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Date of journey: 08/11/2007

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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