It was nice 2 days in Pondicherry and still a lot of the places were unexplored. This was the last day of our trip so I got up early to take some sunrise shots and to have a view of the dawn at Auroville beach. We were staying so close to the Auroville beach but were still unable to get up early morning on the last two days. But, I made it on the third day and equipped with my camera, I and Lucky rushed to the beach at round 5.30 am. I turned on my camera and started clicking. After clicking for about 10-15 times when we saw the photos they were amazing. It includes some of my best shots till date. Check out this picture, isn’t it amazing?

So the hard work paid off finally. Then, I kept my camera down and went into the water. The water was cold but it was great experience getting into the sea. Later, I took some more shots of the Auroville beach:

For more photos of Auroville beach, click here

After that we went to the room and got ready for Auroville. No, thats not the beach I am talking about. Auroville, the city of dawn is a modern city created some distance away from the place where we were staying. It is actually a universal town where a person from any place of the world is able to live in peace and progressive harmony above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The city is still under construction. When we reached there I was speechless to see the beauty of the Auroville Ashram, small garden on the sides of the entrance accompanied by tall trees:

For more photos of Auroville, click here

Inside the Ashram there was a model for the city that needs to be constructed, a library having the literature and few shops. The shops mainly contained the handcrafted goods like candles, leather items, wood items, etc. They also have some T-shirts and all. I wasn’t interested as they were a bit costly as compared to the items available elsewhere in the city. However, Lucky bought a T-shirt and a leather hair band. There was a small self-service restaurant from where we had some coffee and vegetable puffs. On the other side of the Ashram there was a hall that was having the pictures of the future city. Then we moved to see Matrimandir. It is about a couple of kilometers from the Ashram and you need to go over there by walking. The name Matrimandir means literally Temple of the Mother. It is actually in the shape of a golden sphere just near to the amphitheatre. It was still under construction at that time:

The area was covered with trees and there were 12 gardens surrounding Matrimandir. After construction I feel there will be a huge rush of people who would be willing to stay in the future city. For more photos of Matrimandir, click here. After having a nice time in Auroville we decided to go back to Pondicherry to see the Botanical garden. It was half an hour drive to the Botanical garden. It is located at the southern entrance of city bus stand. The garden has good collection of plants from all over the world and it was stared by C.S. Perrotet:

It was also having an aquarium but it was closed at that time. The garden is huge, it covers about 22 acres of land. Inside the garden we found a tunnel for children’s train, but we couldn’t find the train though. The most eye catching thing in the garden were these huge trees, these were probably the tallest trees I have ever seen:

While returning we saw a fountain with the statues of two fighting bulls:

For more photos of Botanical garden, click here

Our next spot was the beach road. We had been there on Day 1 but I wanted to take some more photos. On the way to the beach road we found this amazingly beautiful church, called as Sacred Heart Church:

For more photos of Sacred Heart Church, click here

We arrived at the beach road a.k.a Goubert Avenue. Actually this is the most happening place of Pondicherry. You can find the famous Promenade hotel over here. In the middle of the beach road there is a Gandhi Statue:

Thats the beach road on the left side and on the middle is the pavement for walking:

In this photo you can see the statue of Dupleix on the beach road, a tribute to Francois Dupeix whose able governorship came to an end in 1754:

For more photos of the Beach Road, click here

After taking the photos of the beach road we had lunch at a nearby restaurant. After lunch we decided to go to the last spot Arikamedu. Arikamedu is an ancient Roman trade center 4 kms. south of Pondicherry on the right bank of Ariyankuppam river. It is actually an archaeological site and many people in Pondicherry also don’t know about it. We had a hard time searching for that place. Finally we located that and found the remains of the buildings:

The whole area is covered with trees and it is a beautiful place. For more photos of Arikamedu, click here. It was 4 pm and we were still having time as we needed to catch the bus back to bangalore at 9 pm. So, we thought of going once again to Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The Ashram wasn’t open at that time and we were just roaming near the ashram. Just near to the ashram we found a temple Manakula Vinayagar Temple. There was an elephant just near to the temple entrance and it was highly trained. If someone offers a coin or something to the elephant, he takes that and blesses him with his trunk. Check this out, my brother is blessed by the elephant:

For more photos of Manakula Vinayagar Temple, click here.

Near to the temple there were many shops and we purchased some beautiful white shells (shankh). They were having shells from Rs. 20 to 2,000 but I took the 20 rupee one . Nearby to the ashram a man was selling sandalwood prayer beads (chandan ki mala). I asked him how much that costs and he told 3 for Rs. 100. I told him I could give him Rs. 50. Finally he agreed for Rs. 60. Surprisingly those were the original sandalwood beads. Sandalwood is a high quality expensive wood and getting that for a nice price was pretty cool. The fragrance of the malas was amazing and I still have the malas and it smells the same. After our little shopping we thought of going back to the Guesthouse, as it was getting dark. After half an hour drive we reached Auroville and packed our bags and all. I paid the bills to the owner and returned the bikes. I thanked him for his suggestions during the trip. He is a nice guy and helped a lot telling me about the places to visit and how to get there. If you have any plans to go to Pondicherry, then take down the name of the Guesthouse its Amsa Guesthouse and you can ask anyone about that in Auroville. If you want his contact number just email me.

