For the whole year almost we( Manu and Me) stayed out from any trip. But finally decided to pack our bags on 30th Oct,24 and booked flight for Chennai. Before this trip we were searching for a lot of options like J&K , Kerala , Banaras , Sikkim etc. but could not fix the place till midnight of 29th October. Manu was akin for the J&K or Kerela trip but it would be difficult to manage in a 4 days short time period so eventually choose for the Pondicherry trip as we both are beach lovers and that it can be a short trip.
As already said booked the ticket on 30th Oct, 2024 at 3 p.m. at Air India Express. We had flight at 6.30p.m from Guwahati (LGBI) airport. So Hurriedly came back from office at 4 and packed our bags and left for the airport with our driver Badal. We were so happy as we were taking the flight nearly after a year.
We two were very excited and reached Chennai at about 9 PM . While waiting at the airport we booked our hotel at Holiday Inn, Chennai. It was a five star hotel as well as proximity to the Chennai airport along-with an affordable price. So after reaching airport we directly booked a cab for the hotel and as expected the hotel was really good. We ordered the dinner at our room. The view from our room to the outside was really mesmerising. The room was cozy and we had a good night sleep.
The next day morning we got up at about 8.30, took bath in the beautiful shower and went to the dinning area on the 3rd floor for the breakfast. The breakfast was really nice and the view from the breakfast area to the outside road was really wonderful.
After the breakfast we explored the hotel and went to the poolside, the gym room and tried my hands to lift some weight. We had already informed our cousin Rishi who is studying at the SRM university , Chennai to meet us and to be our local guide of Chennai. Next we had watched some short travel vlogs and decided to visit some places in Chennai. In the meantime Rishi reached Gindy Bus stop and we hurriedly went out from the hotel to explore Chennai for the day. We met a few Assamese security guard and a room service boy in the hotel. We took an auto rickshaw and headed towards Gindy bus stop and finally met Rishi.
After that we decided to visit Arignar Anna Zoological park which is one of the biggest zoos in India. We booked an Uber and headed toward the zoo and reached the zoo after about 45 minutes. The streets of Chennai looks similar to Guwahati but bigger in size. There I have noticed one thing that the flyovers generally starts from the sideways unlike in Assam. While on our way to Zoo we had taken the contact number of the Cab driver and discussed with him for our next day journey to Pondi with him. Finally after about 40mins,we reached the zoo. At the entrance of the zoo I have noticed one thing that there was signboards of QR code so as to book the tickets online. Tried it and could easily book 3 tickets without any hassle . One appreciable thing was that there was a provision to borrow bicycle for the zoo visit. As the zoo was quite huge therefore we took three cycles for Rs 30 each and went out to explore the zoo by cycling. The weather was so kind for us that we did not have to tolerate the heat . Had a wonderful time in the zoo and saw many animals including the gigantic Royal Bengal Tiger .
After the zoo visit we booked a cab and went to the Marina Beach. It was a nice evening at the beach and we enjoyed the sunset there. We had fried Pomfret fish in a beach food stall. Many People were enjoying the evening at the beach and some were bursting crackers as it was Diwali. It was a very refreshing evening indeed !!
We took an auto and headed to the T Nagar market area where we purchased some Madrassi Sarees and one Silver bracelet. After this we went to the Phoenix Mall for shopping. It was one of the largest malls in Chennai and due to Diwali festival this mall was decorated beautifully. Manu, Rishi and I had shopped and had our dinner at the mall. Also we searched for a hotel in Pondicherry for the next two days and booked the cab driver for the Pondi Trip while having dinner at the mall. After dinner we bid farewell to Rishi while Manu and I went back to our hotel.
