Puducherry

This was a quick break from mundane Bangalore life. A small vacation as you might call in the time of COVID. With Covid there was zero travel, and after coming back to Bangalore in Jan’21 we hardly used the car. In fact we had to jump start the car 3 times as battery was so low due to low running.

We booked Club-Mahindra and there was Friday off for Pamela. So on Thursday post school we started from Bangalore via OLD-Madras road. The plan was to reach Pondi via Vellore. The roads till Chittor is now 4 lanes all the from Bangalore. The club-M suggested we have our dinner on the way as there are restriction of 9PM for restaurant being closed. With that in mind we stopped after Vellore on a A2B and had an evening snacks come early dinner.

We continued to Pondi leaving the 4 lanes roads for Vandavasi, Tindivanam. As there are no divider on the road and it was night our speed kind of dropped and we reached Pondi around 10 in the night.

Next day Friday Aarush had some extra curriculum activity for whole day so we were tied inside the road till 4 in the evening. Morning we just went out and a quick simple south Indian Breakfast at Grami Cafe (a Veg place) we spotted last night. The breakfast was very reasonably priced and we had a big breakfast.

In the evening we drove to Whie-Town (French Quarter) and luckily got a decent parking. After some strolling, buying some books we had dinner at one of the place. The place was OK OK. post dinner we walked into one of the many famous chocolate/cake shop of Pondicherry called ZIKA. The pastries were really good.

Saturday, We woke by early morning with the sounds of thunders, there was a thunderstorm passing over Pondicherry and it was lashing out rains like crazy. After lots of deliberations and reaching half soaked to the car we started towards Auroville for breakfast.

Our whole trip could be summarized in two words “Breads & Chocolate” :smile: it is a very relaxed placed with vegan/vegetarian options. If you are not fond of this kind of cuisine you will find it very expansive place that does not suit you. For us we just could not had enough of it. We had a very BIG breakfast while the rain slowly started to stop.

After this we ended going to Auroville Visitor Center and walked around till Matri Madir. After lingering more time we wanted to have a late lunch in all local grown vegetarian placed called Solitude farm, but with mud roads we were kind of lost and could not get there even after talking to them twice.

So decided to drive back to Club-M which is almost 30 KM south from Auroville. Once in Club-M, I went for a 10KM run along the beach. It was mixed bag as you know Tamil Nadu is not the cleanest state when it comes to South India, the general public has different norms for hygiene :rage: lots of beer bottles and found people are drinking as if there is no tomorrow.

we again went out for dinner to French Quarter and opted for a place from the tourist guide, like my past experiences this was also a disappointment and a big whole in wallet.

Sunday morning was bright and sunny. It is always travelers luck when the sky turns blue on the last day and you are about to leave. After checking out from Club-M we drove again to B&C for breakfast and decided to continue our return journey from there itself.

The ride was much more easier as it was day time and we were heading back home. We were welcome backed to Karnataka with big rain with that our small vacation came to an end.

Pics are here.