed at Anandham Residency and since we were told it is quite close to Beach Road, we decided to walk. We walked along Nehru street and it reminded me of Lakshmi Bagh of Pune. Shops on either side of the street, small restaurants, chaat shops, kulfi stalls and the whole street was lit up. There were quite a few shops selling hanging lamps (see picture) for Christmas and New Year and this increased the glitter on the street. It was a sight to watch.

Beach Road

After a long, winding walk (restricted entry on certain roads since Raj Bhavan is near Beach Road), we finally got to see the beach. There is a wide promenade where you can spot localites taking their routine walks and tourists mesmerized by the beach.

They have laden rocks all along the beach to prevent water entering into the city. The white, gigantic waves, the black rocks, a strong wind and a full moon in the sky – perfect place to sit and while away. All our attempts of capturing this magical moment went in vain; our camera was not good enough. With these beautiful images in our eyes and the sound of the roaring sea in our ears, we ended our first day in Pondicherry.

Day 2

Owing to the bad experience of the previous day, and anticipating President saahiba to visit important places within the city, we decided to visit places on the outskirts of Pondicherry. Our first place of visit was Saneeswara temple.

Saneeswara temple

This temple is around 7 kms from Pondicherry. Proceed on Pondicherry-Tindivanam road (NH45a) and take a right on one of the mud roads (sorry, no landmarks available. We kept on asking people every 100 metres). The idol of God Sani is 23 feet tall and is intimidating. This temple also has navagrahas – all idols are around 10 feet high. This place is not well known and hence is not commercialized.

Panchavatee temple

Our next stop was at Panchavatee, temple of panchamukha Anjaneya. This temple is on Pondicherry-Tindivanam road (NH45a) and is around 9 kms from Pondicherry. It is easily spottable from the main road. The Anjaneya idol is 36 feet and is beautiful, to say the least. Even this temple is not commercialized. A bhajan was playing in the background and all the people were sitting and peacefully meditating – a rare sight.

Continuing our pilgrimage, we decided to visit Auroville. Much to our chagrin, President decided to visit the same place at the same time and we were asked to wait for 3 hours to visit the place. We refused to wait came back to the town. We went back to Beach Road and had a light lunch at Le Cafe.

Chunnambar Backwaters

We were desperate to get our feet wet in the sea water, so we decided to go to the much talked about Chunnambar Backwaters. It is on Cuddalore road, around 8 kms from Pondicherry. This offers boating and water sports on the backwaters.

Aurobindo Ashram

Back to the town and visited Aurobindo Ashram. The atmosphere was peaceful and quiet. The members (people staying at the Ashram) were meditating and the visitors had to be constantly reminded to maintain silence. Tourists do not value the serenity of this place and they are a nuisance. The Ashram should ban visitors. Serious visitors will prefer to stay at the Ashram anyway. The Ashram has a small bookshop, where you will find books in English, Hindi, Marathi, German, French and Spanish. People can buy photogrpahs of Sri Aurobindo and Mother.

Serenity Beach

Serenity beach was on our must-visit place. We almost gave up after nobody could tell us where exactly this was. Our source only said it is around 1.5 kms from Pondicherry, but didn’t say anything about in which direction it is situated. We finally found a person in the post office (in front of the Ashram) who knew where it was. This beach is on ECR road, further ahead of Pondicherry university and is closer to a small place called Mudaliyar Chavadi. As we left Pondicherry behind, we could spot the sea shore on our right hand side. We finally reached the beach and had a great time there. Not many people around and we had the whole beach to ourselves. We played in the water till we were completely drenched and started shivering. Back to the hotel and had a nice bath to get rid of the sand!

Thus ended our last day in Pondicherry.

Day 3

We bid adieu to Pondicherry at 7 and took the same route back. We were back at home by 5. On the way back, we had lunch in Hotel Green Park, near Palamner. We had Andhra meals and it was the best Andhra meal I have ever had. Do stop at this restaurant if you want to enjoy Andhra cuisine. The hotel guy was kind enough to inform us that we can call him and ask to prepare a meal for us at any odd time. The phone number is at the end of this post.

We were lucky we came back early. I heard the situation was even worse the next day. There was a traffic jam inside the city. Now if I look back, I am not very happy with the trip. We didn’t visit half the things we wanted to. All I can say is, we should have chosen a better time.

For more information:

Route and driving directions from MapMyIndia.
Pondicherry map

Panchavatee temple
Panchamuga SriJayamaruthi Seva Trust,
Panchavatee, Vanur T.K,
Villupuram Dt – 605 111.
0413 – 2678823 / 2671232

Sri Aurobindo Ashram
3 Ranga Pillai St., Puducherry 605001
0413-2339648

Tourism Information Centre
40 Goubert Avenue,
puducherry 605001, India.
0413 – 2339497
Fax: 0413 – 2330532

Chunnambar Backwater Resort
Cuddalore Road, Chunnambar, puducherry.
0413 – 2356816

Feel free to contact me if you need more information.