Escape to Pondicherry

It felt magical.. Maneuvering through the colorful french colony, into the suburbs of Indian fishermen, into the urban Indian styles of malls, into the residential areas, all within a stretch of a few miles within this beautiful little town. This place felt like a masterpiece put together by different living styles forming into a perfect art.

We made it to Pondy in the month of July after canceling our tickets twice due to various stupid reasons. All girls trip, was crazy fun as it sounds! Two days of insatiable beaches, night walk at promenade, endless talks at the edge of the beaches, riding through the lovely colorful streets, clean concrete roads mystified by fallen leaves and flowers, easy traffic, gushing wind, french food.. Everything about this town made me fall in love with it! I wished to come to Pondy again and again, its a mine. A gold mine to dig more. Its not a tourist place to visit and come back , its a small life in itself to get absorbed into and get lost.. 

Day1:

Head to mission street and chetty street crossing to rent one of those 2 wheelers. (auto from railway station will cost rs.80, you will be flocked by a lot of auto drivers and please be careful). There are lines of two wheeler rentals here and the earlier you reach, more choices you have to choose the colors for vespa, pleasure, honda activa, avenger, enfield etc.

Best thing we did is we had pre-booked our accommodation at YHAI youth hostel, vanniar street, right beside the beach. The rooms are clean, super friendly with helpful staff, cheap and best in any sense !! Best part of youth hostel is its right beside the beach and seeing the sunrise at the beach is spectacular. There is no crowd and you can enjoy yourself. There will be fishermen and their kids wandering around which is a good opportunity to talk to the real locals of Pondy here.

A picture to cherish infront of our hostel

Our bikes and the hostel area

Around 12 we left our room and we visited pondicherry museum ( 10 rs entry per adult). We had a very good pesto pizza, french fries, spinach mosarella pasta at this little restaurant called "farm fresh" located right beside the museum. Amazing food, casual and cool ambiance, soothing hindi songs played in the background. ( Rs.600+ for 3 people).

https://goo.gl/maps/JU1EKoseJNqHYSoL9


We covered sir Aurabindo ashram, took a lot of pictures roaming around the white town. We visited churches and headed to serenity beach. Try to get to serenity beach before 5.30 pm to see people surfing. Its clean and nice beach to spend the evening. Later into the dark we headed to the rock beach which is right beside the main city area. Filled with lines of incandescent lights, lots of people wandering around with snacks in their hands this was a festive in itself. I Loved the ambiance here and felt like it should never end !! We got mangoes, soda, popcorn, icecream from the local vendors, Endless talks on the cold sand was a great way to spend that night ! There is only one restaurant in rock beach which serves canned beers, the food was not so great, less quantity, expensive and the service was late. Everybody looking at eachother's face after getting the bill of 1.2k we left to our hostel around 11 pm. You never know where you will make unforgettable moments in life !

Streets of Pondy : 

Day 2:

Next day morning, best thing was to witness the sunrise beside the hostel in the beach. I do not remember when was the last time we all laughed so hard. We fell and scraped our hands and legs against the sand, may be a little symbol of sand of this land etching in our hearts!

If its a sunny day, think twice before you hit paradise beach as it can get unbearably hot even in the month of July. It was too hot to be in the beach and we felt its a huge waste of time and money ( Rs.300 each for boat to drop us to the beach). Consider evenings if you wanna really enjoy this beach even though it can get really get crowded in the evenings.

From there we hit back to white town in the afternoon, took pictures infront of a lot of graffiti around the streets, went on a local shopping for clothes and hit back hostel after a sumptuous lunch at seagull restaurant in the paradise beach. This is the only restaurant nearest to the chunnambar boating center and reasonably prized. We hit back to hostel after this. After a deep refreshing sleep in AC we came back to chetty street to return our 2 wheelers ( rs.250 per day , he let us keep the scooty with us at the night as we rented for 2 days with a deposit of Rs.500)

I had come across this cafe a few times on Instagram and we just happened to pass by, here's the picture ! 

We boarded SRS from walk-able distance from new bus stand and reached Bangalore tanned, exhausted, refreshed, soaked in salty sea, sand in our clothes and bags and loads of memories !!


DETAILS :

2 wheeler rental : V.ambal 2 wheeler rentals

dinner : @    : extremely pocket friendly, quick service, friendly staff, finger licking north indian parathas,pickles, side dishes, variety of items in this small place. the look of hotel doesn't do justice to the quality food that they serve!


YHAI HOSTEL: 9994655096