It all started on a get together during diwali with Keerangi and Aniyappanavar families. We felt that we have not had a trip since long time and the planned Goa trip is still far away in Feb 2012.
So Mr Rakesh was entrusted with the responsibility of finalizing the plan. We were not very sure about the places but had couple of options in mind.
Within next few days Rakesh was in action, place was finalized to be Mahabs and pondy. He made bookings at blue bay resort in Mahabs and another hotel in pondy. Overall plan was for a 3 day two nights trip with one halt at Mahabs and other in Pondy.
We started at about 6:00 AM and reached krishnagiri pretty quickly. Since there would be lot of crowd at A2B, we stopped for breakfast a little before A2B, the one adjacent to McD. We had a good breakfast.
Saanvi with Mr. Ronald McDonald. Ishaan was fast asleep in the car while we had breakfast.
There were lot of dark clouds and omnious signs of heavy rains. There was also a forecast of rains for next couple of days in Pondy.
Stopped couple of times for Rakesh to catch up and took some snaps.
With nice music and torquey engine we just cruised all the way till Kanchipuram. Everytime I am on highway I think what if.. what if I had not choosen cruze? I would have repented forever.
We stopped at the entrance to Kanchipuram where we had to take a right to chengalpettu. It was time for a snacks break.
We had to cross Kanchipuram and go towards chengalpettu. Man.. what a place it is, never ending. Traffic was moving super slow. At this point all the ladies sat in the other car and hatched another plan to see some saris in this sari town. I was mad, they did not care and left for the sari shops, I sat in the car on the narrow road with heavy traffic with kids now all awake after a good sleep. It started pouring cats and dogs, roads became gutters with rain water flowing in every available place. The fun of driving through GQ evaporated with minutes. Finally the sari gang was back and we continued. Bad roads and rain consumed lot of time.
Getting out of Kanchipuram was an achievement and we needed another break. We stopped to see the paddy fields.
Rakesh and Jyoti were missing Vihaan. Vihaan was enjoying with his grandparents in Gulbarga.
It was already late by the time we reached Mahabalipuram and resort was another 25kms away towards Chennai. So we decided to have lunch here before proceeding. There was a decent looking hotel on the Mahabs main road, can't remember the name now. After entering we realized that it was not good, ordered food anyway, food is bad. I remembered that I had food here in my previous trip 4 years ago.I will not let this hotel fool me for the third time :)
We then continued to the resort. The cottages at the blue bay resort were good but a bit smaller for the price. we rested for sometime and went to the beach in the evening.
The clouds were present but it was not raining. Weather was pleasant we played and had fun on the beach.
This is Ishaan's idea of playing on the beach, to cover himself with the sand. After that we went to the pool in the evening and enjoyed playing in the pool till it was late and the watchman requested us to come out. we had a nice dinner in one of the huts and retired to bed.
Next day early morning we got up early to catch the sunrise in Bay of Bengal. There were clouds on the horizon and by the time we got to see the sun it was quite bright. However I could get some good snaps of a fishermen boat and sat on the beach watching the waves.
Ishaan got up early too.
we got ready, had the breakfast ordered in the room and started the mahabalipuram sight seeing. Actually this was my second trip to mahabs and pondy. I had an unforgettable trip 4 years earlier, more on that later.
We left for Mahabalipuram and went straight to the five Rathas. These are half constructed temple structures. None has any gods in it, they are named after pandava brothers. Kids also had fun climbing the stairs and rocks. There were not many tourists at this time nd we could peacefully take some snaps. Today the sun was bright and there was no sign of any rain.
The Group photograph.
We then went to the shore temple. There is nothing very special about this temple but I find it very beautiful and calm. With the sea in immediate background and well manicured lawns in the front, I like the shore temple.
Saanvi posing with Archanas Oakleys. Observe carefully and you can find Ishaan playing all by himself in the back.
Another pose
We then went to Arjunas Penance, this is also a beautiful picture scuplted to tell a story. We skipped Krishnas butter ball and couple of other places. Everyone wanted to have lunch and to head towards pondicherry. Because of lack of time we did not visit the light house which looked very inviting. This time we did not want to take the risk and decided to have lunch at the resort.
We also visited the crocodile park which was just beside our resort. All the crocs were like statues acting dead, absolutely no movement. Saw hundreds of crocs, I did not find anything interesting here :(
Back in the resort we had lunch and left for pondicherry on the famous ECR (East Coast Road). Drive is beutiful with nicely tarred road and the sea on the other side. We did not realize but we were probably too slow and took a long time to reach pondicherry.
After reaching pondicherry we checked into hotel Abhirami a nice hotel and we got a spacious double bedroom suite. We got fresh had tea + snacks and left to see the MG Road of Pondicherry.
It was a shocker, there were soo many people that there was nothing else to see. Crowd and crowd everywhere, looks like whole of pondicherry and tamilnadu had descended here.
I took some snaps of French buildings and another with a policeman with nice looking cap.
There was a light drizzle and we headed back to the hotel.Had a nice dinner at the restaurant and retired to bed.There are no beaches in proper pondicherry itself, but we had seen some nice beaches from road a few kilometers before pondicherry, we decided to catch sunrise the next day.
We got up early went to the beach, but by the time we reached.. sun was shining bright :).
Spent some time at the beach and went to the MG Road.
Today with no crowd this road was looking beautiful.
Roamed around and watched the french buildings and houses, it was a nice experience. We had our breakfast at the hotel and left to see Auroville. We decided to skip Aurobindo ashram on my advice :).
We went to Auroville which is around 10 -15 kms from pondicherry. Ishaan running around at the entrance.
It is better to have clear expectations while going to auroville. You have access only till the viewing point of the golden globe.
This is as far as we could get into Auroville. Frankly it is not worth visiting this place unless you have got prior permission to enter the premisis.
Saanvi didi and Atharva, they gel very well with each other.
Another group photo. After Auroville we went back to hotel had our lunch and left to Bangalore. Before leaving Rakesh just checked the route once with the receptionist. She mentioned Pondicherry -> Tindi -> Gingee -> Tiruvanmalai -> Vellore -> Bangalore.
Road from Pondicherry to Tindivanam is sooper. We just cruised along, what a nice trip it had been so far. If you see maps there is a highway till krishnagiri. So ignoring receptionists suggestion we decided to continue on the same highway till krishnagiri, why would anyone go to Vellore which is totally out of way adding 75 - 100 more kms. Saw the beautiful gingee fort from road, we need to come back to visit this place.
What happened next is a nightmare stuff. There is no word to describe the road from Tiruvanmalai to Krishnagiri. Such roads can exist in some places for a few kms. But 100 kms of unexpected hell.. oh god.. it was the worst drive of my life. I think we took nearly 4 hours to cover this distance. There are roads at some places in between the ditches. So finally the trauma ended, we had our dinner at Krishnagiri A2B and reached home at midnight.
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