Pondi Trip
It was a very good night sleep in the cozy bed of the hotel. The outside view from the hotel was magnificent. Next morning had a relaxing bath and went to the dinning area for the breakfast. It is worth mentioning that in the hotel we met some Assamese boys who were working as housekeeping or security guards. After breakfast we got ready for the Pondi trip. The cab driver already arrived at the hotel. Checked out from the hotel and started our journey to Pondicherry. We took the East Coach Road to reach Pondicherry which goes beside the beach area and also goes through Mahabalipuram. We reached Mahabalipuram where we visited Shore temple and ruins of ancients Monuments. After that we had visited the Pearl Musium at Mahabalipuram where there were different museums like Mining museum, fish Museum ,pearl Musium etc. After visiting it we finally headed towards our hotel at Pondicherry. On the way we halted for lunch at the Arabian Garden Restaurent. We had Arabian Biryani and a whole fish. The Arabian Chicken Biriyani was really mouth watering. After lunch we again continued our journey. At Pondicherry we stayed at hotel Sunway Manor. It was no better than the hotel Holiday Inn at Chennai, still as it was a Diwali holiday season, we had to book it at Rs.24000 for two nights.
We enjoyed some time in the hotel pool then went out to explore the white town and Promenade beach. It was almost the time of sunset when we reached the beach. The water of the sea seem to be mighty and also the water was quite down from the shore. After enjoying some moment at the beach we started exploring around the white town. We saw a beautiful Church where evening mass was going on. Later we went to a cafe called French Bakery Cafe and Bar. It was one of the oldest cafes in the white town. Took some photos specially at the Palais De Mare hotel and returned back to our hotel.
The next day morning we started our journey towards Auroville which is a meditation place established by Sri Aurobindo Ghose. Auroville is an Ashram or a township where people from different countries have taken membership for the purpose of meditation. We had taken a guided cycle trip to move around the Auroville. There are options for travel around the Auroville through guided cycle tour, AC vehicle tour etc. After Auroville we came back to the hotel as we got too fatigue due to the scorching heat and took a bath at our hotel after returning back.
After getting fresh, we went out from the hotel for our next stop to Paradise beach through Boat House. We had a bad experience in the boat house as there were too much crowd and the management was not capable to cater that much crowd.
We noticed that for entering the premises of boat house jetty area we need to be in a line to get the ticket and it was really uncomfortable to be able to stand in a line in that hot weather and after entering the premise, we had to book tickets for the boat ride to Paradise Beach and even to fetch the ticket we had to tackle a huge queue in front of the ticket counter. Finally when we managed to get the tickets, one last hurdle was to get into the boat, but even for that surpassing a huge crowd was the task. Being waited for nearly 30-45 mins we got into the boat.
Boats were limited as compared to the crowd and there we faced hiccups while being in the line to getting into the boats. After waiting for a long time our boat arrived and we entered into the boat and finally headed to Paradise beach. The beach was an ordinary one. We enjoyed some moments at the beach . There were two parts of the beach- one is govt side and another is private side. The people coming from the boat house reaches the govt. side of the beach whereas people coming through road on vehicles reaches the private side of the beach. There was a loose barricade between the private side and govt side of the beach which were being looked after by some watchmen. As we were very much reluctant to return through the boat owing to the hiccups we faced earlier , we somehow managed to cross the barricade and entered into the private side of the beach. It was a difficult job but somehow we managed it and also called our cab to the entrance of the private side of the beach. We noticed that people had to were bands on their wrist in this beach areas which were provided at the ticket counter of the private beach and they were allowed to enjoy beach sports. We somehow got out of the beach and reached our cab outside the private beach and finally returned back to our hotel.
After taking some rest we took an autorickshaw and went out to the white town to enjoy the Beauty of the old French Colony. The beach was quite aggressive during this time. After enjoying the evening breeze at the beach, we went into the market area of the white town. The white town is a very lively place with cafes and bars and a lot of young boys and girls chilling around it. The colour of the houses are yellow and white. We entered into an old cafe named Rendezvous and tried some French dish and after spending some time strolling the streets of old French Colony we entered into another cafe for having our dinner and finally took an autorickshaw to return back to our hotel. It was about 11 p.m when we reached the hotel.
The next morning after breakfast we started our return journey to Chennai by our cab. We had our flight in the evening at 3p.m. When we reached Chennai town our driver took us to a family Restaurent to have the taste of Chennai Biryani. The chicken biryani was really awesome there. Probably we had our best biryani there. It was near the Chennai airport. After having lunch we reached the airport about two hours before the flight and finally returned back to Guwahati in a direct flight from Chennai ending this short but beautiful Chennai-Pondi trip.
Here's signing off.
Manu & Pallab
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