Time: Aug 26-30, 2021
Place: Auroville, Puducherry, Mahabalipuram
Company: Wife and daughter
Highlights:
Overview: Had come across an article in the newspaper about folks working from exotic locations, like on top of a mountain, etc. what with Covid making everything online. So that seeded a thought as to why not try it out. Anyways, even school was also online now for the kiddo. Then some colleagues also started working from Jaipur forts! Now that really made me think hard on a workation! Realized that I always wanted to simply watch the waves without hurrying much on a vacation, and now seemed the ideal time. I can watch the waves and work as well! So that narrowed down the destinations to be sea-side. Next restriction was to not travel in public places due to covid risk. Which meant, road-trip. Which meant, destination should be less than 8-9 hours from home town BLR. Which meant, either MLR on the left or CHN on the right, or nearby. Considering covid cases on Kerala were high, left got ruled out. So, it was CHN or nearby. Finally decided on Pondicherry or Puducherry as it is called now.
Next research was how many days. Identified places like Auroville Ashram, Paradise Beach, Aurobindo Ashram, etc. so we had at least 2 days of visiting. And I was thinking of also visiting a mountain like Yercaud on the way back but the zigzags would cause sickness with family, so dropped the idea. Thiruvannamalai with Ramana Maharshi ashram and his cave was another option but looked like that needed a separate trip of its own. So dropped that too. Finally we thought maybe 3-4 days is sufficient and kept it all open and just booked the first two nights. The first night was in a tree-house in Auroville and second night was in a sea-side resort where I would work and kiddo would attend school. Since Monday 30th was off, we thought we might as well leave on 26th to make it a 5-day outing.
Just when we were about to book, we saw that there were some restrictions for inter-state travels, permits needed, weekend curfews, etc. We almost dropped the plan but after thinking it all through, went ahead with what seemed to be pain! So, booked rental car, this time from revv since last time with vroom was not too pleasant an experience. And we were ready.
Day 1: The plan was to start at 1 pm. But we got delayed by an hour. The permit to TN state had to be applied, the print out had to be taken, etc. But the important cause of the delay was the Fastag was not working in the rental car. So had to call up customer care and fight it out, with bad network on the roads. This issue never got resolved, anyways, so struggled with it all 5 days. Had to endure honks from behind whenever toll came, and the toll booth attendant telling me that the tag was blacklisted! All of this resulted in significant delays, and then at Krishnagiri we ran into thunderstorm as well - so that slowed us up. And then my mobile data package stopped working after entering TN state. I had totally relied on the data package to guide me around TN and this sudden loss meant I had to ask and navigate. Thankfully the Maps app at least was showing me where I was, so I could estimate.
Anyways, this asking around also made things a tad slow. But thankfully I was not way laid and did not lose my way a lot. Whereas Maps app would have asked me to avoid Vellore, I went right into the town. Traffic snarls, inside. But thankfully, things cooled down thereafter and I was guided well by the locals although in broken English, since I was now in hard code Tamil speaking land. But unfortunately, it was already late - close to 9 pm, and my guess was that I was still 2-3 hrs away from destination. This late night journey is not my cup of tea, especially after having driven 6-7 hrs. And add rain on top of this.
Had home-packed dinner at about 9 pm road-side and continued on. Just made a courtesy call to the accommodation in Auroville which was supposed to be our destination. The guy was the owner and asked us to a call a different number who was the house-keeper. House-keeper did not answer. Tried again after an hour, still no answer. But we trudged along towards Auroville. Now it was close to midnight, and we somehow managed to get within reach to our hotel, just by looking at roads on the offline Maps app. There were hardly any folks on the road.
At the point where we thought the hotel should have been, there was none. So started calling the house keeper as well as the owner. Only the owner tried to help but he was in some northern Indian state and the house keeper was nowhere in sight. The hotel, which was like a tree house (Sthayi homestay), was on off roads, about 400 meters away from the main road and due to the rain, the muddy road had become all slush and there was no lights as well. Visibility was near zero. After struggling for about half an hour, the owner gave up and asked us to search for some other room. Then we started frantically searching for any room nearby. Some of them were charging exorbitantly. It was close to 1 am and it was raining as well. Some of the hotels did not have attendants either since it was so late. Finally after much driving around, and frantic calls to different helping folks, we could get a small 7*7 room. Hit the bed and, boy was I glad.
Day 2: Left at 9 am directly to our resort Samarpan, which was just 5 mins away. Thankfully they were fine for an early check in. Got our cottage at about 10 itself. It was splendid, with a balcony that had the ocean view. In fact, even the bed had an ocean view meaning just by sleeping we could watch the waves. Even without watching, the sound of the waves was omnipresent. Bang on in nature.
Daughter attended school classes, and my crave for working while on vacation was finally satisfied albeit I only worked for couple of hours - sitting on the balcony, looking at the waves now and then, and scrutinizing the laptop screen in the bright haze! It was way too humid too, so was sweating profusely. Anyway, daughter had classes till 1 pm, and then we headed out to lunch. Had a hard time finding pure veg, but there was one nearby which was at least clean and neat. They would have delivered too in fact.
Spent lazy afternoon sitting in the balcony looking at the waves and relaxing. The color of the sea had now changed drastically. In the morning it was hazy and we could not clearly make out the horizon, but it was now a distinct blue. By about 5 pm, it was grey, and this was because it was reflecting the dark clouds that were looming above in the sky. Till 5 pm, we were lazing around the property, which is quite big and nice - hammocks at some places, green grass all around, pebble stone walkways, etc. At 5:30 pm, we went to the sea and sat on the rocky beachfront and played a little with the waves while the rain started. It was refreshing in fact, getting drenched, thanks to the humid.
