Pondicherry trip

Well, it's been ages since I went to Pondy but since I said I'd write about it, I'm sticking to my word. Had a holiday for Indpendence Day (Aug 15th) which happened to be a Friday so I had three days off in a row. Decided to visit Pondicherry lured by the thought of seeing wonderful French architecture, some old world charm and the Auroville community. Well, things didn't quite turn out as expected. The drive was lovely and thanks to my checking out some blogs, I discovered a route which was much shorter than going via Madras, the roads were pretty good too - what a change from Bangalore!! Unfortunately, Pondicherry didn't have much of the charm I expected - it was like any small town in India except for one area which had French buildings which weren't that spectacular anyway. It has a unique beach where there's no sand and just a bunch of rocks so you can't really go and take a dip in the sea - strictly for viewing purposes only. I saw only the shops in Auroville but loved the paper products they sell there and bought some stuff - there is a Mandir there but you have to book in advance to get a chance to see it so didn't end up doing that either, weekends are too crowded.
So, as a tourist, it wasn't much of a trip. But in terms of relaxation it was really good. I stayed in a unique resort started by some firangs. It was made up of individual cottages with your own private garden, each cottage had a unique theme. The cottage I stayed in had no AC and was naturally cooled - what this meant was that it didn't have any walls either. It was an open cottage - attaching pics so you get a feel of it - when you sleep you have nature surrounding you and when you pee or bathe, other than the thatched roof covering you, there isn't much privacy either. Which is why it was essential that each cottage had a compound wall and a door which could be locked so you don't have people wandering in. My cottage was called the Pop House coz it was supposed to represent the film industry - the only problem was that it was the Tamil film industry!! So everytime I opened my eyes when getting out of bed I was forced to look at pictures of some ugly Tamil heroes and heroines!!!! But overall, a really unique experience and enjoyable too.
Nice trip and I guess the next holiday I get, I'll take off to check out another place I haven't been before.



Front view of the bathroom
"Very private" toilet

Even more private bathing area!

The 'nature cooled' Pop house. To the right is the bed which isn't clear in this pic, so you end up sleeping almost in the open.