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If you came here directly, you can read to the previous post on Day 1.

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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