We took a bus from Auroville to the Pondicherry bus stand. There was no Airavath this time for the return trip. Actually the tickets were not available for Airavath so I took it for a normal bus. The return trip was not as good and the bus finally breakdown in bangalore. But that was near to my place and we took an auto to reach home. Pondicherry trip was a wonderful trip and seriously I wasn’t feeling like coming back. I reckon that it is one of the best trips I ever had. When we discuss the time we enjoyed the most the name Pondicherry just pops out and a sentence comes into mind, which was written, on a board in Pondicherry “Give time a break”.
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After a nice first day at Pondicherry, we were all set to go to the boat house as it is called by the local people. However, the actual name is Chunnambar beach and backwaters. It is located in Ariyankuppam, at the distance of about 8 km from Pondicherry along the Cuddalore Main Road. We arrived there on our Activas at around 9 am in the morning. After purchasing the entry ticket we went inside. It looked like a resort from outside but when I saw the backwaters, I was thrilled. The color of the water was bluish and it was surrounded by trees:

I found boats of all sizes over there. You can pick one of your choices. Typically the rates were from Rs. 100 to 300 depending on the boat you choose. After taking the tickets we were waiting for our turn. There was a long queue as it was weekend. Finally we got into our boat. I took some shots from the boat. You can see the beautiful trees on the other side of the backwaters:

For more photos on Chunnambar beach and backwaters, click here

We were expecting a round trip in the backwaters but the boat was stopped on the other side of the backwaters. We went down and the place was sandy with little vegetation. This is the place where the boat dropped us:

We went further and found that it was Paradise Island. To my amazement there was a beach on the other side of the backwaters, the Paradise beach( a.k.a Plage Paradiso). This beach was fantastic, the mix of blue color of the sea with the white color of the waves was incredible:

What makes it different is the backwaters just opposite to the beach. After spending nice time in the beach we went for lunch at a small restaurant in the island itself. I ordered some chilli prawns and chicken fried rice along with coke. The food was good and after the lunch we rested in these mini cottages:

It was hot and we were there till the evening time relishing on snacks and soft drinks. We decided to move on around 5 pm as we need to cross the backwaters before it gets dark. The ticket what we purchased in the backwaters for the boat ride was for both sides, there was no return ticket needed. After having a nice time in the paradise island we got our Activas and went again to the beach road. Driving along the beach road is amazing and we had some snacks made from raw mango, a kind of bhel(a typical indian snack). Around 8 pm we went for the dinner at a restaurant on the way back to Auroville. After dinner we came back to our Guesthouse, we were tired and thought of checking out all the remaining places on the next day as that was the last day of the trip.

For more photos of Chunnambar backwaters, click here

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Starting from: Bangalore

Destination: Pondicherry

Crew: Maneesh, Pawan, Lucky.
After the Mangalore trip I was excited for the trip to Pondicherry. This was the week where I was having 3 holidays. We started in the morning at about 8 am from bangalore, again in the cozy bus Airavath. Pondicherry is about 280 kms. from bangalore and we reached there at 4 pm in the evening. I was not having any bookings in the hotel and generally I never do the bookings for hotels and all. The best way is to go over there and search for your own or you can take an auto and leave the rest to him. He will drop you to a nice hotel as the drivers have connections with the hotel owners and they get decent commission for that. I also took an auto but we were having a hard luck, we checked in a couple of hotels and it was all full. Then, the auto driver told that there is an option to stay near the Auroville beach in a cottage and its very cheap also. He also told that we can get bikes and all for roaming. I was excited about the idea of staying in a cottage near to the beach. I told the driver to move on to Auroville. Auroville is about 6 kms. from the town and its in the outskirts. We reached there and asked for the cottage but unfortunately it was booked. Then, the owner told me about a small room just near the cottage for Rs. 500 per day. I agreed as it was very near to the beach. I was able to listen the roars of the sea waves from that place. We took the room and went for the dinner at a nice French style restaurant very near to the room. I took some prawns as usual. Whenever I go to a place which is near to the sea, I always look for the sea food. Well, I confess I love sea food After a nice dinner I inquired our room owner about the bikes and all. He told that he will look for that in the morning. We got up at 7 am in the morning and were ready at 8 am. I booked two Honda Activa for just Rs. 200 per day from a nearby place with the help of our room owner. Actually I was looking for bikes but they were not available. After having our vehicles filled with fuel we decided to go to our first spot The Aurobindo Ashram, as it opens up in the morning time. It was a nice drive especially in the beach road just near to the ashram. We decided to go to the ashram first and then visit the beach. The ashram is located on Rue de la Marine and is founded by Sri Aurobindo Ghose on 24 November 1926.

Inside the ashram nobody is allowed to make any sort of noises. The overall atomosphere is quite divine and its a treat to watch such kind of a place. In the inner courtyard there is a Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. You can find many people sitting over there for hours in complete silence. You can feel that the place is really blessed. There is a shop in the other side of the Ashram and I took some greeting cards. You can also find alot of books written by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

For more information of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, click here

After a great time in the ashram we decided to go to the nearby beach. The beach near the Beach Road( a.k.a Goubert Avenue) is a rocky beach. Its not a sandy beach where you can have fun in the water. But, here you can find the great rolling and crashing sound of the waves. I took some shots over there and we decided to go for lunch as it was getting late. We thought of coming to this place once again:

We had lunch in a restaurant just nearby to the beach road. After a nice lunch, we decided to check out the Bharathi Park(a.k.a Government park) which was also nearby. The park has a play ground for children and there are alot of ancient stone sculptures in the park. It was a normal park but the eye catching thing was a beautiful tall white structure known as the Aayi Mandapam. It was a pillar like structure having small gardens on its sides. You can find a couple of canons on those gardens:

For more photos of Bharathi Park, click here

There is a handicraft shop near the park and you can find the jute items. Lucky took some jute bangles which were quite nice. In the evening time you can find a lot of people in the beach road. There were chat(a typical indian snack) stalls and ice cream sellers all around the place and the whole place was rocking. We had some chat and ice creams and decided to go back to the Guest house as it was getting dark. It was a one hour drive and we arrived at our room. After sometime we went for the dinner at the same restaurant. I checked my list and we decided to go to the boat house on the next day.
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