Had our own coffee prepared in the room, and chit chatted with the servants. Planned for the next day, and booked an overnight hotel near to Paradise beach. It was wonderful to hear the wave all through the night and the rain spattering across the cottages. Too many crows though!
Day 3: Breakfast was sumptuous and wonderful at the resort. We then walked on the beach front for few meters and decided to head to Auroville, Mathru Mandir. Due to Covid, the entry inside was not allowed, but we could see from outside. Lots of construction seemed to be underway. We walked both ways - to and fro from the parking lot to the Mathru Mandir. I seemed to have got a sprain due to an improper way of getting out of hammock the previous day. That combined with the humidity seemed to bog me down but it got better with the day as the sunniness dropped due to clouds.
After local shopping & some tender-coconut drinking, we then moved towards Pondicherry. Thankfully got a parking spot very close to Sri Aurobindo ashram. However it was closed due to lunch, so walked further to the beach front. A splendid beach that, and nice waterfront as well. Very much like international standards. Walked all the way from one end to Mahatma statue (had lunch at Ocean's 7 on the way), then went inside a park since it was way too sunny. Then walked back towards the ashram.
Nothing much inside the ashram, just a memorial. Spent few minutes there and walked back to the car. Then saw there was Vinayagar temple close by, so headed there. It is a huge temple, lot of people, merchants, elephat blessing people, etc. Soaked it all in, and by now it was almost evening. So went back to the beach to spend the evening there. Once again, walked all the way on the rock beach, strolled along the waves while the daughter played to her heart's content! Although it was cloudy, it did not rain. Nice atmosphere - something that you only get near Indian beaches.
Had an ice cream, and then later coffee - and all consumed looking at the waves, as it got darker and darker. Quite an enjoyable experience. The last I had come here I guess was in summer 2007 with Infy colleagues, and it was nice at that time too. But spent considerably a long time this time around. Then headed for the car, finally. Wifey did some more shopping for Pondi specials. By the time we reached out next night halt hotel, it was close to 9 pm. Ate what we had packed from Oceans 7 (wonderful stuff all, by the way) and retired for the night.
Day 4: After a sufficiently filling breakfast, we left for Paradise Beach. Opted for the boat ride - which is short. smooth and soothing although a tad expensive. Wonderful beach, since it is privately maintained. About 50%-60% same as all other beaches and the remaining is due to the privatization. Rain dance, tree house, horse ride, scooter ride, etc. are all available here. A great place to spend about 2-3 hours easily or even more. Here too, the waves are amazing with crystal clear clarity.
By about noon, we were fulfilled, and we headed towards Mahabalipuram or Mammallapuram as per our planning the previous day(s). On the way, we thought we might as well have lunch at the same Oceans 7 since it was pure veg and it was wonderful. This time though, I parked car way too far off from the restaurant and it was a long walk. However, it was through the wonderful local Pondi streets, and it almost gave the feeling of us being in French colonial place. The buildings, the shops, cycles, etc. all gave a local feeling. So the long walk was worth it!
After lunch, we headed to Mammallapuram. It was about 2 hours road drive, a wonderful stretch filled with nature. Nice road and very pleasant. By the time we arrived, it was already 6 pm, so the monuments were closed. Since the hotel was close to the beach, we thought we might as well spend the evening on the beach but this this beach was not as good as the ones we had seen the previous days. The fishing boats were parked all across the sand. There was hardly place to walk, and the crowd was not too pleasant either. There seemed to be too many crab-eating restaurants and bars which added to our not-feel-good factor. So we headed to the nearest pure veg, had dinner and retired for the night.
Day 5: Last day of the trip. Due to Covid (the monuments which usually open at 6 am) opened at 10 am. That caused a huge dent to my plans of arriving at BLR early. Anyways. Had breakfast and headed first to Arjuna's Penance monument - a large rock full of sculptures. Then went inside the premises and visited a number of cave temples and architectures. Finally culminated with Krishna's Butter ball. Our next stop was the shore temple. Clicked few pics and headed next to the Pancha Pandavas chariots. Another rock sculpted set of monuments. And then the last stop was atop the Olakkannesvara temple. A huge set of steps to climb and then the view of the Bay of Bengal is amazing. After 4+ days (with BoB), we finally bid it adieu.
Rest of the trip was uneventful. It was about noon when we headed towards Bangalore. At about 3, we had lunch in a highway Saravana Bhavan where I charged my cell which was getting drained out. And exactly at 8 pm (which was the time given for revv for return time), reached home.
Epilogue: It was a roller coaster of emotions before the trip - to go or not or to go. Thanks to TN entry pass, there were many apprehensions but it was all smooth in the end. First night was a wild experience, searching for a room at the dead of a night. Second day was the most relaxing day in any vacation, I guess. Third day was all about walking - over 10 kms. Fourth and fifth day were normal tourism days. Weather was quite pleasant for most part, considering we were in humid area. The car was newer compared to previous Madikeri trip, the only issue being Fastag. Had planned a lot more destinations like Thiruvannamalai, Yercaud, etc. but kept it simple and didn't rush ourselves. Daughter did not get sick entire trip, which was a great relief. Our first major vacation in 2021 finally came to an end. Not much of 'new places' for me since I had been to most of these places already but wifey and dotty had a nice time at the beaches & monuments. Workation? Kind of Tick! 😊
